Category: France

Paris-Sacre Coeur and Montmartre

On By Travels with MelindaIn France, Paris, Uncategorized1 Comment

One landmark that draws me back every time I visit Paris is the Sacre Coeur Basilica and the iconic Montmartre neighborhood that surrounds it. For a perfect day to begin your adventure in Paris, visit Sacre Coeur perched on top of Montmartre overlooking the entire city of Paris and beyond. Completed in 1914, Sacre Coeur is a Roman Catholic church that is free to visit and where religious masses are still held frequently. Inside and outside, it is stunning.

From the fabulous stained glass and sculptures to the various crypts and chapels to explore, there is so much to see and appreciate but the centerpiece is the dome, which, according to Wikipedia, symbolises the celestial world, resting upon a rectangular space, symbolising the terrestrial world. The two are joined by massive columns, which represent the passage between the two worlds. If you don’t mind walking up a lot (300+) steps, you can climb the Dome for a spectacular view. Note: no elevator.

Paris is made up of neighborhoods aka arrondissements. Montmartre is located on top of a large hill (430 feet hight) in the northern 18th arrondissement on the Right Bank of the Seine. This area is known for its artistic history and stunning views and was established as a historic district by the City of Paris in 1995. Start your visit at the Montmartre Museum Organisation d’évènement au Musée de Montmartre à Paris (museedemontmartre.fr), which is in the house where Pierre-Auguste Renoir once lived. Other famous artists such as Edgar Degas and Pablo Picasso lived and were inspired by this beautiful area. As you walk around Montmartre today, you can watch painting in action by the many artists with their easels set up on the streets. Perhaps a souvenir to take home and hang on your wall as a reminder of your wonderful trip? We’ve bought artwork before when we travel and love seeing it daily as a reminder of our journey. You can pick up a cardboard tube at local art supply stores to carry your treasure home safely.

Plan to spend some quality time just wandering around Montmartre. Include a meal at a café in the main square Place du Tertre and walk Rue de l’Abreuvoir street, one of the oldest and prettiest streets in Paris. Walk by, take a picture, and stop for a meal or aperitif at legendary institutions like La Maison Rose and Le Consultat on rue Norvins, which has hosted famous artists such as Dali and Toulouse-Lautrec. Take in the sunset with the crowd at the Sacre Coeur steps and end with a cabaret show at Accueil – English | AU LAPIN AGILE (au-lapin-agile.com), Paris’s oldest bar/cabaret since 1860.

Downhill (many steps!) from Montmartre and to the southwest is the Pigalle neighborhood, the home of the Moulin Rouge club. Even if you don’t spring for a night at the club (show with drinks and/or dinner), walk by and take some pictures of this iconic Paris institution. I haven’t made it to the Moulin Rouge show yet but am planning to include it on the Girls Trip 2023 agenda.

GETTING AROUND SACRE COEUR AND MONTMARTRE

After the Eiffel Tower, this is one of the most popular tourist destinations so plan your visit accordingly. Come at the end of the day for a stunning sunset view or early in the morning to avoid the crowds. Up to you!

I didn’t take one but there are lots of walking tours of Montmartre: Montmartre Walking Tour: Paris’ Best Art, Culture and Food 2023 (viator.co. Maybe next trip!

We’ve stayed at various ARBNBs in this area. Our latest stay was at a one bedroom  just downhill in a cozy nighborhood with lots of boulangeries, cafes, and shops. ARBNBs are very affordable compared to hotels in Paris-about $200 USD a night depending on when you go vs. a nice hotel costing $400+. Always look for a “super host” and lots of good reviews plus a great cancel policy before you book any ARBNB. These are ones I’ve stayed at and enjoyed:

Charming 1 bedroom apartment in Montmartre – Apartments for Rent in Paris, Île-de-France, France – Airbnb

MONTMARTRE – PARIS – Cocooning flat (airbnb.com)

Sacre Coeur is accessible by bus or metro line 2 at Anvers station. Sacré-Cœur Basilica is open from 06:00 to 22:30 every day and the dome is accessible from 10:00 to 19:00.

