Walk of Artists in Montmartre!

OK!  Which way to go on the Metro to get to Montmartre for our “Art Walk Tour” and arrive by 9:45 a.m.?  Step one: buy the book of 10 tickets at the metro station.  Use two to get through the gate.  Step two: Study the metro map and look for the train line that takes you to the transfer station and then on to the Montmartre area.  BIG clue....it’s where the Moulin Rouge is located!  How can we miss?

Ok, we find it, but with 30 minutes to spare, so take a seat in the park and wait...or look around in the local shops?  Hum.

We meet our guide, Lola in front of the Moulin Rouge.  She is an art student in Paris and is ready to get us out and about on this 2 and 1/2 hour walk where the impressionist artists lived and painted back in the day.

Here’s Lola!

She points out lots of “street art” as well as buildings where famous artists lived or studios where they worked...oh and bakeries and cafes too!

We stop in front of the house were Van Gough lived for at least two years, with his brother and his brother’s wife. They were together In a very small, SMALL apartment.  It’s said they had to take shifts for the bedroom!  

This walk is all up hill...and it’s a good day for it...not too hot, and the rain did not materialize!  At the top of the hill is the cathedral Sancre de Coeur.



This is an amazing church, even as we approach it from the back.  The front is full of many more tourists.  Our tour ends here with Lola.  She gives us our skip the line ticket to the Musee d’Orsay to spend the afternoon looking at some of the impressionist paintings created here!

Down the steps we go in front of the cathedral.  It is crowed with tourists....and as Steve takes a few photos, he apparently looks like a “tourist!” He’s about to meet his new “friend!”

So, here at the bottom of the steps we are approached by the very fellows we later read about in the Rick Steve’s PARIS GUIDE!

They are major scam artists, who approach you and the next thing you know, you are having your wrist wrapped in a special SPECIAL, “Friendship” bracelet....which is too tight to slip off...and he speaks great English...he’s from Africa...he has a long conversation planned, just long enough to weave the bracelet....and then....THEN....tell you he has made this for you, my friend....and you owe him....MONEY!  5 Euros!  But wait...I will make one for your wife too!!!  Me:  Noooooo!!!!  Steve says: “Entertainment!”  So it goes.

Then we head off for the Musee d’Orsay where we will find impressionist paintings galore....and LUNCH!

First stop: museum cafe....floor 2, but....up and around.  It’s worth the hunt!  These bells grace the ceiling...and the food...

Wow!  What a great salad and how about a little wine?  

Then it’s on to the paintings!  Here’s one that was painted in a cafe we stood next to in Montmartre with Lola!

Then on to the sculpture of Rodin....so many, right here in the Orsay.

We’ve never heard about “The Gates of Hell” before, but here it is....  The top sculpture of a man, is in the form of “The Thinker”....a very famous Rodin sculpture we will see later this week in another museum in Paris.  I remember seeing it when I was 20 years old and visited with a college group in the summer of 1967.  I didn’t really “get it.”  Then.  Amazing what a difference 50 years makes.

Big day....but, tomorrow....Monet’s Garden!  On my bucket list for more than 30 years!!!