Paris Day 02 part one, Moulin Rouge & Sacre Coeur

I know, a simple 1.5 mile forced hike looks simple, but today we are going up, up, up to the to top of the hill and when we get there we will go even further up (more than 300 steps in the stairs) to the top of the dome.

We begin at Moulin Rouge. Since I have no interest in seeing a show of naked breasts here at night (too much like work) this is as close as I will get.

These can-can girls need some inspiration...

So I get up and show them how its done!

I love how civilized this city is. A french bulldog shops for shoes.

Lyle poses for this photo I took just for my father.
Look dad, SNAILS!

About this time you may think, "Poor Lyle, all those photos with things on his head..." But look, this windmill is merely ABOVE his head, not ON his head. And let's be fair, we've cut the back and forth down to this:

Hey, turn around.
No.
Just stop right there.
No.
Wait, I want to get a picture.
I know. And No.
You might as well give in, you know I'll be a pain until you do.
(heavy sigh) Fine.

Its all very civilized and quick and then we can get on with our day.

We hiked up, up, up into the neighborhood and I made my pilgrimage to the Place Dalida. Aside from it being a lovely sculpture and a gracious square, this also give s you a sideways approach to the monumental church of Sacre Coeur. Everyone comes up the front steps or the funicular, but I prefer the surprise discovery of it all at once looming above you with very little warning.

A rare four shot thanks to a very kind German tourist.

Since I go to Sacre Coeur almost every trip, and hike to the top of the dome every time, you'd think there would be nothing new to see or discover. But here are a couple of snaps I took that were all new to me.


The city doesn't really change from year to year from this vantage point high above it, and yet, "Hey, is that the Pompidou Centre? I never noticed that before..."

Lyle and Christine freeze smiles on their faces for the camera. And I do mean FREEZE. It was amazingly cold that morning and the higher we went the stronger the wind blew. BRRRRR.....

Jesus, he keeps staring at me all over the inside of this church...

Though this couple did not get married inside the church, they came here with their bridal party for photos. Note his GOLD sneakers.

When you see famous photos of Montmartre there is always the one of these long steps in the fog with the lamps on down the middle. I always wondered why they had that photo because I had never seen those steps... until this trip! We discussed our next point of interest and decided the metro stop to the left was our best choice et Voila! We discovered these stairs. More stairs. More stairs. More stairs...

We headed towards the metro with the idea of going to the Mache aux Puces (the flea market), but when we got there (three metro stops away) the crowds were crazy. Only slightly crazy, but we stopped and took into account the idea of it being a Saturday, us being jet lagged, and how put off we were by just a mild teeming throng of people and we decided the NO, today was not our flea market day. We would go somewhere else...
This photo is a random throw in. As we descended into the metro, there was woman dragging her shopping cart down the stairs, thunk, thunk, thunk, and Lyle very kindly stopped and picked up the other end of her cart to assist her. This being a VERY RARE scene (Lyle helping a stranger) I snapped a quick photo. At which point the woman got a little frightened and asked why was I taking her photo? And then I tried to explain that Lyle is not normally a kind person to strangers and it was so rare that I HAD to take a photo of HIM... oh forget it, I don't speak that much French... I just said, "Non, him." and pointed at Lyle, then walked away.

All this was before lunch.