DAY 1


DAY 2


DAY 3


DAY 4


DAY 5

Pictures taken by
Hana & Mirek

Copyright © 2007 STEMI 
All rights reserved

On Wednesday, August 1st  we again woke up early, did our morning things including breakfast, took 'our' metro, number 8, lilac line to the Madeleine station, the number 12, green line to the Pigalle station and at about 9 a.m. we were already climbing up narrow, steep Montmartre lanes. We enjoyed an old architecture and a special atmosphere this romantic part of Paris with a lot of tortuous narrow streets with tall old buildings and a paved surface. By slow, viewing pace we got up to the Place du Tertre just at the time when painters were preparing tools for their everyday work. The very romantic place.
Our next steps brought us to the Sacre Coeur basilica. The basilica is built on a vast scale to take full advantage of its commanding site. The architect Abadie was inspired by the Romano-Byzantine style. The domes, elongated into ovoid forms, the 80-metre bell-tower from which the 19-tons Savoyarde bell can be heard, the whiteness of this monument which overlooks the whole of Paris and it makes it one of the major landmarks of the Paris scenery. Amazing again ... we passed almost an hour walking around in the basilica and then we climbed up onto the domes and enjoyed that incredible overlook point. Everything in Paris we had right before our eyes so we spent nice time to look down and around. And because weather was fine again it was really good spent almost one hour ...
Then we enjoyed some time tasting atmosphere of a site below the basilica with painters, musicians ... interesting feeling.
Walking about the basilica we could see a lot of painters again with their pictures of Montmartre corners and recesses. And small souvenir shops, cafes, restaurants ... traps for tourists :-) .  But the feeling of that Parisian quarter is really very romantic and it worth seeing it indeed.
We had lunch there in the one of those small restaurants and by slow walking we went down again, took the metro, number 2, blue line to the Pere Lachaise station and visited the cemetery of the same name. It is really very huge and old cemetery with special atmosphere where many famous people sleep. Many, many tombs... We had a look at a grave of  singer and musician Jim Morrison (The Doors) ...
Then we changed calm and old feeling for a modern architecture site and went by the same metro to the Nation station and then by number 1, yellow line to the most modern Parisian part to the La Defense quarter. Tall buildings, skyscrapers made from steel, glass and concret with brave and futuristic shapes. We climbed up at the bottom of the highest and the most interesting building, La Grande Arche. It looks like a huge huge window and you can see from its bottom (or if you take a lift also from its top) the main Parisian line to Arc de Triomphe, Place de la Concorde and to Louvre.
There are also many shops, stores, restaurants in that area. We chose an Italian restaurant and had pizzas for our dinner. We diserved it after all that sightseeing and walking...
Then we took the metro to the Concorde station, went out to Place de la Concorde where we saw the world-famous tall black 3200-years-old Luxor Obelisk with a golden spike in the middle of the square and we continued walking through the Tuileries garden to the L´Arc de Triomphe du Carroussel (small Arc de Triomphe) nearby the Louvre Museum, we saw again the beautiful glass pyramid in the Louvre courtyard and spent some time there.
We returned back to the hotel at about 8 p.m. And again, small snack, some wine and go to bed with books. Tired but happy people ... but no night birds :-). We were always so exhausted we didn't have more forces for night life in Paris. Maybe next ...