After a short rest in the hotel, we were out again at 5pm for our final optional item of our Cosmos Tour which is the farewell dinner at Latin Quarters and a visit to Sacre-Coeur, Montmartre.
On our way to the dinner, we had a few photo stops. First was in front of the Dome Church that houses the Tomb of Napoleon. This is at the back of the Hotel des Invalides.
We then drove through the Latin Quarter and stopped near the Pantheon where many great names of Paris are buried.
The Church of St. Etienne du Mont is also nearby.
After some photography, we walked to our dining place nearby. This was the restaurant L'Escarmouche that serves traditional French food.
The place was packed with other tour groups and as usual there were the musicians (guitar and accordion) that play all your favourite tunes for some tips at the end of the night. It was a full 4 course dinner with free flow of drinks (wine, beer, coke, etc.). For the starter, I tried the frog legs.
This was a novelty for some of our fellow tour members but I found this rather bland and skinny, nothing like our juicy, meaty ones back home.
My wife had the escargots in garlic and this was also nothing to shout about, the ones that I would be having in my last dinner in Paris were great; more about it in my later post.
For the main dish, I opted for the pawns in cognac - quite OK compared to the frog legs.
My wife had the stew beef but the one we had in Nice was nicer, pun not intended.
We skipped the cheese board and for desert, we had profiteroles, now one of my favourite French desserts. This is pastry balls filled with ice-cream and covered with chocolate sauce; yummy! The presentation in our final dinner in Paris would turn out to be much better.
So after many songs and glasses of wine, we were ready to go to Montmartre to visit the famous Sacre-Coeur. On the way to the foot of the funicular railway, we walked passed many souvenir shops.
The Sacre-Coeur soon appear into view.
Near the foot of the funicular railway was the carousel which fans of the movie Amelia will surely remember.
The ride on the funicular cost 1 Metro ticket or you can also walk up the stairs by the side for free to burn off your calories from the dinner.
At the top there are more souvenirs shops, eateries and portraits artists but the main attraction is the Sacre-Coeur.
It was here that I had a mini crisis, something that you dread while travelling - my wife had a stomach upset and she needed the toilet, fast. Since we did not see any public toilet nearby, we went to the nearest cafe and ordered a drink while she went to the toilet. After her big relief, my drink has still not come so I cancelled my order. She told me that here you need to get a token from the cafe counter as a customer in order to get the door of the toilet opened. Anyway, the slow service saved me the cost of the drink.
Since the Sacre-Coeur is sitting on a hill, you will get a good view of Paris below from the steps in front but I could not find the Eiffel Tower.
After satisfying ourselves with Paris at our feet and the changing hue of the Sacre-Coeur as night drew near,
we took the funicular down and there was another chance of getting your souvenirs.
We finally caught the Cosmos bus back to the hotel for the last night of the Cosmos Tour.
I am skipping the Cosmos Tour of France (which will be given later after all my posts on Paris) and continuing with our trip back in Paris. We left Lyon in the morning and reached Paris at about 3pm and the coach went straight to the Lourve Museum. We opted to join the guided tour of Lourve so that we can see the most popular items in the short time available. First stop was of course the public toilette at 1E per entry.
The Lourve is so massive and volumes have been written about its contents; art and history lovers can spend days inside and since I am neither, I will just give the highlight of the tour, namely the post popular items on display. So it is just a "being there, seen that" like most visitors to the Lourve.
A lady guide led us through the security check and we started our tour. First we went through some Greek sculptures and then some Renaissance paintings.
There were some Leonardo da Vinci paintings with the controversial pointing fingers of St. John the Baptist.
Of course you cannot miss his ever popular Mona Lisa that is the top draw in the Lourve and probably the most viewed item in the museum. Never can get a good shot because of the crowd.
Actually the painting is rather small expecially when it is displayed right across the room in front of the huge Marriage af Cana. Always wonder why such a small painting can be so popular. So it is all due to perception and size really does not matter (in this case.)
We then went through some French paintings, the notable one was Liberty Leading the People, one of the many topless ladies that I would encounter later in Paris.
Another one was The Coronation of Napoleon which actually shows the coronation of Josephine, his empress. I would see this almost similar painting again in Versailles later. (Quiz: spot the difference between the two, no prizes.)
The next famous piece was The Winged Victory.
We saw some lovely decorative art pieces in the room full of items from the gloriuous days of the emperors and kings of France.
Finally we met the armless Venus de Milo
These are but a few of the celebrated items in the Lourve and the tour ended at the shopping arcade where there is a big Apple store for Apple fans.
The inverted pyramid is also here and it makes some very good geometric compositions for photography enthusiast.
After we have met up with the other group members who did not join the Lourve tour, we went to our hotel which was Hotel Mecure Porte St.Cloud that is on the western part of Paris. We had our dinner near the hotel and it was Chinese mixed rice (again, since my wife was not too keen on the local fare) and there were not many other choices and we did not want to venture further to the square near the metro station where there are more eateries.
At 8pm, we set out again on the coach to watch a cabaret show in Montmartre. Before that, we had a photo stop at Moulin Rouge, the famous Red Windmill cabaret, made popular by the film of the same name. This has become another tourist spot in Paris.
This is also one of the red light areas of Paris as you can see.
Since the show at Moulin Rouge is too costly, Cosmos has arranged for another cabaret show nearby just down the road at Neulle Eve or New Eve.
The show was quite enjoyable and fun with songs, dances, juggling, mime, acrobats and of course the mandatory can-can. Plus a number of topless ladies dancing every now and then but nothing erotic, just flashy flesh. And just as well since my wife was next to me. As photography was not allowed during the show, I have nothing to show here though the ladies showed a lot of their assets. There were some audience participation so practise your dance routine and prepared to be picked and you may be lucky and end up being kissed by one of the lovely ladies on stage. Anyway, it was all good ,clean fun.
The show ended almost at midnight and by the time we got back to the hotel, it was already the next morning. To end my post, I cannot resist to show the moving red windmill here, it is so touristy.
