The Ham Nomads

13 Oct 2015. <FR> Paris —

Today we went into Sacré Cœur de Montmartre — the Metro gets you to the bottom of the hill quite easily, at Abesses station. From there you walk up a narrow street lined with souvenir shops and packed with tourists, until you reach the stairs or the funicular that take you up to the church. We chose the funicular — you can climb stairs almost anywhere, but a funicular is somewhat special (not to mention easier!). This still left a few steps to climb, past tourists, buskers and, unfortunately, beggars. There was a rather good busker on the steps, playing an amplified harp — it could have sounded horrible, but in fact the amplification was subtle, just increasing the volume to a level where it could compete with the crowds. On the other hand, there was a fellow further up the steps playing a slightly out-of-tune guitar! Glad that wasn't amplified.

 As a side note, we have noticed buskers in the Metro, in the tunnels leading between platforms ans sometimes between stations. These are of a very high standard, and it seems that they have to go through an audition and registration process before being allowed to play there.

Went into Sacré Cœur and wandered around. They don't allow photos inside — although we saw so many people defying the ban that it makes you wonder. But this time Warren played by the rules, so we can only tell you that the interior is as magnificent as the exterior, full of magnificent mosaics rather than paintings. Photography wouldn't have been easy, anyway, as the place is kept pretty dark.

We then went into La Place du Tertre, the ancient square behind the basilica which is famously populated by street artists. The artists are still there, with all the colour and hype, and you get offers of portraits with almost every step. But the place has changed. The centre of the square, once packed with painters and sketch artists, has now been given over to restaurants. The painters are still there, but mainly around the edges! We dropped into a brasserie, Au Cadet de Gascogne, for morning tea. By the way, the most famous cadet from Gascony that we know of is d'Artagnan, the companion of Athos, Portos and Aramis — is the place is named for him?

After enjoying Montmartre for a while, we wandered back down the hill and walked along to Place Pigalle, where we knew we could pick up the Hop-on, Hop-off BIGBUS PARIS. We spend much of the day riding round Paris with them, getting a good overview. We saw the places we went seven years ago, including the Hotel Cambrai in Boulevard de Magenta, where we stayed our last time in Paris! There are two routes for the BIGBUS, a newer route round Montmartre, which we started off with, and their older 'classic' route round the major landmarks like Palais Garnier, Les Invalides, La Place de la Concorde, Les Champs Elysées, L'Arc de Triomphe, La Tour Eiffel, and so on. We changed between buses just down the street from the Opèra, and started on the 'classic' route.

We left the bus for a while to visit the Arc de Triomphe. Luckily you don't have to cross the world's most chaotic roundabout, the Étoile — there are tunnels beneath it to get you to the middle! We visited the tomb of the unknown soldier, beneath the arch. Interestingly, all triumphal marches used to pass directly beneath the arch until this tomb was set up there. Now all triumphal marches — even that of Adolph Hitler in 1940 — pass around the arch. The view from the top is magnificent — looking down the Champs Elysées from the Arch has to be one of the best urban vistas in the world. And, of course, you can see the Eiffel Tower and Montmartre, and the golden Dôme des Invalides.

We left the Arch and rejoined the bus, which took us on a round trip past many of these sites, dropping us off back near the Opéra, where we walked to the nearby Printemps store (one of Les Grands Magasins) to look around — magnificent store, but they didn't have a papierterie, so Suzie couldn't even try to get more of her Paperblanks notebooks she's been using for her journal.

We left Printemps, walked across to the Metro station Havre-Caumartin, took line 9 to Franklin D. Roosevelt, where we changed for line 1 and Porte Maillot to catch the shuttle back to the campsite. Another very full day!

Distance driven — today, nil; to date, 29,782 miles ( 47,930 km )