Le Sacre Coeur, chapel St. Pierre, Crazy Artists and a Crazy Amount of Stairs!
        Another awesome day in Paris. We completed another walk today after class. Walk # 16. We went to Le Sacre Coeur first, which was finished about a hundred years ago in honer of those who died in the Franko-Prussion war and to give hope to the french people during the hard time. Le Sacre Coeur is built on Monmart-the martyrs mountain where St Denis, the first to bring Christianity to Paris, was beheaded. It's right next to St. Pierre's chapel built in Honor of St. Pierre. The cathedral is beautiful, one of my favorites that we've seen so far, actually. To get there though we had to climb a million stairs. There were already a lot of stairs in the metro today, but as you can see in my picture below we had to climb this lovely stair case. Totally worth it of course. There were 3oo steps leading to the top of the cathedral which of course we had to go up there and, therefore, had to climb the lovely stairs. They were all in a a spiral staircase which created some great feelings of vertigo on the way down. The view was beautiful. After le Sacre Coeur, we walked to St. Denis chapel, which is the oldest in Paris and contains the oldest cemetery as well which has many french kings buried there. It's more simple, but still beautiful. After that we walked around the neighborhood stopping at different houses where famous artists such as Picasso and Van Gogh stayed. The neighborhood is very nice and the houses are cool. It was le centre for artists in the nineteenth century. I can see why. A calm, pretty neighborhood right next to the chapel. It also has the oldest vineyard in Paris which was very pretty. It's also the home to Moulin Rouge meaning red mill. Makes sense since it has one on top of it. I was super excited to go there even though I don't really know that much about it. Research time. :) I felt inspired to start singing "Come to the Cabaret" after that. I love my group, but they don't know any musical theater songs. We were all feeling pretty tired by now. We've been walking for hours with lots of climbing of stairs. Carson, Jessica and i wanted to see the Crypt de Notre Dame though before we called it a day, so McKenna, Haley, and Natalie found a parc by St. Chapel while we went to see it. It was super cool. It contains some ruins of Lutetia which is the original city, before it was renamed Paris, built in the first century. Once again, Old things are awesome!!!!! Makes me wonder why I didn't go through with studying archaeology in college. Oh ya, I love my current major too! :) Oh the problem of loving more than one thing. After the crypt we went home. Lovely long RER and metro ride. Fell asleep on the RER. I woke up with my head back, mouth wide open to Natalie, who was sitting next to me, laughing. I felt a bit self conscious after that. It was nice to be home and relax a bit before dinner. McKenna fell fast asleep. After laying down for a few minutes I went to the kitchen to help mom with dinner, which really means I set the table and talked to her while she cooked. :) Have I mentioned yet that I love my host family? Mom is so nice and an awesome cook. Had pasta today. The rest was the same. I ate way more than anyone else at the table (McKenna never eats a lot). I was starving and I'm finally getting comfortable enough to eat in front of my family. Still a bit self conscious though. After dinner McKenna and I went to do hw/this blog. Yay, done!!!! Someday I'll go to sleep before midnight. :( Love you!

Looking at the daunting stairs leading up to the basilica. Don't let this picture fool you, there are a lot of stairs. We're going to have buff legs by the end of this trip.

Us at the top posing triumphantly. Carson is like, " Oh come on, give me something hard."

Le sacre Coeur was built in the nineteenth century on the highest hill in Paris. Just from the hill alone, one can see all of Paris and more.

Inside the beautiful cathedral. I really liked this one.

On the top of the cathedral. Similar to Dory, Carson thinks he can talk to birds. He turned from talking to one right before I took this photo. (He was imitating bird sounds to see if the pigeon would do it back).

Climbing the stairs to the top. There were 300 steps. So many stairs and it winds around and around making your dizzy on the way down.

 Another beautiful view of Paris from the top of a cathedral. This is the highest point in Paris. The square you see below is where they filmed the famous french film "Amelie,"which if you haven't seen you should, but make sure you get the edited version.

Hanging out at the top of the church. :) Don't mind us.

This is the biggest bird house I've ever seen!!!! I'm pretty sure I could fit inside.

St. Pierre cemetery, the oldest one in Paris. Super cool eh?

St. Denis carrying his head. Legend goes that he was beheaded and he carried his head to a fountain where there is now a statue of him just like this one. Kind of gross/creepy and kind of cool. More detail on that in a later photo.

St. Pierre-The oldest chapel in France

The group looking at billboards talking about Van Gogh who lived in this neighborhood at one time. The guy behind Haley reminds me of Einstein, but with nicer hair. This picture was really for him.

The oldest house in Montmart: housed many famous artists in the nineteenth century

The oldest vineyard in Paris. Very pretty. Yay for the sun being out today!

Sundial thing on a wall. Thought it was cool. It's off by an hour in case you were wondering.

Strolling through the neighborhood. It was very nice; calm and charming.

Carson explaining to us how to play "Italian bowling." Similar to bogie ball. We're in front of a game playing area.

Legend of ST. Denis!!! Read away. :)

Just walking through this wall, don't mind me. :)

There are sooo many pigeons here it's insane.  This fountain has water you can actually drink, but I don't think they thought through this plan very well. It took a while to fill up water bottles or cups which is the only way to drink from it.

This is the setting of a famous painting by Van Gogh. As Carson put it, the place isn't jumping so much anymore apparently.It was completely empty.  

Jessica and I in front of Van Gogh's, who i found out was Dutch, house!!!!! Super awesome! I felt artsier by being there.

Random cool door Carson wanted to knock on. Anybody home?

I don't actually know that much about the Moulin Rouge except that there's a movie with that title and that it used to be a Caberet. I don't know if it still is.  I really wanted to see it though for some reason.

Le Crypte de Notre Dame. This is a picture of ruins of Lutetia, the origins of Paris from the 1st century. Its under the square in front of Notre Dame. I'm guessing somehow it sank or was buried somehow over time. Some of it is above ground, but not in the crypt. I was five feet from something from the middle ages!!!!!!!!