Day 9

This day we went on a walking tour of Montmartre. We met our tour guide in front of the Moulin Rouge. We learned that moulin means windmill. This is also the neighborhood where the French film Amelie was filmed. On our tour we saw where Picasso and Van Gogh once lived and worked. We learned how the artists lived and what restaurants and bars they went to. It was interesting to be there and see what the artists lived like.
At the top of the hill we came to the church of Sacre Coeur. We spent some time looking around the church. Mom got a bee sting while we were standing on the steps. Then we went to a square where there were artists painting and selling their wares. We wanted to buy a painting as a reminder of our time in Paris so we walked around to look at the paintings. Kim picked out one of the Eiffel Tower. After we bought our painting we went to get some lunch; we had yummy quiche.
Later in the day we went to the Impressionism museum, the Musee d'Orsay where we saw paintings by some of the artists who worked in Montmartre along with others by Monet, Manet, Degas, Renoir, etc. We loved seeing paintings we have only seen prints of. They are beautiful. Then we walked over to the Orangerie musuem that has some of Monet's waterlily paintings. The paintings are huge. There are two circular rooms that have four paintings each. Each painting takes up one large wall. The paintings were done at different times of the day so some are dark, while others are light. They are amazing.
We headed back to the hotel to rest for a bit before dinner. For dinner we went to a restaurant our tour guide recommended. It is one of the restaurants the artists went to and instead of paying for their food with money, they painted the inside of the restaurant. We went to La Coupole, it has pillars that were painted by Monet, Picasso and others. Micah got to try steak tartare. We also ate oysters, salmon, creme brulee, and a rasberry tart. It was a wonderful dinner, the best we had on our trip. Our waiters were a lot of fun and we had fun trying to speak French to them.
After our dinner we went on a river cruise on the Seine. It was beautiful to see Paris all lite up at night. We had great views from the boat. We watched the Eiffel Tower sparkle, saw Notre Dame, people dancing in a park, and other sites along the way. This was a perfect day.