We are getting close to the end of my sisters vacation in France, but we aren't quite there yet. We still have a few more stops to cover, starting with another trip to Paris. This time its to see a different neighborhood, a different arrondissement as they say in French. The one in particular that we are going to see this day is the Montmartre district. Its a location that I would describe as hip and artsy and fun, with a lot of different sites to see.
It is definitely a quintessential "must see" location when visiting the big city. So let's take a look.
The Sacred Heart Basilica is, in my opinion, the culminating landmark of the Montmartre arrondissement, so it's a great spot to head towards to begin your journey in the neighborhood. We arrived in Paris that day at the "Gare du Nord" train station and then walked over to the church from there. The walk was only 20 minutes and very easy and safe during the day time, so there was no need for a taxi or Uber for us.
The church is absolutely beautiful inside and out and its free to enter, so make sure that you do so. If you avoid the weekend and go early in the day the area isn't too busy either, but like any major tourist destination you should expect some crowds.
Directly outside the Sacre Coeur entrance is a fun little photo illusion you can create with your camera. It's known as the sinking house.
Just walk to the staircase in front of the Basilica and look towards the right hand side (right when facing the church) to see the red building in the photo. To create the illusion you just tilt your camera so that the gridlines are level with the sloped hillside and take your shot.
Above is what it looks like when you take the shot normally without tilting the camera. It's kind of a nice shot just as it is in my opinion.
There are lots of little details to see around Sacre Coeur including a really impressive view of the city from the staircase and thousands upon thousands of love locks secured to the linked fence that surrounds the space.
Something to look out for in this area though are men selling homemade string bracelets. They wait around the staircases as you walk up and can be very pushy and almost aggressive about it. They get between you and your companion you're with to separate you and actually try to put the bracelet on your wrist. I've ran into them twice and one of the guys actually grabbed onto my arm. I just kept walking and said no affirmatively and he eventually left me alone.
Its not a great photo or anything but you can see the Eiffel tower from the up there as well. Just walk down the left side of the street (when facing the church). There is a nice public water fountain there to fill your water bottle as well. It's near a state of a man that looks like one of the three musketeers.
Spend some time walking around the area up by the church and/or stop for a coffee at one of the many cafes.
The space is full of colorful restaurants and there are tons of artists selling paintings or doing caricatures. It's a fun sort of place in my opinion.
There are also a lot of art galleries and neats little shops selling all kinds of stuff.
A lot of the shops sell touristy crap but there are some nice artisinal ones thrown in there as well so it pays to snoop around.
I bought a small French art style picture of a rooster in a poster shop that I liked. I put it in a book to keep it safe when we moved and I have forgotten which book it's in. I'll probably stumble upon it unexpectedly one day.
A fun little monument and art piece is the Paris "I love you wall" or "Wall of love." As the name suggests it is a wall with the words "I love you" written on it in every language you can think of. It can be pretty challenging find the words in one specific language.
My sister and I weren't able to find it in English but my wife and I found it on our visit to the site a little while later.
Now that I know where it is it stands out to me clear as day. Can you spot it?
Continuing our walk, moving away from the Basilica, we eventually came to a historic and iconic spot called La Maison Rose or, the Pink House in English.
Its a 100 year old restaurant and a very photogenic location.
The buildings along the street are covered in wisteria and ivy and flowers and have that charming Paris look about them.
We watched a woman wipe out while standing on one of the cement pillars along the street. She was trying to take a photo above people's heads.
I guess she missed stepped while looking through her camera and did a header. She seemed okay though, luckily.
My sister found a mirror that had been tossed away on the side walk and decided to do a bit of a touch up of her makeup.
We found this cool street to stop and do a a photoshoot for her as well.
Two other people stopped and started hovering around the place watching us and then as soon as we finished and started moving on they jumped to the same location that we were at and began their own photoshoot. I guess we chose a good location for photos.
Around this area is a cafe called Le Relais de la Butte and as we approached it I noticed that the seats we all empty except for one lone woman talking on her phone. The woman looked so familiar which gave me this incredible moment of confusion. I was like "I know this person, but who the hell do I know that would be in Paris right now?" Then it dawned on me that it was the actress Ashley Park.
As we got closer I noticed that there was security all around and a film crew. Security asked me not to take photos of Ashley Park and I didn't want to be a dick about it, so I didn't.
Unfortunately they were done filming for the day so I didnt get to see any of the other actors or watch them acting out the scene. We had missed the tail end of the filming by probably only 10-15 minutes (I'm just guessing here).
I went back to the site another day to take a photo of the cafe, this time it was full of patrons. We got rid of Netflix when they changed their sharing policy so I still haven't seen season 3 with the scene in it yet.
We stopped by two statues on our walk that day, the first being the Bronze bust monument to the singer Dalida. As you can see, her breasts have been polished by the hands of countless visitors. Perverts probably... ;)
The second statue was called Le Passe-Muraille. It depicts a man walking through a wall and I believe that it was inspired by a short story.
There are a couple of cemeteries around the Montmartre arrondissement and I believe that the one we visited was St. Vincent.
I wouldn't say that this was a must see location or anything, but we popped in just so my sister could see how they bury their dead in Europe.
Burying people 6 feet under isn't necessary when there is no frost line and Canadian cemeteries generally don't have mausoleums or large tombs like they they do in Europe. It is a bit of a novelty seeing a European cemetary on first view.
Our walk took us in a bit of a loop around the neighborhood and eventually we made our way back to where we started around the Sacre Coeur Basilica.
We stopped for a late lunch at a restaurant and ate some pizza before heading back to the train station.
I remember it being hot as heck that day and we were both pretty wiped by the time we made it onto the train. Thank god it had air conditioning.
There really is "no rest for the wicked" when you're on vacation and tomorrow was another day and another location to see before my sister went home. We rested up that evening and headed out the next day to another place in the country.
