Day 16: Paris

Day 16 was a nice day. It thunderstormed the night before and it was cool most of the day. After breakfast, we made our way to Montmartre to see Sacre Coeur. Walking from the Metro stop up to Sacre Coeur is not a pretty sight. You feel like the pick pocket buzzards are circling, awaiting a sign of weakness. April had "my six."

We opted not to take the funicular up to Sacre Coeur so we could get some morning exercise.

Sacre Coeur

We could not take pictures inside Sacre Coeur, but it is beautiful. Definitely worth the trip. We wanted to hike up to the top to get the view of Paris, but it was very high-priced. So, we decided to look at Sacre Coeur's free "crypt" later in the day.

We had packed a lunch, so we found some park space for a nice break.
Garrett, with bread, causing a "pigeon frenzy."

The streets of Montmartre are narrow and hilly. Street artists and cafes are everywhere, like in the movies.

Streets of Montmartre.

On Eric's recommendation, we visited Place du Tetre. It was a fun square with a lot of street artists and places to shop and stop. We stopped for some "Cafe Americain" before returning to the Sacre Coeur crypt. If you just order "cafe" or "coffee," you will receive an espresso.

Place du Tetre.

Next to Place du Tetre was a non-descript church, St. Pierre of Montmartre. It was hundreds of years old, and beautiful inside.

St. Pierre of Montmartre.

We finished looking around at St. Pierre and returned to Sacre Coeur, to see the crypt. We were expecting to see tombs, etc., but it was really just a basement with various statues of saints where you could pray.
Sacre Coeur crypt.
St. Ignatius, founder of the Jesuits.

We walked down Montmartre to look for "The Charcuterie," a place recommended by our friend, Anne. Unbelievably, we found it!

The Charcuterie, on Montmartre.

After walking quite a bit, we opted for some relaxation. We took the Metro to Place de la Villette -- a huge public park in the northeast section of Paris. This place is a great destination for kids. They have various mini-parks within the park. The kids played and ran for hours, and Garrett tried speaking French with some of the kids.

Inflated runways, at Place de la Villette.

Spinning around -- wipeout.

Spinning around some more.

After a very long day of climbing hills and running around the park, we took the Metro home. An accordion player joined us for park of the trip:

Rockin' it old-school French style.

Instead of heading home, we took a detour to Ile St. Louis to try the local favorite ice cream, Berthillon. The lines were long, but it was worth it.

It was a terrific day.