Montmartre is served by Métro, with Line 2 stations at Barbès–Rochechouart, Anvers, Pigalle and Blanche, Line 4 stations at Château Rouge and Barbès–Rochechouart, as well as Line 12 stations at Pigalle, Abbesses, Lamarck–Caulaincourt (one of the most photographed metro stations because of it’s iconic Parisian charm) and Jules Joffrin. It is also served by the Montmartre Funicular, operated by the RATP, ascends the hill from the south while the Montmartre bus circles the hill. (Wikipedia)

Versailles, France

On By Travels with MelindaIn France, Paris, VersaillesLeave a comment

On our recent adventure to Paris, we finally made a side trip to Versailles. We hadn’t been able to fit it in on previous trips but I’m glad we reserved a day to check it out. The Versailles experience is something to behold–gold everywhere and so many paintings and sculptures that it makes you wonder how many artists were employed to get it all done. We opted to wander around with ear buds playing a downloaded Rick Steves guide on our mobile devices to allow us to spend as much time as we wanted in each room versus the group tours with a live guide, which is certainly a popular option for many people.

With our 9 am “first in” tickets purchased online, we broke to the left while everyone else ran to the Hall of Mirrors. This meant we had the apartments all to ourselves to meander through in awe of the over-the-top decorations illustrating how the mighty royalty lived their lives. Must not have been all that great though because Marie Antoinette had a whole village built on the property to escape to experience the “simple life” when she needed a respite from the royal life.

We did make it over to the Hall of Mirrors eventually and it was pretty spectacular. Mirrors at the time it was created were very new and cost plenty so this was a huge showoff room for the royals to declare “hey, we’ve got mirrors!” Lots of chandeliers too. Always look up-the ceilings are masterpieces.

The most fun all day was renting a golf cart ($38 euros) for an hour. They give you a map of the route all the way around the extensive grounds (you leave your driver’s license with them, so you don’t take off with the cart-it’s happened!) and if you go out of bounds, the car shuts off (it’s electric) and you have to back it out to get back on the approved pathway. It’s bumpy over the stone paths but with a very low speed limit, it’s manageable. You can park and get out and walk around but it takes about an hour to go all the way around the paths and, if you go over your hour, you pay a hefty fee for each 15 minutes over the hour. Assign someone to be the timekeeper!

In addition to golf carts, you can rent bikes (though you have to walk miles to get to them deep into the property by the grand canal) or boats (by the bikes on the grand canal). They also have a tram you can take which rides you around and is a great option if you are either physically or time challenged. Believe me, you could spend weeks walking the property. Lots of beautiful gardens and nooks and crannies to explore. There is a restaurant (by the bikes/boats/canal) and gift stores. As always, we went off the beaten track and managed to wander into the “working” area at the back of the palace and saw the kitchen garden loaded with tomatoes, some very old and not so glamorous back rooms, and had to step over the “keep out” tape to get back to the exit out of the palace.

When I look back on our visit to Versailles, I will remember the opulence and the many huge paintings and sculptures but, most of all, the golf cart ride! One trip to Versailles was enough for us but you could definitely take days to explore the Palace and Gardens if it’s your thing.

TRAVEL FROM PARIS TO VERSAILLES: (3 ways to get there-don’t even think of renting a car due to limited parking, intense traffic and crazy drivers) Versailles is 11 miles from Paris.

  1. TRAIN: RER C train (many stations throughout Paris) Round Trip Ticket about 10 euros. About 30-60 minutes. Destination will be Versailles Chateau Rive Gauche. Buy round trip ticket in Paris to save time. Make sure to “validate” your ticket or you could get a stiff fine (we saw someone get fined 50 euros for not validating their ticket).
  2. BUS: Versailles Express Bus departs from near the Eiffel Tower and takes about 30-45 minutes. About 24 euros.
  3. TOUR: The Tour Guy offers package that includes transportation.

WHEN TO GO:

  • Go to the museum palace first and be there before it opens with tickets already printed from online purchase.
  • It’s closed on Monday. Tuesday is busiest day and also weekends are busy. Pack a picnic because there is very limited food to purchase in Versailles. Take your picnic and eat in the Garden.

