SHARING OUR PARIS - Part 2

On Dave and Sara's last day in Paris, we filled the day with two great tours:  Paris Walks tour of Montmartre in the morning and the tour of the Palais Garnier (the old opera house) in the afternoon.

David had been on the Montmartre tour when Nikki and her family were here, but I didn't feel well that day so stayed home.  I was glad to get the opportunity to go before we leave.  It's really an amazing part of the city and one in which I'd really like to spend more time, slowly strolling.  It's the area of the artists and that's certainly evident by the artwork on the sides of buildings, storefronts and courtyard.

We turned a corner and, voila, this painting on a wall!

One of the first things we saw was the street art of Gregos, a French street artist born in 1972  who displayed sculptural specimens of his face on the walls of Paris.  He creates replicates of his own face, tongue out or smiling, that he paints and glues on the walls of the city.  Each face is a sort of self-portrait of the day to express his humors, his past, present, and future.  As of today, more than 1000 faces have been glued on city walls, mostly in Paris.  After the initial face, I found another as we walked....if I'd had more time, maybe I could have found more!

I would love to have the time to find more of these faces

The streets of Montmartre are not your everyday straight streets.  Most seem to be going up hill and cobblestone, twisting around corners where you find unexpected art work on the buildings, small cafes and quaint courtyards.

Beautiful but not easy on a bad hip!

It started raining and we went into a courtyard that had a little covered area (other tour groups were there as well) until the rain slowed.  In the courtyard is a statue of Saint Denis considered to be the very first Bishop of Paris.  When persecutions against the Christians began, he was caught and sentenced to death.  According to legend, after he was beheaded he picked up his severed head and walked north 6 kilometers to where he collapsed in a place of his choosing where he had decided to bury his head!!  Interesting story!!

A cute courtyard with St. Denis overlooking it

Poor Saint Denis!!!

We also saw the apartment where Van Gogh lived for several years.  Our guide was wonderful (the guides of Paris Walks are all really good) and showed us a book on Van Gogh I might try and pick up sometime.

The door of his apartment-you can barely see the plaque to the left with his name

Here's an early picture of Van Gogh - I didn't realize he had red hair!!

I am always awed (that's a lot of "a's"!!) thinking of these now famous people, writers, artists, musicians who lived in Paris in a different time gaining their inspiration from their surroundings.  And now we're reading them, seeing their art and listening to their music.  Amazing!

We ended our tour at Sacre Coeur, a beautiful basilica  at the top of Montmartre.  The first stone was laid for the foundation in 1875 as pillars had to be placed to support the building.  Had this not been done, the church would have sunk into the soil.  Though it was planned to be consecrated in 1914, the breakout of World War I put it on hold and it was finally consecrated in 1919.

After our Montmartre tour, we grabbed a street lunch of jambon beure and a cookie and headed to the Palais Garnier, the Opera House.  I've done a couple of tours there and always enjoy it.  It's a beautiful building and a very nice tour (by their staff).  Honestly, I was a little disappointed in our guide, a French woman who was knowledgeable but very soft spoken so more difficult to understand than previous guides I've had.  Also, she didn't show us Phantom's box, which is a big thing to tourists.  Fortunately, I'd seen it before!! But it was still fun for Sara and Dave, bucket list, check!!

Dinner that night at our apartment and a final look at the sparkling Eiffel Tower ended our time together,  and they left early Thursday to head home.  Seeing friends and showing them the things we love about Paris helps these days pass quickly as we prepare to leave.  And wasn't it Sabrina (in the movie) who said, "Paris is always a good idea"???