Montmartre - Day Four

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Geo: 48.8566, 2.35097

This morning, after our usual breakfast at St Regis, we caught the metro to Montmartre. After much study of Tripadvisor and reading some walking tour sites, we decided to go to Lamarck Caulaincourt and walk down the hill.

We simply spent the morning ambling, walking past the Montmartre Vineyard and Lapin Agile.  We stopped in a small street of souvenir shops for a coffee break.  At this point my husband had a dreadful cold so the break was well needed.  We took the opportunity of purchasing a few souvenir trinkets here.  Funnily enough, our son had requested a poster of the Eiffel Tower.  We had looked everywhere and had been unable to find one, but found a large laminated one here.  He loves it!

We continued wandering until we came to Sacre Coeur.  We had a quick look inside but having been twice before decided against spending any more time.  We stopped to take some photos of the stunning view of Paris and then kept wandering.  Interestingly we were not bothered by anyone with rings, petitions or bracelets in this area.

We made our way to Place du Tertre but again, having been before, didn't spend much time there.  We had previously eaten at some of the underwhelming restaurants surrounding the square but this time we were heading for the highly rated Chez Plumeau.  It was very easy to find, and as previous posters have mentioned, it is an oasis amongst the madding crowds.  We were lucky enough to get a seat outside on the terrace where we could hear the busker playing old Beatles songs on his treble bass.  A very pleasant way to while away an hour or two.  We ate quiche Lorraine and salad, together with some wine (of course).  Totally delicious.  The cost of lunch here was €47, quite costly but worth every penny for the atmosphere.  The restaurant filled up very quickly until there were people waiting for tables.  Unfortunately the pleasant interlude was spoiled by some young girls, with petitions, deciding to have an extremely loud disagreement amongst themselves.  At various stages it looked like it was going to increase to a physical disagreement so we decided it was time to leave.  Such a shame, as these girls really ruined the atmosphere of Chez Plumeau.  The staff there tried to move them on but to no avail.

We went to the Dali museum next.  I have to say I felt this was a large waste of money.  It was 11 Euro each to get in, a lot more expensive than many much larger, better museums.  We would have only been in there 20 minutes or so.  I now know that I am not a huge Dali fan.  We continued walking down, roughly following the map of the walking tour that I had saved to my iphone.  We passed the Passe Muraille and the Moulin de la Gallette and finally reached the I Love You wall, which was not as interesting as I had expected.

We finally got to Abbesses station and caught the metro back home.

I have to say that I didn't enjoy Montmartre as much as others seem to do.  It is my third time there, but I don't find it as interesting as wandering around the left bank, or the Marais as I was to discover the next day.

Gary was feeling quite unwell with his cold by then, so he went back to the hotel for a rest while I continued on to have a look at the Conciergerie.  I really enjoyed it here.  Again, got in with the Museum Pass, although there were no crowds at all.  It was a pity that you couldn't see Marie Antoinette's original cell, but the mock up cells gave an excellent idea of what it would have been like.

I was tempted to go back to Sainte Chappelle but I too was getting tired, so I walked back to Ile St Louis and picked up our regular bottle of wine at Nicolas.  We had a relaxing drink in our room, looking out the windows to the bustling street below.

We decided to eat once more at Aux Anysetiers Du Roy as we noticed that they had sole on the menu for that night.  It was totally delicious although a lot more expensive than last night's meal.  This bill came to €146, but we both had sole which seems to be quite an expensive fish and desserts and probably more wine than we should!.  I highly recommend this restaurant to anyone staying on or visiting Ile St Louis.

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Photos

Views from Montmartre
Views from On High

Eiffel Tower from Montmartre
Eiffel Tower from Montmartre

Espace Dali
Espace Dali

Le Passe-Muraille
Le Passe-Muraille

Moulin de la Gallette
Moulin de la Gallette

La Conciergerie
La Conciergerie

A Replica of Marie Antoinette's Cell
Marie Antoinette's Cell

The Medieval Louvre
Medieval Louvre