La Vie en Rose

This is our last final day in Paris. We will get all the culture we can in one single day. The train to Munich if for 10:40. The plan is to hit the Orsay and Rodin museums, Sacre-Couer and take a walk around the Montmartre area. I have notice many little jewelry shops in the Marais area and decide that will be my souvenir in Paris. I wake up before the guys (no surprise there) and head over to grab a croissant then a jewelry shop. Unfortunately, it seems nothing in Paris opens before 10, so I am stuck waiting for the shop. I head back to hotel to check on the progress of the men. Still slow. We leave the hotel around 11:30 and the shop is open. Hooray! I buy a really cool necklace then we all head off to the Orsay. The Orsay musuem is mostly filled with impressionist artwork. I have been told by most people it is better then the Louvre. Hey, I saw the Mona Lisa yesterday. What is better than that!? Well, turns out this place was really cool. We saw alot of Monet, Manet, Renoir, Degas and Van Gogh. I have decided sculptures are my favorite, especially the ones made of marble. There are a few Rodin sculptures here, but most will be in his museum which we are headed to next. The Orsay was very busy today, because the Louvre is closed. Luckily, we have a museum pass that gets us in without waiting in line. Score! We have a quick lunch at the cafe in the museum. We breezed through in about 2 hours. It might not seem like much, but it is more than enough time. My favorite and worst painting at the Orsay is what I called, "Jesus and the Twelve Gay Apostles." Only the pictures will do it justice. Trust me, it was terrible. I was waiting for the figures in the paining to start singing Age of Aquarius!

Rodin in next. He is considered the best sculpturist since Michelangelo. It is easy to see why. He musuem is in a house that he once lived and worked. There is a beautiful garden also holding is most famous sculpture, The THinking Man. The Gates of Hell and Victer Hugo were also on display. This museum took about an hour to go through. It is about 4:30 by this time, so we are looking for a place to grab some coffee and a snack before out walk through Montemartre. We take the metro over to this area in town and sit down at the first cafe we see. The Montmartre area is where the Mouline Rouge is located and also Pigalle. This was considered the seedy part of Paris around 1900. If you have seen Moulin Rouge, you know what I am talking about. After a quick snack, the walk begins. It is about 2 miles and may take up to two hours. The first square if filled with artists and creperies. The descendants of Renoir and Monet are said to be walking this area looking to sell paintings. Jerry is curious to buy a painting, but they seem a little high in price. After walking through the square, we come upon Sacre Coeur. This is a beautiful church built on Paris' highest point. It took about 44 years to build and was completed in 1919. Thirteen bombs during WWII were dropped near this church. No one was killed and the church was untouched. There is a plaque commemorating this inside when you walk in. As you walk around the church, you follow the stations of the cross until you are behind the altar. There is a statue of St. Peter there with a bronze foot. Everyone touches his foot, looks up, and says a prayer. This is for good luck. It was very cool. After many pictures, we head out the church to another church. This one is Church of St. Pierre de Montmartre. This is Paris' oldest church from 1147. King Louis VI's wife, Adelaide is buried there. They founded this church together. Also, there is a statue of St. Pierre with a bronze foot. AFter exiting this church, we head to the more bohemian part of this area.

We first pass the Cabaret de Patachou where Edith Piaf began singing. We walked by the Montmartre museum, the boulangerie dating back to 1900, La Maison Rose restaurant, and the Clos Montmartre vinyard. This is the only working vineyard left in Paris. We then strolled past the houses of Picasso, Vincent Van Gogh, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. I must stress that this area is very hilly, which I don't think we were expecting. So every turn we makie is either uphill or downhill. It was quite a walk. It finishes right in front of the Moulin Rouge, windmill and all. There was some sort of burlesque show going on that night because people were hanging out outside all dressed up. We took a bunch of pictures and decided then to head back to the Marais for our final dinner.

The subway was crowded, like usual, during rush hour. We get back to the Marais around 8 and have dinner at a cafe down the street from our hotel. It was cafe St. Paul and of course we had our bottle of wine with dinner. We went with white this time. After dinner, we realized we never had a cheese course while in France. We quickly ordered it, ate it and got back to the hotel. The cheese was very good, different front what we are used to. On the way back to the hotel to grab our bags and a taxi, Jerry and I run into a chocolate shop and grab a big back of chocolates. This will be sweet on the train. Hailing a cab was more difficult then we realized. It took about 20 minutes. By this point, I am afraid we won't make it to the train on time. The cabbie was great and got us there on time. We actually made it to the station before the train. The train arrived, we found our very small cabin. There was three bunks which went straight up. The three of us couldn't stand up together in the cabin. That is how small the place was. Pictures will do it justice. If someone needed to get into their suitcase, the other two needed to get into their bunk. The bathroom was down the hall. We had a sink in our room. It was enough to brush your teeth. This train also left exactly on time. We all managed to squeeze into our bunk before midnight. The train will get to Munich around 9. They will supposedly serve us breakfast somewhere. This should be a bumpy night.