Montmartre & Sacré Cœur

Today we venture on our own. Geared with a métro map, we head for Montmartre. The Paris métro is complex but not anymore complicated to take than the MTR of Hong Kong. After all, with no fixed routes, no schedules, and reckless drivers, what can be more confusing than taking the Metro Manila jeepneys, alors?

We went to see the church of Sacré Ceour that was located on top of the hill. I guess we still haven’t gotten our bearing of France yet, because It was wicked enough to climb the steep steps to see the church, and we had to do it twice! The church was grand and all, but you can read about it in different websites. hehe.

I wanted to see the street artists in Montmartre that I saw on the guide, but we didn’t know that it was just beside the church so we went down looking for it and then had to go up again. Seriously, it is worst than doing a back-2-back combat workout in fitness first! Ugf!

But when we finally got there, ohhhh, it’s absolutely incredible! It was worth being half dead climbing! It’s quite packed with tourists whom I guess made the festive atmosphere but it’s quaint and lively and super lovely! There was a quadrangle where the local artists showcase their paintings. Some artists are actually painting and also you can have your portrait done on the spot! There are colorful cafés around the quadrangle so people could sit and sip while watching the people go by. That’s one of the big things here in Paris. To sit, sip, and watch people go by. For that, le cobi sisters will be right at home here in Paris. :)

So finally, after hundreds of photos, I bought I small a painting and we head down to the 9th Quarter  looking for the grand Gallerie Lafayette. We decided to be Parisian and walk. It’s not a short walk I tell you. I will plot the route we walked in google map once I got the chance, just for fun you know, but it’s really nice.  My eyes feast on the Paris scenery. The city is lined with trees and it’s very clean. The buildings are low and old. We were just saying that the French gone crazy building 200 years ago and now the engineers have nothing to do.  Remember how I was so fascinated with The Bund in Shanghai, and now I got a whole country of that to explore, every corner I turn to! I’m just overwhelmed with all this. Yeah, now it is sinking in. :)

Like all buildings in France, the Gallerie Lafayette is a grand old structure. This is probably the department store mom read in the paper where the Chinese tourists spend so much money in 1 afternoon. It really is full of tourists and so the prices are outrageous. Claire said the same bag she saw in Rome is like 20euro more in there. There’s an LV boutique inside and I went to check out Etui Serene for Lance’s mobile phone. It was super crowded in there, like there’s a sale or something. It is actually only here that I encountered a rude person and she’s not even French, but Chinese, and she’s not even stylish or pretty to have that air. She said I should wait because she’s attending to another customer when she is obviously not and was just chatting with a colleague. Anyway, LV is actually ridiculed as Japanese women’s gullibility and is not very popular among French.

What we noticed while walking around Paris is that they’re not very big on convenience stores like in Manila, Hong Kong, or Japan where there’s 1 every 2 corners. We were so tired and actually quite thirsty and have been looking for 1 to buy water for the past 3 hours, with no luck. There are however cafés and thé salon every 2 steps. So we finally have to give in and sit in a café to treat our thirst. The best coke I’ve had ever, well, should be as it costs 4.5euro! So like Parisians, we sat facing the street and watch people go by.