Paris: Montmartre

Montmartre has always been linked in my mind with the paintings of Toulouse- Lautrec, so I was very careful not to expect everything to look the same today. After all, we are in a different century.   I firmly put dancing girls, working girls, drunk men and absinthe out of my mind, along with the fact that  I swear that the waiter in one of the restaurants in Montparnasse is Toulouse Lautrec's  twin.  He just lacks the top hat.

Anyway, we decided to approach the Sacre- Coeur Basilica from the highest part that we could get to by train, which meant that we walked through the African suburbs and had a lovely time checking out the latest hair-dos for men and women at the local hair-dressers.  In spite of the short cut, we did have a steep stair-case but it was better than the usual route that tourist usually use.

The basilica is very white and wedding cake like,

 but the atmosphere of purity is rather offset by the two rather violent statues of Saint Joan of Art and king Saint Louis IX.

 We walked around it and admired the gargoyles,

 then went to investigate its neighbouring church, Saint -Pierre de Montmartre, with its lovely stained glass windows.

 Round the corner from that, we found an artists market and lots of souvenir stores.  The art varied, but some of it was quite nice.  The favourite for the tourists seemed to be the portrait artists and cartoonists.

We returned to Sacre- Coeur to take in the incredible views of the city,

then descended the hill via the gardens, fountain,

 hordes of tourists and requisite merry-go-round ( this city has got the biggest collection of merry-go-rounds I have ever seen!).

 

 An American was singing folk songs on one side of the funicular, while at the foot of the funicular, a group of men dressed as Mexican mariachis and a woman dressed as a flamenco dancer were, for some reason, taking photos with tourists, I don't know why.

 

I am glad I put the 19th century out of my mind.  Montmartre is now very much a mixture of tourist destination and seediness, with a wedding cake on the top.