Parisian Paradise - Part XI: Sacre Coeur & Montmarte

Monday morning, we took the "metropolitan" out to Anvers:

And from there, we headed up a narrow uphill street filled with souvenir shops. After making our way up the street (and picking up some souvenirs on the way), we stop for a photo op before climbing the mountain of stairs up to Basilique du Sacre-Coeur, or Basilica of the Sacred Heart (not this Sacred Heart):

One we got up near the top, we took a breather to take in the view and the harp music (one of the few performers we saw out on the streets of Paris during our trip):

Then it was up even more stairs before we could get inside:

I tried to tell Deidra all about what Rick Steeves has to say about Sacre Coeur, but she just wanted take pictures and look cute:

Once inside, Deidra continued her undercover, covert (and therefore blurry) picture-taking of things we weren't supposed to take pictures of - like a big group on nuns in the middle of a worship service:

Sacre Coeur was very beautiful and ornate throughout. Here the ceiling artwork:

It's Christ and the Holy Ghost as a dove. God is hidden behind the pillars on the right of the picture. I believe Joan of Arc was also in the painting, under Christ. And there was a big statue of her as well. Those French really love her, which I guess is understandable, as she is a patron (matron?) saint of France.

After Sacre Coeur, we walked around Montmartre, which is the hill on which Sacre Coeur was built. But it has a number of other claims to fame. It was there place where a large number of painters lived and fraternized, including Picasso, Monet, Dali and Van Gogh.  There are still painters that gather along the square still today. But, be careful, they'll offer to sketch you for free, and then get mad if you don't want to purchase it when they are done.

Montmarte is also the setting of the opera La Boheme, along with the movie Moulin Rouge - which was based on the opera.

We saw the two last remaining "moulins" - or windmills, including this one:

We stopped at shops along our way, bought some art, postcards, toys and food (including our official french gallette, complete with a king tile in the middle).

And we finished our tour at the famous and infamous Moulin Rouge:

The tour continued down the Pigalle area, which is basically Paris's red light district, but we decided we could skip that part.