Tuesday, 21 June 2016

The day always starts with breakfast.  This morning, we went to a café that advertised "Australian-type coffee".  Only Aussies who have travelled abroad know that our coffee is the best in the world!




The plan for today:  Montmartre and Sacré-Coeur.

Montmartre is a district on the top of a hill  --  the highest part of Paris as far as I know.  A ride part way up on the funicular was very welcome.  (As one cable-car goes up the hill, it balances the other cable-car going down the hill.)




There's a great view over Paris from the top of Montmartre.








Montmartre is mainly known for the incredible, white-domed Sacred Heart basilica (Sacré-Coeur).











The basilica is built of travertine stone, which constantly exudes calcite, ensuring that the basilica remains white even with weathering and pollution.  (Confession:  the following photo was pinched from the internet.)




Inside, the basilica is beyond beautiful.  It is, without a doubt, my very favourite religious building.




Time for ice-creams!
(You will also notice the presence of armed military people.  A sad reality of today's world.)

Many artists have worked in Montmartre for a very long time, including Salvador Dalí, Claude Monet, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Pablo Picasso and Vincent van Gogh.  There are still many artists there today, but mostly struggling to make a living.  We wondered through the square where many set up stalls to display their work.

By now, it was about 3 pm and we started heading for 'home'  --  Matt and Belinda had to get back to their apartment to start packing.  They leave at 6:45 am tomorrow -- a very uncivilised time!  We'll miss them, but the next day, we head off to Saint Louis (San-wee) over where France, Germany and Switzerland come together.  We're really looking forward to seeing Katrina (one of Daryl's daughters), her husband Stéphane, and their baby Alistair.

*

An unexpected pleasure.  After dinner, we started walking back to the apartment, but there were people everywhere and music in the air.  Literally!  Being the longest summer day here, it is the traditional time for the Parisian "Music Festival".  We stopped and listened to this fantastic group and the singer Zhara:

There are live concerts playing all over the city.  Unfortunately, a 'heavy rock' concert is just in the next block from ours, so it's going to be a night of thump, thump, thump.  My ears would have preferred a classical music concert.  Ah well ........