Paris Part Un

Ahhh....our first day in Paris! Today was full of walking, but we also had some time to relax and people watch.

We arrived in Paris last night around 9pm from the EuroStar train which takes around 2-1/2 hours and goes under the channel between England and France. Getting to the place we are staying was a little difficult but we made. We are staying with a girl named Adleen, whose apartment we found on Craigslist :) Adleen, believe it or not is from Dearborn! We had a lot of fun talking to her about Michigan. She has been really helpful already helping us get around the city.

Today we started with a walk around Montmartre which was so enjoyable! The guidebook told us exactly where to go and we passed some awesome sites......First on the trip was Moulin Rouge, which really wasn't as big as we thought it was going be. It opened in 1889 and was really made famous by the movie of the same name. Walking to Moulin Rouge was quite shocking, the streets were filled with sex shops and even an erotic museum!

Next was the Montmartre Cemetery which was really unique where the monuments were above the ground and huge. Many of them looked like small cathedrals and had stained glass windows. Some famous people were buried here including Alexander Dumas (his grave is pictured above). Walking through the cobblestone streets, we came across a number of stray cats that live among the tombs. Also, on the way to the next stop we saw an actual bearded lady. No joke it was more full than AJ could grow in a month!!!
A small stop along the walk was the Moulin de la Gallette which was featured in Renoir's famous painting by the same name. Near here we traveled around the rue de Lepic which has a number of famous landmards; Amelie was filmed along these streets and at No. 54 is a place where Vincent Van Gogh lived for a bit.
This is a statue of St. Denis who was beheaded by the Romans, and, according to legend, picked up his head and washed it off in a fountain on this spot. The fountain is now surrounded by a pretty garden where a bunch of mothers and their little kids were playing.
A really nice woman who spoke no English took this nice photo of us during our walk. Hopefully it is easy to see how crazy the streets of Paris are, twisting and turning, stairs, sharp turns, hills, and lots of people!
Here we got our first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower!! We did not go to the Eiffel Tower today, but it was still fun to finally see this famous landmark! As we continued on our climb, we trekked further and further up a large hill and began getting breathtaking views of the city.
Here is a photo of us outside the Sacre-Coeur, the second highest point in Paris. You can see the view of the city behind us. From here we could see glimpses of Notre Dame, the Louvre, and just about everything else.
Here is where we spent the majority of our day, Sacre-Coeur, a church built to atone for the victims of the Franco-Prussian War. It took 30 years to build and is in pristine condition. We couldn't take pictures inside which is a real shame because it was beautiful with mosaics, stained glass windows, and the massive central dome.

Today was perfect weather and we spent a lot of time sitting on the lawn, relaxing and people watching.

For dinner we stopped at a grocery store and bought some things for the week and made some pasta and had some delicious bread with mozzarella and balsamic vinegrete, and some awesome cheese spread. We even enjoyed it by candle light!