Across Europe

London

Paris

Cathédrale Notre Dame
Hôtel de Ville

Centre Georges Pompidou

musée du Louvre

la Tour Eiffel

Catacombes et Carrières

Le Lapin Agile

Sacré-Coeur
Montparnasse

The middle of April, 2002, continued.

The Montparnasse artists colony, in the 18th arrondissement, is a crowded square of bustling entrepeneurs wielding chalk, pencil, and paint-brush. It can be a bit overwhelming at times, especially in the hot summer months. I've heard it said that pickpockets favor the area. I've seen some fellow travellers forgo a visit. But I've never had a bad moment here.

The name derives from either Mount of Martyrs or Mount of Mars, opinions vary.

Even though we're off season I thought it would be a good idea to use the harness I built for Isaac while in Montparnasse. I wouldn't have to worry about losing him in a crowd, and he could explore at his pleasure.

We got lucky. It wasn't nearly as crowded as during my last visit, and Isaac didn't touch (or destroy) anyone's work. And we had a chance to visit a bistro to satisfy the hunger from our hike up the Rue des Saules, past Le Lapin Agile.

Until late in the nineteenth century the area was a small farming village. In 1870 Prussia defeated the French army, an event caused (some rather influential thinkers supposed) by the sins of the Parisians. Moral condemnation, in the form of some monument, was required (and approved by the National Assembly in 1873). Paul Abadie, who already done two cathedral restorations, won the competition with a design for a huge Roman-Byzantyne-style basilica (an in-your-face contrast to the Romanesque architectural style of most of France).

It is an imposing structure (of which I seen not to have taken any pictures). But the view from the Sacré-Coeur (Sacred Church) is pretty amazing.

Things to think about while on our way to Brussels, Belgium, via the Eurostar.

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