It’s hard to top the top of the Eiffel Tower. Fortunately, Mark has a goal in mind for our second day in Paris—what he called the “French Taj Mahal,” i.e. the Sacré-Coeur.
He didn’t remember going there two years ago and I skipped Montmartre last time because even though the neighbourhood epitomizes Paris, it’s a bit out of the way.
“No problem. However, we literally have to cross Paris,” I warned him.
“I can walk, don’t worry mommy.”
I mean, we could have taken the subway, but since Mark offered to walk, I jumped on the chance. It’s fun to go through colourful neighbourhoods and see different sides of the city.
We walked down boulevard de l’Hôpital—“What’s this building?” “A hospital.”—then we followed the Canal Saint Martin. We reached place de la Bastille—“Don’t look for the prison, Mark, it burned down and was demolished a long time ago”—then we crossed the 3rd and 2nd arrondissement, Saint-Georges and finally started climbing the steep streets of Montmartre.
This is Amélie Poulain’s Paris, a whimsical, charming neighbourhood … full of tourists and stairs.
Oh, yeah. There are about a million of stairs to climb to reach the Sacré-Coeur. Well, 300 according to Google but I swear it’s more.
The basilica was open, lucky us. Still, Mark looked slightly disappointed.
“It’s … just a church?”
“Well, yeah. What did you think it was?”
“A palace? Like the Taj Mahal in India?”
Silly me! It goes without saying that the Sacré-Coeur is a church but it’s not obvious to a Canadian kid! He still liked it, though, once he got over the fact it wasn’t as fancy as expected.
We took the subway back—even I wasn’t going to cross Paris on foot a second time—and hung out with my little brother for a while. I picked a hotel within walking distance from his place in the 13th arrondissement, plus plenty of great takeout options nearby.
At night, we took the subway to the Arc de Triomphe and walked down posh Avenue Kléber to the Trocadéro to check out the Eiffel Tower again.
Capitain Haddock et Tintin?!! Scandal ! LMAO
love the photos
Great chance to have a chat with Mark about that. Phew. He… just doesn’t see why he would be anything else than okay.
C’est l’un des seul site touristique que je n’ai pas visité pendant mes 6 années là-bas. C’est très beau, ça me rappelle un peu l’oratoire St-Joseph à Montréal
Oui, tu as raison! Je viens de vérifier, je suis allée à l’oratoire il y a un bout de temps.
Je comprends qu’on puisse ne pas s’aventurer vers Montmartre, c’est un peu le bout du monde du centre de Paris.
Tes photos sont toujours aussi belles
C’est comme si je redécouvrais Paris
Et vous deux, vous êtes encore plus beaux
Embrasse Mark
J’pouvais pas faire de la peinture, c’était déjà pris (deux fois!).