We walked to the Musee Rodin, which was much further than I had at first thought. We were both sore but pushed through the pain. When we got there we were quite pleased to find that admission was FREE. Yeah, our favorite word of the day. We immediately headed to the garden area and there it was, Le Penseur ("The Thinker"). I had never known how big it was but it stood nearly 20 feet high. The funny part was that we had seen a picture of this statue the night before in the office of the Bike Tour. One of the guys that worked at the Bike Tour place had his picture made sitting at the base of the statue, recreating the pose. For real authenticity, he had decided to do it totally naked. Apparently, he went in with a trenchcoat and waited until the coast was clear, then took it off, had the picture taken, and put it back on. We looked around it and took several pictures before walking around the garden area some more. We didn't really know much more of Rodin so we didn't really get a lot of the statues. The garden did house more than 120 different types of roses, which I thoroughly enjoyed. After snapping a few pictures we headed back up to see the Princess Diana memorial at the tunnel in which she died, 10 years and 2 days ago. It is called the Flame of Liberty and is actually a replica of the flame on the Statue of Liberty. Since the 10 year anniversary had just occurred there were still numerous flowers, candles, letters, pictures, and more surrounding the flame. It was so amazing and saddening at the same time. Pont de l'Alma is the bridge where the memorial is at.
Le Penseur
The Flame of LibertyWe remembered and took pictures and then it was off to our next stop. We headed to Montmartre to visit la basilique du Sacré-Coeur. This church is set up on top of a hill and is so breath-taking when you first see it. It is all white and just massive at the top of this hill. We walked up the steps, now remember we are still really sore from everything else but we managed to make it up to the top. I didn't really know what to expect but the inside was so amazing. The stained glass windows, the ceiling, the candles, everything was just wonderful. While we were there, they were holding Mass. It was kind of odd walking around this massive church, while nuns were singing, a priest was preaching, and there were people in the pews praying. Also, you could pay a few euro to light a candle for someone.
Once we finished Sacre Coeur we were going to head down the hill to see Moulin Rouge. We decided to walk up this street nearby that had lots of local artists, painting and drawing, and grabbed a beer at an Irish pub, to rest our feet. We stayed there for about 30 minutes or so and then headed off again. We walked through some of the artists market and through the very cute area of Montmartre, with all of it's alleyways and such it reminded me of old Paris in movies. We eventually made our way all the way down past Moulin de la Galatte and found Moulin Rouge. It was just want you expect it to be, with the windmill, and lights and such. I took some pictures, and Greg took some pictures of me in front of it and then we went to O'Sullivans to have some food and a beer.
The Moulin Rouge
Tami at the Moulin RougeWe got there and sat down, little did we know that Paris vs. Marseilles soccer game was about to begin. It was such a fun experience watching all of the parisians cheering for the game, especially since it was a big rivalry and not necessarily everyone was for Paris.
We had hoped to see Moulin Rouge at night but it was now 7:15 and the sun was shining bright, so we headed back to Gare du Nord to catch our train back to London. We got settled on the train and slept pretty much all of the way back home. We got back to our flat at nearly midnight, so it was time to sleep.
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