Montmatre, Paris Tour
06:53Yesterday Ian and I decided to go on a tour of Montmatre, after already attempting said tour once before, this time we were really determined to make it on time! Thankfully it began at 2.30pm as opposed to in the morning, like the previous one, so we arrived at Blanche metro station, opposite the Moulin Rouge, with bags of time and spotted the tour guide wearing his bright pink vest, as promised. We joined the ever-growing bundle of people and patiently waited for the tour to begin.
Before we began our wanderings, we went round the group in-turn to introduce ourselves and where we come from, there were a few other people from the UK and also from Australia, Sweden, Poland, Estonia and the US! I was so excited!! After a quick talk about the Moulin Rouge, we headed up a side street and the tour began...
First stop was the famous Cafe des 2 Moulins (The Two Windmills cafe) from the film Amelie. It's amazing to go on tours, even if you do live there because I would've just walked past this spot totally unaware otherwise! It felt so surreal to stick your face up against the window and take a sneaky peak into Amelie's workplace.
The tour carried on; meandering up and down hills, in and out of streets and we all scuttled on behind the tour guide, eager for knowledge and cute places to take pictures of...
This is where Van Gogh lived in Paris!! It's the one which is three up from the blue door on the bottom right. We were told that although Montmatre is one of the most expensive areas in Paris now, it used to be the poorest and therefore the cheapest so that's why Van Gogh chose to live here. He shared the house with his brother who was also an aspiring artist at the time.
There's a little flower hanging on the shutters so you can spot it easily. :)
When we stopped here I had a little hyperventilation excitement attack; this is THE fruit and veg stall in Amelie!!
Complete with a window-full of 'Amelie' memorabilia.
I love Autumn!!
This is where a very famous French pop singer used to live, each of her three fiance's which she had during her lifetime commited suicide before eventually she commited suicide herself! How sad :(
This is the second windmill, the first one being the windmill at the Moulin Rouge.
I can't quite remember the whole story behind this but it's based on a book where a man could time-travel and unfortunately his powers stopped working just when he's in between 'realms' and therefore he remains forever stuck in the wall.
We soon caught sight of the Sacre Coeur peeping out over the stacked houses on the way up the hill.
It was quite strange to see this vin yard right in the middle of everything, it's so out of place in comparison to the usual rows and rows of unforgiving buildings. Of course, Paris isn't at all famous for it's wine and our guide told us rightly so that the wine they do produce is disgusting but that still doesn't stop them charging the steep Parisian prices!
How cute is this little restaurant with an old mangled tree and rickety fence outside, showered in the beautiful autumn leaves! ^.^
At the end of the tour we were taken to a park where we could admire the Sacre Coeur in all its' glory! I've never seen the view from the back before and I have to say that I actually much prefer it to the front because it's so intricate.
We paid up then went on a stroll after picking up some hot mulled wine and a chocolate pancake! Yum yum
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