We arrived in Paris just before noon on Wednesday 5/22/14. For those of you who fly you know that means we had to get up at 0:dark40 to get to the airport…ugh.
Anyway, we found our place. Again we are in a tiny VRBO, again in a 100+ year old building on the third floor with no elevator, quiet neighborhood with lots of charm, but this one is surrounded by major hills! The doves -ok they’re pigeons – sit on the ledge outside our window and coo to me as I’m writing my blog. It’s very soothing.
Once we settled in we explored the neighborhood. It has much the same format as the neighborhoods in Madrid – shops below and 4+ floors of apartments above. It is picturesque and functional with markets, venders, and restaurants all around, and very near the subway. It’s great!
Half a block up the street we came to a daunting stairway.
Being the brave souls that we are, we proceeded up, be it slowly, to the top and WOW was it worth it!
This is the Basilica Sacre’Couer (Sacred Heart Basilica) which we found out later is #5 on our guide books must see list. Sacre Coure Basilica sits majestically on the highest point in Paris and gazes out at the city stretched below.
The balcony you see in the picture also looks down on a park below. Yet more stairs led down to this enchanting area.
On Sunday we returned to the area after reading about it in the guide book. The book lead us to the neighborhood behind the basilica and we were amazed at how enchanting and incredibly busy it was. Tiny art galleries, cafes, and venders line the narrow cobbled streets and surging through the whole chaotic malaise were hundreds of people.
So this is our little section of Paris. Welcome to the neighborhood.
Our real exploring began on Thursday 5/23/14 beginning with Notre’ Dame (awesome) and then a walking tour of the surrounding area. So tune in tomorrow for the next exciting adventure.
CharliExplores 
Wow! That brings back lots of memories. We were at Monmarte and Sacre Couer….years ago. In fact, I have a caricature that one of the artists in Monmarte did for me. Fun, fun fun….enjoy yourselves. There is SO much to see and SO much history (which is what Rob & I love).
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Glad we brought back good memories. I knew that you and Rob did a lot of traveling while in Europe. It is awesome and we are having such a great time. There’s soooo much to do that the blogging is getting behind, but I love it too, so it will get done when it gets done.
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I am so happy for you guys. Love reading about your adventures. Be safe. Maybe you can wander up to Wisconsin…… Keep in touch…Di
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There is much of the US that we have yet to explore, but decide that we would put it on hold and do the world list while we’re energetic enough to still travel the distances. We certainly will keep Wisconsin on our list.
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I finally had some quiet time to go back and look at each picture individually. The architecture is absolutely mind boggling to me. Such beauty from a time devoid of the technology that surrounds our modern architecture. And the charm that is surrounding you by a culture that obviously respects the past. I’m learning and enlarging on past knowledge with each post. Thank you for sharing. I’m so glad you get to experience this and are having such a good time. God bless!
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Mind boggling is right. Everywhere we go I am amazed at how beautiful and well built many of the buildings are and how well they have stood the test of time. It also makes me stop and think about just how young our country is by comparison.
Thanks for your comments and for coming along.
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