For our last day in Paris, we had a nice open day to do whatever we wanted (I guess that is how traveling is always suppose to be, but sometimes it doesn’t feel like that). We woke up around 9, and walked to another infamous café, Café de Flore, where we had a long relaxed breakfast. Although the picture below looks like a huge mess, that really is just a croissant, toast, 2 café crèmes, and 2 glasses of water.
From there we did the Left Bank walk, a walk around our local area highlighting lesser-known (don't quote me, maybe everyone knows them) and sometimes morose places. We visited the hotel where Oscar Wilde died, (and later his gravesite), Roger-Viollet’s store (he was one of the first to compile a collection of black and white images to supplement journalism – I think), and Voltaire’s statue.
We then hopped on a metro and went to the Cimetiere du Pere Lachaise. Many notable people were buried here. I can honestly say that I knew nothing about Oscar Wilde before yesterday, but I read a little about his life and was moved by it. He was a successful Irish writer in the late 19th century. Once it came out that he was having an affair with a man, he was ostracized and imprisoned. He wife left him and would not allow him to see their children. He soon died in a hotel room in Paris. He was buried in the cemetery we visited and over a hundred years after his death, his gravesite is covered in red kiss marks and fresh flowers.
Ham and Lentils Lunch - Funny story about this lady below though. She tries to speak the people's language, but she gets them all mixed up. For example, instead of saying thank you to a Parisian (merci), she will say hello in Italian (buon giorno). There are a couple more examples, and it's happened multiple times and its hilarious every time. It doesn't really fit in here, but I didn't want to forget.
My mom and I had wanted to visit Montmartre, a district known for its artists. Little did I know (though I should have, being that we were going to try to find Moulin Rouge), it was also known for its sex district. It was a little crazy when we got out of the metro, but we walked down a street a few blocks and it calmed down a lot. At the time, I was reading about “Pigalle” in the guidebook, and knew as the prude I am, I didn’t really want to go there. So we walked a few blocks over, hoping to avoid it, but we failed. But anyways, we got through it, and found the Moulin Rouge, Van Gogh’s apartment, Le Moulin de la Galette, and the area that Picasso’s studio was located. I really enjoyed the Montmartre area. There were times were we could walk up streets and not see anyone, and that is a great feeling.
From Montmarte, we caught the metro to the Arch de Triumph (mostly because it felt like I had to see it). We saw it, took some pictures, and got back on the metro to head home so that we could pack up for another early morning train ride.
This a church and fountain about a block down from where we stayed in Paris.
This is a cat. It Positano there were TONS of cats. This may be one of the first ones that I have seen since then, but it was sitting in a restaurant behind a booth, and I thought it was strange enough to take a picture.
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