Montmartre

Today I explored the neighborhood of Montmartre.  This is a fun neighborhood up on a hill north of Paris.  The Sacre Coeur is there.  It's beautiful, like all the other churches in Paris.  I took the metro there and then walked and walked again.  This is a pretty touristy area - I guess all of Paris is, but this area seemed even more so.  There were so many souvenir shops and bistros that all looked exactly the same I was wondering what I would actually see as I wandered.

I started off at the Sacre Coeur.

It was seriously crowded! The view from up at the top of the hill was pretty impressive however!

 Just like everywhere in Montmartre, you had to go up lots of stairs to get there.  I actually took the funicular up to this point.  I've never been in a funicular before so I wanted to give it a try.  I also figured it would be easier to come down all the steps than to go up them all.  

The funicular headed up to the top of Montmartre.

Eccos in Montmartre, going down! 

While there, I did finally get past all of the souvenir shops and find some great creperies.  My first crepe of the day was ham, cheese and a fried egg.  Crepe Complete it what it was called. 

Later on in the day I decided I needed a sweet crepe.  So I found the tiniest little creperie tucked down a side street and ordered at chocolate and banana crepe.  Oh my word!  It was heaven! 

After eating that slice of heaven I walked and walked and walked some more.  I definitely needed the exercise after that indulgence.  I saw lots of cool buildings, taverns and boutiques. There were many street artists and lots of galleries to check out.  I found a painting that I absolutely fell in love with.  They wouldn't let me take a picture. It was only 1,500 Euros!  I had to leave it behind sadly.  C'est la vie!  

And of course, I saw more groups of school children!