Paris - Day 8 Aug 15

Ok, so some of my choices are not the best.  Today was a fairly good example of that.  But who knew that it was a national holiday today.  And what country has the Assumption of Mary as a national holiday!?  Where is France's separation of church and state!?  Could you imagine having a Catholic holy day as a national holiday in the United States???  Never happen!  We can't even start the school day with a prayer.  I know, I know, I am trying to rationalize my choice of activity for today by proclaiming my naïveté.  Didn't work did it...

So my choice of activity for the day was going to the cathedral of Sacre Coeur in Montmartre.  

Yes I went to a church on a national holiday which is a holy day as well and one in which they would assuredly have a high mass (not a low one but a high one as if you know the difference ☺️).  It being a holy day celebration the church had a line stretching round the block for people to get in, I do believe numbering well in the thousands.  There was a procession that entered the church and a mass was about to begin.  The prospects of this turning out well looked quite bleak.  But I had just rode a ways on a bike, climbed over 270 stairs (equivalent of a 12 story building) and was not going to be deterred.  I saw the line for the dome instead of the church was shorter so I aimed for that.  That was a spectacular choice in light of my original bad choice.  To make it even better...  I saw a sign as I got in line and used google translate.  The translation of the sign told me that if I buy a ticket at the kiosk I could skip the line! Voilà, I was in!  No line, no wait, no trouble, no mingling with the masses.  Ha, this day was turning around quickly.  😊  I went right to the entrance and began climbing the 300 stairs to the top of the dome of Sacre Couer.  And once I got to the top...  WOW, the best view in Paris!

The Eiffel Tower as seen from the dome of Sacre Couer.  If you haven't done this when you were in Paris, you missed a treat.  It is a better view than from Natre Dame and the Eiffel Tower!

Another view from the top.  You can see forever from the top of the dome.  Highly recommended!

I spent quite a bit of time up in the dome viewing Paris.  It was spectacular.  It is a bit of a climb to get there but well worth it.

Once I was finished with the gorgeous sites, I descended right into the church itself.  I had skipped the line that would have taken hours to get into the cathedral, climbed to the top, enjoyed the view and got into the church to see the beautiful church all before many got to the front door.  😏   Fantastique!

After saving the day from disaster, I ventured forth to discover Montmartre.   Montmartre by its name means mountain and that is what the district is... a set of hills to go up and down to discover it's true beauty.  It was a wonderful walk.  I discovered the Square Jean Rictus.  In which there was the:

Love wall!  It is a wall of blue tiles with the phrase "I love you" written in white over 1,000 times in 300 different languages.  It is a testament to the city of lovers.  Although the script above the mural translates roughly to...  Love is love and then there is disorder.

All in all another great find in a city waiting to be discovered.

There were many other discoveries throughout the afternoon, too many to list.  Suffice it to say that it was a wonderful day that had started out a bit rough.

To end the day I got to witness the mass to celebrate the Assumption of Mary.  It was a procession that started in Notre Dame cathedral and wound its way around the streets of the Ille de la Cite, then around the streets of Ille St. Louis (my island) and back to Notre Dame.  There were tens of thousands participating.  They were walking and singing Gregorian chant type hymns.  Wow, it was something.

Then I finished with a dinner of

Pizza and beer...  And yes I ate the whole thing!  Only the French can add a big dollup of real cream to a pizza.  

There was a particularly peculiar thing happened while I was eating at the sidewalk cafe.  Sirens began to blare and an emergency vehicle drove through the square.  It was a small fire truck.  And then another fire truck with a ladder drove through.  Shortly after that 4 firemen came jogging through.  Two of them were carrying the fire hoses.  Of course that brings up questions...  Was the truck in such a hurry that he forgot to pick up the firemen?  Were the firemen too slow?  Did they not have enough insurance to cover passengers for the truck?  Couldn't one of the firemen use his Uber account?  And the biggest question of all is... why were the trucks in such a hurry?  Once they got to the fire they didn't have any hoses.  They had to wait for the firemen anyway. 😳    Interesting, isn't it?!

Oh and one last sign from the day...