Sunday in Paris

Sunday….we got our mobilis card this morning and went back in to Paris to explore some more…..on our list today was the Pere Lachaise Cemetery, Notre Dame and Montmartre. The weather in the morning was cloudy and drizzling when we left

Saturday night before we went to bed, Sheryl and I booked the hotels we were going to stay at for a one night stop at Bruges and then 3 nights in Amsterdam on our last week of our adventure. After I went to bed, now about 1:30am, I woke up about 3am and worried that we wouldn’t get train passage to our two locations, now that everyone in Europe is now on holiday. I have really noticed an increase in the number of people at tourist attractions since June. So very first on our list this morning was to go to Gare Nord to purchase all the tickets for our travel in to Belgium and then the Netherlands and back to Paris.


We made good use of our metro passes today because we are getting more used to the transit map and the stations and the stops.

From Gare Nord we went to Pere Lachaise Cemetery via the metro. Sheryl and Paul went to get a map of the cemetery which marks the many famous people that are buried there. Of course Jim Morrison was first on our list….Sheryl has been wanting to come to this for years (since 1978 she says). The cemetery is very old and in the middle of Paris….the tombs are weathered, neglected and very tightly packed. Most are the size of a telephone booth, others are larger and very ornate. Roots of trees that had been planted were pushing up the tombs. Some of the grave stones go back to 1700s but it is still used today. If a family has not kept up the site for a number of years it is sold to someone else. It is a little hard to find the graves you are looking for…..Jim Morrison’s grave was easy because it had a steady stream of people coming and going from it and there was a guard posted at it. We also found Oscar Wilde, Sarah Bernhardt, Edith Piaf. We didn’t find the 2 caches that were located in the cemetery but right near the 2^nd cache location Paul spotted a face on one of the tombs that looked familiar….He had just seen the movie Hugo on the plane and tombs was of the Georges Melies the famous cinematographer that was in the book/movie.

We spent a good 4-5 hours in the cemetery, even through a torrential downpour about an hour before we left, so when we left we were wet and I was hungry. So off we went in search of lunch at our next destination

….Montmartre, an area in Paris that is centred around the Sacre-Coeur, a recent cathedral. Since there is a hill that it is set on, you have a choice of ways up…the steps or a funicular…guess which we chose! We were just in time for the 4:00 mass. The Sacre-Coeur is made of gypsum that keeps it so white….the view from this hill is spectacular. But the number of people was incredible….we kept our packs close and our hands in our pockets as this was one of the places that we have read has lots of pickpockets. We also saw the hustlers with finger traps and bracelets who grab your arm and tie things around your finger or wrist and then demand money (kind of like the cormorant incident in China in March!). The area is bustling though and the view is beautiful.

We went in a search for the metro line, this time taking the stairs and walking down the hill. We took the #1 down to Notre-Dame….just in time for the 6:00 mass! The sun was shining by now and the square in front was teaming with people…The Cathedral is magnificent…the ceilings arching above us and the stained glass windows ….amazing. The mass was just about to start when got inside and we saw the procession of the priests coming from the back and on to the altar.

On our way to the metro that would take us back there just happened to be a cache. We searched for a while and I was giving up when Paul said…here is is!

We finally got home about 8:30, again very tired but satisfied that we had seen and done a lot.