Montmartre

Having seen many famous paintings yesterday, today we decided to go and see where some of these artists lived and worked. Van Gogh, Renoir, Picasso and Toulose-Latrec among many others lived and painted in Montmartre.

We used a review from the Guardian (a UK newspaper) to guide us to some hidden gems off the main tourist trail. First we went to the tiny Square Jehan Rictus which is known for its "mur des je t'aime" (wall of love). 'I love you' is written 311 times in 280 languages but we couldn't find English! We had steaming bowls of coffee and hot chocolate in a lovely cafe to fortify ourselves for the day.
We headed up the hill through a maze of cobbled streets with lots of quirky shops to Place du Tertre. This was once the site of the gallows but in the 19th century artists began to sell their work here. We bought a lovely painting of the Eiffel tower by a painter from Iran who had lived in Paris for 20 years.

We then went to the Sacre-Coeur, which is perched on the highest point in Paris and reaches almost as high in the sky as the Eiffel tower. It was concecrated in 1919. Roger and Alex climbed up the dome and were rewarded with incredible views of Paris. The mosaic of Christ dominating the chancel vault is one of the largest in the world.

Rog with his coiffeur!

Je t'aime

Painter in the Place du Tertre

The Sacre-Coeur

View from the dome of the Sacre-Coeur