Getting to the Pigalle area where Moulin Rouge is located was an interesting journey. The Pigalle area has always been an artistic, down on your luck sort of area. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it was home to Toulouse-Lautrec, Gertrude Stein etc,
The area got the nickname "Pig Alley" as the American soldiers during WWI had a hard time pronouncing Pigalle correctly and so they started calling it Pig Alley.
The area has always been known for the bohemian, free love and entertainment type of life. Today is no different as two full blocks that we walked from the subway to Moulin Rouge was store after store of sex shops, dancers, and adult entertainment options.
Once we made it through the adult entertainment area and saw Moulin Rouge, we needed to determine the best way to get from Moulin Rouge to Sacre Coeur. It always seems that Duane and Kelly are in charge of the map.....
Our goal was to find the path that gave us the most to look at but also kept us on somewhat of a level walk and not had us walking up hill. We would get enough of that when we got to the Sacre Coeur.
The French have some interesting names for their shops, This one was called Homies and looked to sell Womens clothes.
Before making it all the way to the Sacre Coeur, we thought it would be good to grab a bite to eat. One of the nice things about Paris is that there is always a cafe or bistro within easy walking distance. We choose Cafe Chappe.
Tari got adventurous and had an appetizer of hard boiled eggs with mayonnaise. It was surprisingly not bad.
For her main meal, Tari ordered the Italian Salad.
Jamie and Kelly both ordered the Tartar. It was a pretty good rendition of the dish. This one was the spiciest version of Tartar that we had in France.
For majority of our meal we had white wine, but towards the end of dinner we switched to the red above.
To end our lunch we had coffee and cappuccinos.
Sacre Coeur
The Sacre Coeur sits at the tallest point of Paris. There are a couple ways to get to the church. One can walk up about 200 stairs or use a metro ticket to take the Funicular, a cable railway to get to the main entrance. At the bottom of the Funicular you can just see the top of the basilica.
The View from the Top
One of the ways to get to the Sacre Coeur, besides using the Funicular, was this lovely garden stairway or the steps through the shopping district.
It is interesting that in all pictures and the images on TV of the Sacre Coeur, it looks very very white. When viewing it in person, it actually has a more dull tan look to it and the one side is actually covered in a lot of moss.
Once we left the Sacre Coeur, we made our way to the artist area a few blocks away. In this area many local artists will sit and paint or do caricatures to sell to the many tourist wandering through.
This time the keepers of the map are looking for the nearest metro stop to take us back to the hotel.
On the way to the metro stop, we found a funky little tight shop, too bad it was closed for the day. One of them had a cat sliding down the tights while leaving snags with it's claws, for example.Dinner Time!
Since it was our last night in Paris before heading to Italy and we all still had to pack yet, we decided to keep our dinner close to Rue Cler. We chose La Terrasse Paris as we had walked by it every time we took the metro and thought it looked like good place. The chairs are all done in red velvet and very cushioned. Our plan was to eat outside however mother nature took a turn for the worse and the wind started blowing pretty good. We ended up eating upstairs right at the center window so we could still look over Paris and people watch while we ate.
"What?! This is our LAST night in Paris??"
The view from our dinner table.
Jamie and Kelly went for escargots one more time, while Tari and Duane opted for foie gras one more time.
Jamie went for the steak with Bearnaise this time.
Tari opted for grilled shrimp with mashed potatoes... an odd combo, but it sounded like it was pretty good.Kelly finally ordered something besides duck. She did the sea bass with green beans.
Veal in a white cream sauce was Duane's choice and it was a good one. The veal was very tender.
Dessert Time!
For dessert Jamie went with his favorite, cafe gourmand. This time it was espresso,creme brulee and lava cake.
Tari and Kelly both went with a pina colada for their dessert drink as they made it with Havana Club rum. Tari also had an apple pie.
Duane and Kelly both ordered crepes. Duane went the more traditional route with sugar crepes while Kelly did caramel crepes.
Goodbye Paris....tomorrow we are off to Italy!
Go to 6/6/17
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