May 1, 2008

Happy May day one and all! Today we went up to the supposed highest point in Paris, except for the tower, in the Montmarte district, to see a church called the Sacre-Couer. It was an interesting trip, as after waiting for the third carload of people on the Funicular train, we arrived at the top, and beheld the view of Paris spread out below us. The church was crowded, and again, the visitors moved around the outside
while people were praying in the middle. There was a church service about to begin, however, we finished our tour before it started. It was another opulent building, not quite as gold-filled as some others we've seen, but equally as mercantile. There was a gift shop in the church and numerous areas where you could light different sized candles to offer up prayers, for different prices. I'm not sure if you pay more for a bigger candle, God hears you better, or quicker.






On the front steps of the church there was a mime, similar to ones we saw in England, who the crowd seemed pretty taken with. Each time someone made a donation to his collection cup, he made strange faces, and kissed hands etc. It was pretty funny. We then headed back down via train to the bottom of the hill, where an even bigger crowd was waiting, and did some souvenir shopping, before catching another subway to go to the Arc de Triumph again. We walked down the opposite side of the Champs Elysses from where we walked a couple of days ago. Jan wanted to check out a shop called "Sephora" which is filled with perfumes, arranged alphabetically from Armani to Versace. Unfortunately it closed at noon for some reason, and we got there at 12:15! Oh well. We found a spot to have something to eat, then as it was getting quite windy, and cool, and looked very threatening for rain, we returned home to pack, and relax for our trip tomorrow.

After we leave Paris, we don't know where we'll be each night, so the daily blogs may not happen as regularly, unless we find B&B's that have internet access. If not we'll have to hunt for internet cafe's and download files from my memory stick.