On the hill in Paris and a new museum 7-23-15

Peter mentioned that he had never been to Montmartre and wanted to go there to see it.  On their first trip many years ago Gail and he had been to a street somewhere below and seen it but never actually been up to the summit.  So today we sortied at about a quarter to 9:00 this morning, on our way to one of the breakfast places that was written up in a blog post on Paris.  I plotted a course to get us there and we boarded our regular bus down towards town, but today we got off very early in the route and walked several blocks to get to the street where the restaurant was located.  That was the easy part as we ended up walking the entire length of the street and never did identify the place. But luckily when we got down to the end of the street we spotted 'Pancake Sisters', a little cafe that specializes in pancakes (surprise, surprise).  This being Paris, one views something like pancakes with a somewhat jaded view but this ended up being a very enjoyable place for breakfast.  Each of us had a different dish based on pancakes and all of them were quite delicious.

After breaky we walked up the Boulevard Magenta towards Gare du Nord and caught the bus taking us to the base of Montmartre.  And as per usual it was teeming with tourists, and sharks.  Peter and I stopped to watch a shell game and winced as an Asian tourist parted company with about 150 euros after which the man running it packed up and high-tailed it with his assistants (all of whom miraculously were winning).   The tourist looked stunned and I hope somewhat wiser for the encounter.   We continued up to Sacre Coeur where Peter and Gail toured the cathedral while Deb and I waited outside in the shade.  Our goal for today was the Espace Dali, a museum dedicated to the works of Salvador Dali.  It was quite interesting to see the originals of so many of his works and like our visit to the Miro museum in Barcelona, we came away with a much greater appreciation for his artistic vision and creativity.

Next up on the agenda was lunch which we enjoyed at the Maison Rose, a restaurant that figures in some of Utrillo's paintings.  It was very enjoyable to sit outside and have a pleasant lunch.   After lunch we moved on to the Museum of Montmartre, where once again Gail and Peter went in while Deb and I sat outside in a shady little park.

After they came out we had a bit of a walk down the backside of Montmartre to see various buildings where artists and composers like Renoir and Satie lived and worked.  We also saw the Moulin de la Galette which is one of the last two remaining windmills on the hillside and also the Bateau Lavoir where Picasso, Braque, Modigliani, and Gris lived when they were young poor and starving artists.

We took the bus back to the apartment quite a while after 5:00pm when we thought the elevators would be available for the evening before being shut down tomorrow for more work.  But alas we were faced with an 8 story stair climb.  I'm betting that we will have an 8 story descent tomorrow morning as well.   We still had a fun day and a very nice dinner at home this evening.