Today we saw the last part of Paris that had been missing, Montmarte.

We woke and had some yogurt at home and then grabbed a chocolate croissant on the road onto another destination that was on our list, Musee d’Orsay. I have to say I wasn’t too excited about this one, the Louvre really didn’t sit with me well, and I didn’t feel like wasting my time rushing through with a whole bunch of people, but Tsana convinced me and we did it (she practically had to drag me in there).

While we were in line - I was awestruck by this guy who had a snuggie for his camera! Can you see it???

I am really glad we did, it was such a different museum and a different experience. It was really open, felt manageable, not overwhelming, and had a ton of art that I have either seen before of at least heard of, and you were able to really get close and enjoy it. The best part was that you weren’t allowed to take pictures – so imagine Dave, with his professional camera around his neck, just touching his chest every so often which also happened to trigger the shooting a photo button and me coughing when this happened to offset the “click” sound you heard when the photo was taken. Hilarious.

After Musee d’Orsay we took the Metro up to Montmarte. We climbed the San Fransisco like hills towards the top. Along the way we stopped at an art dealer and bought a small acrylic painting we both liked. We then arrived at Artists square. It was a little smaller than I thought, for some reason I used to picture a bunch of artists along a rectangular pond. We circled a few times and first sat down for a caricature of the two of us, it was really fun- imagine me chasing Tsana with a bundle of flowers, and we both have extremely large noses and teeth). We then circled a few times and knew that we had to buy a painting straight from the artist. It was a really hard decision because they were so expensive but it was a once in a lifetime opportunity. We finally settled on a piece and we are really in love with it and the price was just right. After Artists Square, we quickly ran through Sacre Couer before a little surprise I had in store for Tsany. We arrived in Sacre Couer during the time they were emptying out the port-o-potties from the festival the day before- we couldn’t have timed it better. :/ The church was beautiful though, and different than Notre Dame, so it was good to see the contrast.

I wanted to do something different so I booked a french pastry class in Montmarte and it was so much fun. We made creme puffs, a fruit tart, madeleines, and our favorite – creme brulee. It was really great to learn all the tricks from a great chef and how to make the perfect french dough and pie crust (Seb, I finally know all your secrets). I wasn’t expecting much from the madeleines, but they were amazing!

The creme brulee came out perfect as well, it was a really great lesson and unique french experience. We took this class with a family with one kid, from Tennessee – the mom and kid were fine, but the dad was a bit on the cocky side. His comments tended to start with “I know how to do this…” or “When I did this before…” – it made for good side glances between Dave and I. We ate a little too much, but we’re on vacation so its ok.

We are taking a break now, but we will be heading out to the Eiffel Tower to see if we can make it to the top tonight. Wish us luck.