It was a nice day, so we thought a visit to Montmarte for lunch would be a pleasant way to spend the afternoon. The metro ride over was uneventful. We chose to walk about 300 meters instead of switching metro lines to get closer. That walk was on a very busy shopping street. This was not a high end shopping district. The major store was a Tati (perhaps best described as a K-Mart or even a dollar store). Besides the stores,
there were street vendors selling items that were either knock offs, or "hot." There were people grilling corn on little charcoal grills that were in grocery baskets (see the top picture). And,
the people were just amazing.
We got the base of Montmarte and took the funicular up to the top, avoiding most of the 400 foot climb up the hill. A funicular is a bit like a gondola at a ski hill except it runs on a train track. T
here are two cars which move in tandem using each other as counter weight.
The artists square at Montmarte was jammed with people. It was hard to walk around and was not all that pleasant of an experience. We found a nice cafe a bit off the beaten path and had a good lunch. Chuck had his last meal of confit de canard which, in his humble opinion, is wonderful. (rosted duck)
As we left, we waked down the steps of Sacre Coeur. They were also very crowded.
The street performers were doing quite well.
As always, the view from the bottom looking up is wonderful, especially with beautiful people in the foreground.
The afternoon ended with an extremely crowded metro ride back to our hotels. As Jon put it, "we were too close to our fellow human beings to feel comfortable."
The day ended with a light meal at a Creperie where we had a dinner crepe (buckwheat), and a dessert crepe. Jon and Chuck drank cidré, what we would call hard apple cider. A good time was had by all on our last day together on vacation.
