Visiting the Dead

One of the things we had to decide was whether to make another day trip, this one to Versaille. Both of us finally decided that Paris still had too many things we wanted to see to use up one of our days like that. (And, truthfully, both of us find touring a little more tiring than it used to be.)

Instead, today we decided to have a good French meal, see the sights on the $1.60 city bus tour, visit the Pere Lachise cemetery, and tour through Sacre Coeur and Montmartre.

We started out about 10 am, hoping to get an early seat at the popular Cafe Constant over on rue St. Dominic near the Eiffel Tower. It was already a hot and sunny day, so we turned left at the Louvre and walked through the Tuleries gardens. (We try to take a different route each time we go out so that we see as much as possible.)

We crossed the Seine at Place de la Concorde and walked through the "governmental ghetto" back behind the National Assembly.

Most of the buildings have policemen guarding the entrances, and the sidewalk cafes are filled with important looking political types, instead of tattooed Bohemians.

We arrived at Cafe Constant (the "informal" restaurant owned by famed chef Christian Constant), a little before noon. We had a coffee at the bar, and then went upstairs.

The meal was great. I had the plat du jour (plate of the day), which included a delicious grilled shrimp and Parmesan salad. (The pictures are for you, Dad and Judah).

For the main plat, Kathy had roast chicken, while I had roast pork with lentils. It was absolutely scrumptious.

After lunch we got on the #69 city bus, which travels along the Seine and visits most of Paris' historic attractions. Our Rick Steves Paris guidebook, has a stop-by-stop running commentary, which I read (quietly) to Kathy as we headed through central Paris.

The end of the bus line is Paris famous Pere Lachaise Cemetery where Oscar Wilde, Gertrude Stein, Edith Piaf, Moliere, and Frederic Chopin are buried. The most visited site, though, is the tomb of Jim Morrison. Originally topped with a bust that was stolen by fans, the toned-down headstone is now behind a barrier.

This was the only tomb that had hundreds of people mobbing it to take pictures. The rest of the place was actually very peaceful (although Kathy found it kind of creepy).

Frederic Chopin's grave was pretty interesting as were the graves of the oldest inhabitants, Heloise and Abelard, the "star-crossed" writers of the famous love letters in the 11th century.

"Thou, O Lord, brought us together, and when it pleased Thee, Thou has parted us."

--From a prayer of Heloise and Abelard

I took a lot of pictures, but Kathy wouldn't pose for any of them. Both of us were pretty tired by now, so before we hopped on the Metro for the last leg of our tour, we took a time-out to enjoy the Parisian sidewalk cafe culture. I had a large banana split, Kathy had Nutella crepes (with ice-cream) and both of us had some coffee.

Suitable revived, we set out for Sacre Coeur, the church on the highest hill in Paris, overlooking the village of Montmartre.

The church was mobbed (like most of Paris) with tourists, but once we headed down hill, we left most of them behind. Using our guidebook, we walked through the village, seeing the house of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and the apartment where Vincent van Gogh lived with his brother.

The building here, Le Baeau Lavior, was cheap housing for a group of artists, and it was here that Picasso invented cubism in 1907. I'm not sure that was such a great accomplishment, but it was interesting to see.

Coming down the hill, Kathy found a car that reminded her of Hourik K's bug that she used to take us to the airport.

Further down hill, we found the Moulin Rouge. Moulin means windmill and originally there were 34 on this hill. There are two of them that remain from the time when Toulouse-Lautrec painted them.

The area around the Moulin Rouge is kind of seedy; originally a red-light district named Pigalle, now, it is just tacky. We hopped on the Metro instead and headed for bed.