Paris: Last day - Montmartre

Our last day in Paris finds us on the Metro again.

This time our destination is the Montmartre area.

But we almost think we’ve taken a wrong turn when we see this Metro stop.


I think we’ve walked quite enough on this vacation so when I see transportation to the top of the hill, I can’t get to the ticket window fast enough.

At the top of the hill is the oldest church in Paris, Sacre Coeur. It also contains the world’s oldest bell (according to the driver of the choo-choo tram that runs between the metro and Sacre Coeur).

Along with the church there is what is probably very expensive real estate with killer views.

Like Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur has lots of rain spouting gargoyles.

No sign of Quasimodo, but this pigeon apparently spends a lot of time in front of the camera judging by the poses it ran through for me.

I ran across a familiar name…

The guy in the orange shirt is about to sketch my portrait. The orange shirt is a sign, oui?

And I’m glad to have gotten the portrait sketch out of the way right away as there is another sketch artist around every corner. Sort of like stink on you-know-what. Around each corner is some little gem of scenery like this fountain.

Or this garden.

As we sit at a café on the main square overlooking all the resident artists, I realize it truly is springtime in Paris and the birds are looking for love in all the right places. This is the only French Porn I saw.

We skipped Dali’s place…

…since we had the real McCoy’s right in front of us. The gentleman peeking out of the right side of this display is a true artist. He stretches his own canvas.

We’re making it an early day today since we have to rise at oh-dark-thirty to catch transportation to the airport. We take the stairs down the hill. Gravity does help but after so many of them I get dizzy and worry about overstepping and tumbling the rest of the way down. When we arrive safely at the bottom we celebrate with cappuccinos…

…at a café with a photogenic waiter…

…and an aptly named toilet. Definitely not sitting here.

Finally, here is the café area of our hotel where we had breakfast every morning.

And the lobby where we had refreshments in the evening.