10/21/2011 Montmartre

Montmartre is a hill (the butte Montmartre) which is 130 metres high, giving its name to the surrounding district, in the north of Paris in the 18th arrondissement, a part of the Right Bank. 

The street leading up to Montmartre, full of  sleight of hand games like three card monte.

Montmartre is primarily known for the white-domed Basilica of the Sacré Cœur on its summit. 

View from the steps of the Sacré Cœur

The other, older, church on the hill is Saint Pierre de Montmartre, which claims to be the location at which the Jesuit order of priests was founded. This church was much different from the others.  

Many artists had studios or worked around the community of Montmartre such as Salvador Dalí, Amedeo Modigliani, Claude Monet, Piet Mondrian, Pablo Picasso and Vincent van Gogh. 

There were a lot of interesting stores in Montmarte. 

Montmartre Cemetary

Cemeteries had been banned from Paris since the shutting down of the Cimetière des Innocents in 1786, as they presented health hazards. Several new cemeteries replaced all the Parisian ones, outside the precincts of the capital, in the early 19th century: Montmartre in the north, Père Lachaise Cemetery in the east, Passy Cemetery in the west and Montparnasse Cemetery in the south.

Located west of the Butte, near the beginning of Rue Caulaincourt in Place de Clichy, the cemetery in the Montmartre quarter of Paris is built below street level in the hollow of an old quarry with its entrance on Avenue Rachel under Rue Caulaincourt.

It is the final resting place of many famous artists who lived and worked in the Montmartre area.

From the cemetery, we proceeded to The Arc de Triomphe (Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile) which is one of the most famous monuments in Paris. It stands in the centre of the Place Charles de Gaulle(originally named Place de l'Étoile), at the western end of the Champs-Élysées. The Arc de Triomphe honours those who fought and died for France in the French Revolutionary and the Napoleonic Wars, with the names of all French victories and generals inscribed on its inner and outer surfaces. Beneath its vault lies the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from World War I.

Walking down the Champs-Élysées 

There were many fancy stores along the way.  

I thought I wanted this car until my sister asked me how I would get out of it when I parked it in a parking lot.  

Arc de Triomphe

Dinner.

When we would walk home, through the Place de Vosges, we would pass several shops with art for sale.  This particular piece always caught my eye.

10/20/2011 Château de Versailles

Ahh, Versailles.

We began with the gardens.

The Grand Canal

Louie XIV was the Sun King, self declared.  There are tributes to him like this one throughout.

We rode a little train to the Grand Trianon, the King's private getaway.

The Petit Trianon - a smaller version that Louie XVI gave to Marie Antoinette as her own private getaway.

Gardens with the music room.

And then we went to Marie Antoinette's Hamlet and it was love at first sight.

Hamlet is a small village of cottages where Marie would pretend to be a peasant.

There are vegetable gardens, cows, chickens, goats.

There was also a small lighthouse overlooking the pond.

On to the Château.  The Château was the seat of the monarchy. It was where Marie Antoinette and Louie XVI lived and were captured during the Revolution.

The Queen's room.  2 Queens died in this room, 19  Princes were born in this room.

Hall of Mirrors.  The Treaty of Versailles was signed here in World War I.

Dining Room. Where the King and Queen would have public meals.

On the train back.  Tired feet.