Exploring Montmartre and Basilique Sacré-Cœur

May 28, 2019 — Day 19 (Tuesday)

Rainy day off and on. We took the long Metro ride to Stalingrad where we hiked to line #2 and took that to Anvers where we exited and walked up the oddly named rue Steinkerque to get the funicular up to Sacré-Cœur . . . along with a lot of other people. At the top we turned left to avoid the crowd on the steps to the Basilique. When we worked our way around to the entrance, there were dozens of vendors selling miniature Eiffel Towers and, far worse, heart-shaped locks people are now putting on all the fences around Sacré-Cœur. There is security to get into the church now so you get in line and go in one by one. It is clearly marked “No Photographs” and they had ushers vainly trying to enforce this but everyone was taking phone photos and quite a few were using large cameras. There was a Mass at 11:15 with singing nuns accompanied by a zither-type instrument so we decided to stay. The Mass area was roped off for worshipers and the no photo restriction was strongly repeated. However, as Mass started, three Oriental men walked in, took seats and immediately one of them stood and started a phone video 360º of all of us . . . not the church but the congregation. As soon as he finished his illegal video, the three of them got up and walked out. Not sure I’ve ever seen anything that rude in any church during a service. Click here for the Sacre Coeur web site

After Mass we walked down the stairs beside Sacré-Cœur looking for a restaurant. Nothing looked good so we started down the next set of stairs. I counted; we walked down 148 steps. Fortunately we found a restaurant at the bottom. It had started raining so we quickly chose Au Soleil de la Butte and were seated. They gave us an English menu even though we had only spoken French. I hate English menus because they are not necessarily translated correctly so you never know what you will get. Finally asked for a French menu to verify what we wanted to order. The first thing I noticed was they translated the daily special of chicken to “sliced duck” on the English menu. Duck would have been great but I didn’t want chicken so ordered the souris d’agneau that I love. Ed got confit de canard and both were excellent. He’d asked my vegetable preference and I chose épinard and it was unlike any spinach I’ve ever had. The seasoning was amazing and I’m not sure what all was in it, but definitely thyme. Really good! Ed had nougat ice cream for dessert and I had molleaux de chocolat, both served on stunning plates that looked Portuguese or Italian. Looked and tasted great. Au Soleil de la Butte, 32 Rue Muller, 75018; tel: 33 (0)1 4606-1824;Click here for the Restaurant web site

We walked through Square Louise Michel back up to Sacré-Cœur and as we arrived at the huge (dry) Paul Gasq fountain, it started to pour. Fortunately we had taken a few Paris panorama photos before the deluge. We upped umbrellas and continued up to the Basilique and then around to St. Pierre just off Place du Tertre. It was much quieter than Sacré-Cœur. I’ve always loved St. Pierre. It’s older, quieter and prettier and certainly more historic than Sacré-Cœur. I took a lot of photos and we left for the tourist insanity of Place du Tertre. Because of the on-again-off-again rain, it was slightly less crowded than usual. A blessing . . . Click here for the Saint-Pierre-de-Montmartre web site

We wound our way around the Place and down to the Maison Rose and continued to the Montmartre vineyard and Au Lapin Agile Cabaret for more photos. We kept heading down until we found the Lamarck-Caulincourt Metro station and began the long trip home.

Got our usual demi-blondie for supper and Ed did the laundry.