We looked out our front window to see the weather today. It's a charming view of a flower shop and a pizzaria, but it's still cold and overcast. People are sitting outside at the cafes, but in this weather they actually bring their own blankets...they are determined to sit outside.
After a slow start, we decide to go up to Montmartre and see the La Basilique du Sacre Coeur de Montmartre and the nearby Place du Tertre. Sacre Coeur was built from 1875 to 1914 on the highest hill of Paris. It's an amazing and truly beautiful structure, and of course you can see all of Paris from up there.
Then we walk to a little square just behind the Basilica, Place du Tertre, the heart of the area up on the hill called Montmartre. In the early 1900s this is where the poor starving painters like Picasso and Utrillo lived. Now it is filled with artists doing portraits, caricatures, and landscapes, a reminder of when this area was the Mecca for modern art. It was packed today with tourists who didn't mind the harsh winds, so just imagine what it must be like in the summer...we definitely wouldn't want to be here then.
As we strolled around we saw some of our old favorite haunts where we would go for a bite or take visiting tourists to, such as Chez La Mere Catherine, opened in 1793 and where the term 'bistro' was coined, and Le Lapin Agile, opened in 1855. The story about this place is that a painter, Andre Gill, painted a rabbit jumping out of a pan as a sign on the outside of the restaurant and so the place got nicknamed 'La Lapin a Gill' meaning Gill's Rabbit which later evolved into Chez La Lapin Agile literally meaning 'the nimble rabbit.'' At the turn of the 20th century it became a hangout for starving artists and writers, like Picasso, Modigliani, Apollinaire, an d Utrillo, who would discuss the meaning of art. And Picasso's 'At the Lapin Agile' is what made the place famous, and it has evolved into a cabaret.
We decided to take the funicular down the hill, and then we slowly meandered passed a merry-go-round, through Pigalle where the famous Moulin Rouge Spectacular is located, along with all the other girly shows and sex shops, and you might even spot what definitely looks like prostitutes in some of the small street and alleyways in that area.
We finally work our way down to the center of the Right Bank where L'Opera and Galleries Lafayette, the famous department store, are, as well as the Apple store in a beautiful Hausmann style building. It's a vibrant area, full of energy, and we poke into a few stores to see what they have.
Then it's home on the Metro to get ready for dinner. Tonight we are going to Chaumette, an old world bistro that has been there for about 80 years. It was delicious and located in the 16th Arondissement where we actually used to live. We didn't know about this restaurant then, but wished we had. We will probably go back. Not only was the staff so friendly and gentile, but a real French couple sitting next to us actually started talking to us, and we chatted for about an hour. Philippe has an MBA from Wharton, is a banker, had lived in the states for 6 years and loves America (that's why he began talking to us), and his wife Marina is starting up a crèche (day care facility) in Phnom Penh, Cambodia (once a French colony, ergo the connection). Who knew?!
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