Sacre-Coeur, L'Opera Garnier, Tour Eiffel en Bleue

I'm beat so we'll see if this is coherent. I also accidentally knocked over my room lamp yesterday and have no light except for my headlamp as I write this. Oops.

I headed up to Sacre-Coeur this morning because once again, it was nice outside. Not sure when that's going to change. The cathedral is strangely byzantine looking, though it was built in the late 1800's - like the rest of France. I really need to head over to some historical museum that gets me up to speed on France history. It's all a muddle in my head.


Shocking isn't it? It's super white because it is laced with gypsum, which I guess turns really white when it ages. And it's the tallest hill in Paris. The guidebook kept forewarning there'd be a big hill. Let me just say that Paris has nothing on SF when it comes to hills.

I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside, but here's an idea. Once again, the stained glass was the deal breaker for me liking it.


Then I decided to walk to the Opera Garnier (the old opera house) even though it looked a bit far on the map. I'm not so great at my metric conversions yet, so I tried creating this ugly little diagram to help my memory.

Turns out the 800m approximation from my map (which should account to 2 laps around the track) felt like 4 laps around the track. But I got to know arrondissements (neighborhoods) 18 and 9 because of it. AND did a little boot shopping.

Success of the day: several women asked me where I got my grey boots. They were a little disappointed when I said the USA.
Vocabulary lesson of the day: learn how to say "Just browsing". Unfortunately I hadn't planned ahead and could only say "I don't like these." But I said it with a smile so I'm sure she knew I wasn't trying to be rude :-)

The Opera house was beautiful inside and out. It made me want to see a ballet there.

Please ignore the unfortunate bus advertisement. It's actually not as obscene as it looks in this picture. Thank you, Guess Jeans.


I was starting to get sick of paintings with cherubs and naked women surrounded by gods relaxing as they eat grapes and then I peaked inside the main auditorium and voila, a fresh fresco of a ceiling. You might recognize it as Chagall's.


Trivia fact: the chandelier illuminating his work weighs 8 tons. After reminiscing a little bit about the Phantom of the Opera and the staircase scene (that took place in Hollywood's rendtition of this place), I headed to the Fragonard Perfumerie - which I guess is some famous perfume company in France and they have a museum that tells you all want to know about the history and making of perfume. I now know what the difference is between parfum, eau de parfum, eau de toilette, and eau de cologne. You can ask me if you want to know. My guide ended the tour by spritzing me with two different perfumes. 10 minutes later I regretted it.

I ended the day nicely with some other assistants by heading to the Eiffel Tower which for some reason is lit with blue lights right now. Mesmerizing!