TICKETS

Passport tickets can be purchased online on the official site here. This $27euro ticket gives access to the whole estate of Versailles and guarantees access to the Palace within half an hour of the selected time. It includes:

In order for you to make the most of the Estate of Versailles, the Gardens are open from 8 am, the Estate of Trianon from 12 pm, the Gallery of Coaches and the Sculptures and Mouldings Gallery from 12:30 pm. Always check the official website before going just in case there are changes to scheduled hours.

  • Printed ticket-go to Entrance A directly (can use Paris Pass: $124 two day to $199 six day)

PALACE

  1. Hall of Mirrors is beautiful and the WWI treaty ending war was signed here. Light is beautiful in the afternoon.
  2. Gallary of Battles
  3. Empire Rooms

THE TRIANON AND THE QUEEN’S HAMLET

  1. King and Queen went here to “get away” from the Palance
  2. Estate of Trianon is separate ticket-two smaller palaces

GARDENS

Walking Paris

On By Travels with MelindaIn adventure, France, Paris, Travel, Uncategorized, VancouverLeave a comment

 I’ve always dreamed of seeing the Eiffel Tower in person.  Something about those big city landmarks speak to me and I’ve been lucky enough to live by three of the best-NYC’s Flatiron Building, Seattle’s Space Needle and Shanghai’s Pearl Tower.  On the way to Lisbon today, we got to live my dream and turned a long layover into an adventure in Paris.

Finally here in Paris!

“Think Amazing Race!” I told Thom as we raced through Charles De Gaulle airport.  We had limited hours to navigate through CDG airport in Paris, go through customs, find the RER train and make it to the city with enough time to explore.  Customs was a breeze as the French don’t chit chat like the engaging Brits who want to know every last detail of your trip.  Our security guy didn’t even say hello, which I was perfectly fine with as the line moved quickly indeed with no pleasantries unlike at Heathrow where chattiness caused 90 minute delays in processing.

Following the signs through the huge airport, we made one wrong turn that required retracing of steps (good for the Fitbit!) and sorting out which platform to aim for after a serious wait in line at the ticket machine.  Not cheap-20 euros each for a round trip to/from city, but riding the train allows for a glimpse into Paris not found gazing from a bus or taxi.  Behaving more like a locale got us into the city (with only one transfer required) in about an hour.  Not bad!

As we got off at the Eiffel stop, we ran up the stairs and looked around the leafy streets but no Tower in sight.  Where in the world is the Eiffel Tower???  Crossing the street to the River Sienne, we looked  up and to our right and THERE IT WAS looming over us and only a block away.  The Eiffel Tower in all its glory was just gorgeous.  Did I mention there wasn’t a cloud in the bright blue sky?  With no time to go up or even walk all the way around it, we walked into a park next to the Tower where school groups played next to heavily armed guards patrolling to keep us safe.    

After taking many photos, we found the nearest facilities (pay to pee here too just like London so have .50 euros handy) and then we took off walking by the river.  What a glorious day!  The wide paths easily accommodate both bikers, joggers and strollers.  The plentiful bridges and boats on the river add ambience galore.  While there were many cafes along the path, they had just opened for the day and weren’t busy yet.  I can only imagine how beautiful it is at night to walk along the river and see the historic buildings lit up.  Another time perhaps.

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Paris, like Seattle and London, has a huge ferris wheel by the river to entice tourists.  Like no other city I’ve been to before, though, stalls line the river path, selling vintage books, newspapers and magazines.  Oh how I wish we had time to sit in a café, sip espresso, eat pastries and read a good book.  Heaven.

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But time was wasting and Portugal was waiting.  So, 5 miles and 2 hours later, we had walked along the river from the Eiffel Tower to Notre Dame Cathedral and, as luck would have it, caught the express train to the airport so we made our flight with a little time to spare.  We promised each other that we would come back to Paris and explore the narrow alleys filled with quaint cafes.  Soon.