Sacré Coeur
Our next destination was without Steve. After a morning doing homework we hopped on the metro for Sacré Coeur. Once there we rode the funicular to the top of Montmartre where it sits. I found it a bit annoying that it took a full metro ticket each for the 30 second ride but my joints were not up to climbing all the stairs. Sacré Coeur has had some changes since the last time I was there including a ban on any sort of photography inside. I can understand no flash but a total ban when no services are being held was rather annoying. Then again the big projection screen off to the side of the pulpit also seemed out of place.
They had cleaned and restored the magnificent ceiling painting above the main alter in the domed area since my last visit. Unfortunately, I couldn’t take a picture to show you. The view from the top of to steps and even the lower landing was stunning as usual. I wish the day had been a bit clearer. We didn’t stay there long since the neighborhood around Sacré Coeur is not the best.
Our next stop was Notre Dame but first a bit of lunch in the Quartier Latin or student section. This is the are I usually stayed in on previous visits. On my first visit I had a hotel room on the seventh floor with the bathroom on the half landing (shared) but the price was right at $7 a night. By the time of my last visit I’d graduated to a room in a 2 star hotel with"en suite" facilities. That room was quite large on a relatively quiet side street the Rue des Ecoles or Street of Schools in English. Lunch was a Salad Niçoise and beer for me while the boys stuck with pate (pasta)carbonari.
Notre Dame
A short walk across the Place St. Michael and over the Seine we were on the Ile de la Citè where Notre Dame is located. The famous bell towers an the first thing you see though Ryan was looking for the flying buttresses. this time there was some scaffolding on the Right Bank side of Notre Dome there was none inside. On my last visit so much of the inside was covered in scaffolding it was hand to see the cathedral.This time it was clear inside and other than one chapel no restoration work was in progress. While we didn’t climb the bell tower as the boys wanted to do bet we did visit the "treasure room". Most of the treasures related to Saint’s bones and other religious artifacts but there was a scale model of Note Dame I found fascinating. Ryan on the other hand was taken by an almost life size crucifix in the Catholic style with Christ on the cross. We took a fair number of pictures at least some of which will make it to the photo albums.
That night we stayed close to apartment with Chinese food in the plaza behind the hotel.
Homework
Turned out that both boys had exaggerated how much homework they had finished. So we spent a good portion of the day working on homework. While working on the photos I managed to spill some diet coke on my tablet. As a result my keyboard is on the fritz. Some keys work sporadically and others not at all. For some reason when I open PowerPoint to try and get Steve’s presentation by on the web it goes into a crash cycle opening and closing PowerPoint repeatedly. Guess it’s into the shop first thing Monday morning after a complete back-up. I am not a happy camper.