We wondered around Montmarte until we found a cafe to eat at. This was my favorite place we ate at the whole trip.The reason being, the people providing service spoke virtually NO English. We were forced to try and understand and speak French. As I mentioned earlier, I love every opportunity that I get to practice my French and this was no exception. The food we had here was inexpensive and wonderful. Cole got a croque monsieur and I got a croque madame. I have had a love for this since I took French class and was introduced to them from the teacher. It is toasted bread with ham,cheese, bechamel sauce, and if it is a croque madame - a fried egg on top. I know this doesn't sound like anything special but the way it is prepared and the quality of the ingredients make it delish! These were served with salad that had a honey mustard dressing and was topped with white asparagus. We finished our meal with another apple tart.
After food we decided to go shopping. The day before I ventured out for shoes and a power outlet adapter and came back empty handed. So off we went. We found an outlet and unfortunately it ended up being the wrong one. I did however find three pairs of shoes at a local french shop for 20 euros! Whoop whoop! That is only about $30 so I thought it was a pretty good deal.
After wandering back to the flat for a while we set out for Notre Dame. The lines were crazy long so we decided not to wait to go in. We had already seen the Sacre Coeur on the inside so we opted to move on to the catacombs under Notre Dame. This was recommended by some friends, but unfortunately we were a little disappointed. I was anticipating skulls and tombs and such. What we got was an archaeologist's nerd fest. It was stone remnants of the city built before Notre Dame on the island. I think the main disappointment came from the fact that there were no skulls or tombs and it was more Chichenitza-esque but much less cool. The ruins at Chichenitza in Mexico are amazing to behold. This was not that. I think maybe if I hadn't seen Chichenitza I could have appreciated these a little more. There are a few pictures below though. :o) There is also a picture of tiny me next to a huge statute outside of the Notre Dame.
After the catacombs we began our 5 hour long walk around Paris. This walk started at the Notre Dame and wandered around the town. Along the journey we walked past the Louvre, the Musee D'Orsay, down one end of the Champs Elysees to the end where the Arc de Triomphe is. This may not seem like a lot but if you know how spread out Paris is, this is a long way. I will give you some perspective on this further down in the post. Somewhere along the way of our 5 hour walk we did stop at a cafe and I got a banana and nutella crepe. Yum!
Along the way we walked into a little square that was having a 1st Thursday-esque art showing. Local artists came together and brought their works along with food and drink to celebrate art and sell their works. We wandered through and were able to find a tiny piece of artwork for our artist friend Shari.
Below are some pictures we took along our journey. A few random ones...including a statue of Voltaire which has been de-faced.
Below is a pic of the Orangina ad campaign going on that Cole absolutely loved.
The next picture is very romantic. This bridge has been adorned with 'Locks of Love.' The tradition is that you buy a lock with your loved one, write whatever date you are commencing on the lock and then attach it to the bridge and throw away the key. Very romantic! The last day we were in Paris Cole found a lock for us to do this with, sadly we didn't make it to the bridge to attach our lock. :o( So now we have to place it on another bridge. Apparently this is popular in other big cities as well.
The next few pictures were taken as we wandered around the grounds of the Louvre. These grounds are massive and take a LONG time to walk and the gardens are beautiful. About this time it did start to sprinkle on us. Hence the pictures having lots of clouds.
After the Louvre we headed down the Champs Elysees towards the Arc de Triomphe. This street is quite a bit longer when you have to walk it! Along the way we saw a movie poster for 'The Hangover 2' that was pretty funny.
When we finally made it to the Arc de Triomphe we decided to go up and see the view from the top. Of course, the elevator was broke down (this is a common theme in Europe) so we had to climb the stairs. There were over 250 stairs and this was not an easy thing for a pregnant lady to do, but I did it! Boy was it worth it. The view was beautiful. Pay attention to the view with the street cars on the Champs Elysees. If you look off in the distance a little to the right you can see the Louvre and just slightly beyond that is Notre Dame. This is where we started our 5 hour walk from! You could see beautiful views of the Eiffel Tower, the Sacre Coeur and downtown Paris from here.
After we finished at the Arc de Triomphe it was getting pretty late so we decided to head back to Montmarte. We hadn't eaten dinner yet and it was after 9:30. Cole had been itching to eat at an African restaurant right near our flat and in true Parisian fashion they were open at 10:00 to serve us. I have to admit I was skeptical at eating African food but it was amazing! Sorry no pics of the food, we had to wait way to long to eat so we dug in the second it got in front of us. This place was a little mom and pop shop and she fired up the stove once we walked in. It took her about 45 minutes to make our meals. Cole had shark in and Indian like curry sauce. I had chicken that was made with a traditional African sauce which was unlike anything I have ever tasted in my life. The sauce was amazing and took me by complete surprise. There were lots of onions that were still crunchy but didn't overpower the sauce and didn't leave an onion-y flavor in my mouth. The dish was accompanied by fried plantains. We left very satisfied and just slightly over midnight. The service was delightful and her friends sitting in the restaurant were very friendly to us.
Off to bed we immediately went with full stomachs and very sore feet. Another satisfying day in Paris.
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