Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Montmartre in the Rain

Sunday May 27, 2007

Sam wakes me up at 06:00, we are going out to take sunrise pictures of Notre-Dame and the Cite. The sun hits the building around 06:30 we take lots of pictures hoping some will be good. There are some low clouds but it is mostly clear. The air is brisk and clear. We are out till around 07:30 when we end up at the front of Notre-Dame not a sole except for the sweeper. The first Mass is at 08:30.We will come back with Rhonda then. Sam and I make it the short distance to our apartment, stopping on the way to get our morning baguette and chocolate croissants. I fix breakfast with the above 2 items plus cheese grits and I slice long ways the pear I bought last night. It is about 8 inches long and very good.

We leave around 08:35 for Notre-Dame, The music is echoing off the walls. It sounds very majestic. The church is beautiful; it is a bit odd all of the stuff they are selling in the church though. From here we head to Montmartre. I have a guide that shows some of the places that Amelie was filmed. We come up from the subway where Amelie was leading the blind man. The guide is rather poorly translated and somewhat hard to follow. The café Au Reve is shuttered up for the day. By the time we get near the Sacre-Coeur it is raining. The area where the artists are is jammed packed with tourists. We duck in to Cafes Richard
for a hot chocolate and Margarita pizza. The waiter asks if we wanted it with milk or cream, I said cream! The pizza was really bad, but it is out of the rain.

It seems to let up or at least we are ready to leave. We make our way to the Basilica, started in 1873, via several shops. I bought a blue short brimmed hat (Frank Sinatra style to keep my head dry. There is not photography in the church we sit in the back for a while I doze off for a minute. The church is very different from Notre-Dame, since it is much newer.

It is still raining as we leave, so we head down the front stairs to the Metro, only stopping at a few shops just to get in out of the rain for a second or two.

We make it back to the room. Both Sam and Rhonda are sleeping and I’m going to join then now.

It is now 18:00, Sam wants to go back to the Eiffel tower and The Arch de Triomphe to take pictures with the little penguin that he purchased on our street. While at the Arch it sure looks as if it could be raining. The wind is blowing and it is cold. We head over to the Tower. When we emerge from the Metro, the sky is blue. The sun is just beginning to peak out from behind the clouds. It is beautiful. The sun is shining on the city behind the tower. We decide to go up in the Tower, since it is so pretty. We get in line about 20:30 it takes about 45 minutes to get through the line and up the elevator. By now the sun has set, but the view is still nice. The wind is howling and cold. We go to the 2nd floor thinking that it will be just too cold on the top. I found the most unusual gift on the tower it is a condom with the Eiffel Tower symbol on the package. We saw a young Korean lady purchase one along with a post card. About 22:45 we make our way to the elevator to go down. By the time we make it to the street, the lights are flashing for the 23:00 show. They have installed strobe lights all over the tower and they flash at random. The effect is quite nice. We have seen it from all over the city. Sam and I get a sucre crepe on the steps to the Metro. We decide that the chocolate one is better even if it does have a little too much.