This morning I allowed myself the luxury of sleeping in until 8:30 am before deciding I should probably start getting up and getting ready for the day. Once we were all up and moving and ready we left for Montmartre to go see Sacre Couer and the surrounding area. The first thing we did in Montmartre was to find a bakery because we again hadn’t eaten breakfast before we left so we were quite hungry. I got a jam filled beignet and it was absolutely delicious. We then walked approximately two blocks before looking into the window of another bakery and deciding to get something else. This time I got an éclair with raspberries and some sort of cream based filling. It was also amazing and I don’t understand why there aren’t more bakeries that sell fresh pastries like this in Seattle. Filled with French pastries we wandered around Montmartre attempting to find the Cathedral, and eventually we found the tourist signs that pointed us in the right direction. It has been quite an adventure the past several days in Italy and Paris navigating by a map instead of using the google maps app on our phones as we were used to. There is also no rhyme or reason to the street layout in France either so you can’t just go down one street and assume you can correct any mistakes by heading in the right direction. Fortunately it seems that as long as you head in the direction that is uphill in Montmartre you will find the Cathedral eventually.
The Cathedral was huge, as it seems most old churches in Europe are, and the detailing and artwork of both inside and outside the church was breathtaking. The inside of this church was probably the most ornate of the churches we visited so far, with the ceiling above the alter covered in an enormous mural that was highly intricate and gilded with gold in parts. After we finished walking through the church we went to a park outside the church to figure out where to go next. We decided to go check out the Montmartre cemetary, but once we got there we realized that it was enormous and the view from the sidewalk was all that we really needed. Instead we walked back a few streets and attempted to find a café that was once in Amelie, and we think we found where it once was, but we couldn’t find any cafe with the exact name. Our last mission in Montmartre was to buy the food for a picnic dinner at the Eiffel Tower, which was my one request for my birthday. We bought cheese, salami, juice, and cookies at a grocery store, then we bought baguettes at the closest bakery. With our bags of picnic food we went back to our apartment for a bit both to rest and to pick up a few things that we needed for our picnic. During that time I wrote the blog reflection for the program that is due on July 31st and a bit for this blog as well.
Once we were ready to go again we packed up our things and went to the Eiffel tower for my birthday picnic. It was so refreshing to sit on the grass and have our baguettes with salami and cheese. We didn’t have to decide what to order, wait to get our food, figure out how to split the bill, we just got to sit and eat and enjoy our surroundings. We happened to be very near to a group of female cyclists who must have just finished their race because they were popping champagne bottles and taking pictures with their bikes raised over their heads with the Eiffel Tower in the background. Their joy was infectious and I found myself smiling along with their celebration. Mira, Hannah, and Emerson all sang me happy birthday quietly so that the entirety of the park wouldn’t join in, then we finished off the cookies and the juice before heading to the line to go up the tower.
We decided that we would walk up to the second level of the Eiffel Tower, and then we would take the elevator to the top. Maybe it was all the conditioning from Italy, but I really didn’t think the climb was that bad. We stopped at the first floor and within a few minutes we realized we had lost Mira. We decided she was probably just wandering around the first floor so we walked around a bit more thinking we would run in to her. When we still didn’t find her we had one person stay near the stairs to go up the tower and had the other two walk around, thinking we would definitely find her that way. We still couldn’t find her so we decided to just head up to the second floor because she had probably gone up without us. When we got to the top we started looking for Mira and when we saw her it was like a lost little kid reuniting with their mom in the grocery store. We probably looked really bizarre to the majority of the people around us, but we were so happy to be all back together since Mira and Emerson both have no means of contacting Hannah or I. Together we walked around the second level of the tower and took pictures of the spectacular views. As soon as we got to the booth to pay for tickets to go up to the top, they closed down the booth because they only let so many people up per hour since the top of the tower is so much smaller than the other parts. So, we waited an hour at the second level and watched the sun set over Paris, then we bought our tickets and took the elevator to the top.
You don’t realize how tall the Eiffel Tower is until you are there and the air that was once a bearable temperature is now biting cold. The elevator to the top was absolutely worth the 6 euro it cost, because the view of Paris from that height can’t compare to the other two levels. We spent a bit more time at the top, but once we lost the feeling in our finger tips we decided to go back down. At the second level Hannah, Mira, and I all got a mug for a souvenir, but then we hurried down to the ground and as far into the park in front of the Eiffel Tower as we could get before the tower started to sparkle its lights for the first five minutes of the hour. I know there are videos and pictures and miniature replicas of the Tower sparkling, but truly nothing is like actually seeing it with your eyes. After the tower finished twinkling we made our way back to the metro station to go home. On the way I managed to fall and break the mug I had just bought. Although I’m still pretty bummed about it breaking, I decided I would keep the pieces to glue back together and keep as a decoration instead of tossing it out. Besides if the worst thing that happened to me this trip was breaking a mug, I would have to say that overall my adventures in Europe thus far have been a great success.