On the last day we went up to Montmartre to check out the area with its painters and little shops, Le Basilique du Sacré-Cœur, and the great view of Paris from the top. I also wanted to visit one of those famous French cemeteries that I had read about in my French textbook, and it's not because I'm morbid. The cemetery we went to in Montmartre were the grave sites of such people like Degas, Offenbach, Berlioz, and Heine, and Zola. However, the most impressive grave site was the one of Alexandre Dumas, Fils -- author of The Lady of the Camellias, later adapted into the opera La Traviata -- who had a tomb with a life-size marble replica of himself lying down.
I want something like this when I die
However, what put this over the top was the final inscription he wrote under the roof, which reads:
Je me constituai dans ma vie et dans ma mort qui m'intéresse bien plus que ma vie car celle-ci ne fait partie que du temps et celle-là de l'éternité.
Translated: I was in my life, and my death interests me more than my life because the former is only a part of time and the latter is a part of eternity.
After our trip to the cemetery, we went up to Montmartre to look at the street painters and the little shops that littered the plaza, as well as visit Le Sacre Coeur and see the view of Paris from the top of the hill. We watched some of the artists paint portraits, and we noticed the portraits looked much better than the subject of the painting. I guess you gotta do what you gotta do to make a living.
Artists
View of Paris
Le Sacre Coeur
Inside the cathedral
One of the church maintenance keepers saw me taking pictures and came up to me saying, "Can you please respect this sacred place? This is a place for worship." He must have been really flustered because he told me off in both French and English. I didn't know we weren't allowed to take pictures inside the cathedral. The people in Notre Dame didn't seem to care too much about tourists; there must be different levels of accepted touristy behaviour at these churches.
After a quick lunch, my parents and I parted ways for a couple of hours -- I still wanted to see the Musée d'Orsay, while my brother wanted to eat some French macaroons (I swear, all he thinks about is food). My parents and my brother had already been to the Museum on Wednesday while I was still at school in London, so I went by myself. The museum was by far my favourite part of the entire trip, not least because my French teacher from high school had taught us a lot on French art. If you are interested in impressionist and post-impressionist paintings, this is the place to go. In my opinion, their collection is much better than the Louvre, which is too expansive and can be overwhelming. The more famous artists in this museum, just to name a few, include Degas, Monet, Manet, Van Gogh, Renoir, Signac, and Gauguin. I've only put up some of the more famous paintings, but there's plenty more.
The museum
Once the museum closed it was unfortunately time to go home. No one wanted to leave Paris, especially me. Going back to London meant I was going back to ramen noodles, pasta, fried egg sandwiches, and bad London food instead of the fantastic cuisine that I had been spoiled with for the past couple of days. It was fitting that the last thing we ate before leaving Paris was a dessert -- macaroons and pastries -- which served as a culmination of our sweet memories.
Macaroons from super-famous Laduree
Angelina's, a famous French café
"Mont Blanc", named after the highest peak in the Alps. Tastes like chestnuts.
L'Africain Chocolat
-Emoinacloset
