The Passineau Family: Pittsburgh Edition: Day 3: France 2013

On our 3rd day in France, we decided to do a few more of the famous sites in Paris, before we headed to Normandy the next day. It was a lovely morning & we didn't really get up early. We began our day with lunch in the Montmarte area of Paris near Sacre-Coeur, before we climbed up to Sacre-Coeur we fueled up with some Parisian junk food. I had a tomato croque monsier...it's basically a fancy ham & cheese sandwich grilled with tomato....oh, so delicious!! Plus, as you can see from my picture, I had fries, not really necessary, but why not?? We rode the Funiculaire to the top, it's like a lift of sorts that actually takes metro tickets, so that's a bonus. The view from Sacre-Coeur of the city is beautiful. The church itself is also gorgeous...however, they do not allow any inside photography...bummer! It's all gold inlaid mosaics. After walking through the church, we explored the surrounding area of Monmarte. It's a great area full of cute shops & art. There are numerous artists on the street doing art. This is also the neighborhood where the blue windmill is located, it was famously painted by Renoir. On the day we were there, the trees obstructed our view of it, so I didn't get a picture of that windmill. Did I mention, the Monmarte area also has some delicious pastry shops, namely one that carries nothing but macaroons...which I love!! From Monmarte, we caught the metro & headed to the Paris Opera House. This place is amazing. Grand in every way you can imagine. Following our Opera House stop, we went to the Camps-Elysees. We walked along this famous avenue & saw many lovely monuments & it leads to the Arc de Triomphe. Of course, this avenue is also known for the high end shopping. Many of the high end design houses are based here. Michael was very patient & allowed me to take lots of pics of the Acr de Triomphe. Then we headed to Trocadero plaza for an amazing view of the Eiffel Tower. This is the place to go to get the best view of this most famous of towers. While we were there it began to rain, so we headed to one of the cafes nearby to enjoy a Kir & cheese plate as we waited out the rain (we were still close enough to the Eiffel Tower to see it as we waited, a very neat experience in my humble opinion). When we returned to Trocadero plaza we met a nice family from Argentina who happily agreed to take a picture of us in front of the Eiffel tower. I spoke Spanish (poorly) with them & we talked about the nice weather & the beauty of the city....I must admit I felt quite worldly to be doing this :) When we returned to our hotel we agreed, we just didn't want to go too far for dinner so we settled on a restaurant in the Latin Quarter known for excellent cuisine (of course, you truly can't get a bad meal in Paris, so I guess that's all relative). This restaurant Le Buisson Ardent is translated as "burning bush" & has murals on the walls painted in 1925. It is truly fabulous. I had a supreme chicken---easily the best chicken dish I've ever eaten with truffle foam served over polenta. For dessert, I had some kind of delicious raspberry dessert called a pink "punchy"...kind of like a cookie with layers of raspberry goodness between them....needless to say, it was as tasty as it was beautiful. After this full day, we slept hard, knowing we would be leaving Paris & heading to Normandy the next day. Stay tuned....

Sacre-Coeur area