Dinner and Bedtime

Jack fell asleep before and through dinner.  Picked up our usual Thai takeout for him on the way home.  Then we saw an old little Fiat and Sean wanted to take a picture.

 

La Basilique du Sacre Coeur

We had read a book about Paris called This is Paris before our trip.  So the boys knew about famous landmarks like The Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, and Sacre Coeur.  We opted to take them to Sacre Coeur instead of Notre Dame because of Montmartre itself: the carrousel, the artists, and the hills.  Now that we finished our carrousel rides, we had to go up the hill.  Thankfully, they have a funiculaire and we saved ourselves 300 steps!  And we bought a week-long Metro pass, so the ride was included (already paid for).  

 

 

 Silly faces in front of Sacre Coeur

There were a ton of people sitting around the steps as we made our way to the entrance.  Sean wanted to sit in a pew for a while to take it all in; Jack was getting tired and sleepy.  Sean really wanted to climb up to the top of the dome.  He told me not to tell Daddy that we were gonna go because Daddy was tired and wouldn't want to go, and that he (Sean) would talk to Jack and tell him to walk from now on.  Too cute.  I promised him that we would climb up to the top on our next Paris trip when both boys would be older and Jack wouldn't want to be carried so much.  I guess this means we will be returning...

Double Manege Day!

We knew there was a carrousel near Sacre Coeur (featured in Amelie), but we weren't sure it would be open.  No way to find out via the internet either, unfortunately.  So we were glad when the boys got to ride at least one today, but they were really excited when they got to ride a second one in the same day.

 

 

Amour de Gelato

After we finished our meal, I asked the waiter/owner where was the best gelato or ice cream in Montmartre.  He recommended Amorino.  A short walk to a long line, but it was worth it.  Once we got settled in, Jack suddenly had to go to the bathroom.  The staff said they didn't have one, so Matt had to rush all the way back, uphill, to Tentazioni where they were kind enough to let them use the restroom.

Yeah, we're gonna get some gelato.

I quickly finished my cone and then Sean and I went back to meet them.  After we found them, the boys sat in a window to finish their cones.  While they were eating, the Japanese tourist we met earlier walked by and took a picture of the boys eating ice cream in a window.  And he kept asking if Matt was my "wife."

Restaurant Tentazioni

We've been pretty much eating asian (Thai) food or Italian food this trip because of the babas.  One of our guidebooks recommended Tentazioni in Montmartre and we looked for it for almost an hour.  (I looked it up in google maps, but the location it pointed out was wrong.  Argh!)  That's quite a bit of hiking in the hills of Montmartre; in fact, at one point, I just told Matt to sit with Jack and I'd come back for them after we found the restaurant.  Met a Japanese man and his daughter who were looking for Le Moulin de la Galette, another restaurant with a windmill, which we passed earlier.  We'd passed Le Moulin so I was able to point him in the right direction, but he couldn't understand that I was looking for Tentazioni.  Finally, I gave up and decided that we would eat at Le Moulin, but after seeing the menu prices Matt decided we should look elsewhere.  We walked past Le Moulin and found Rue Tholoze, the street where Tentazioni was located.  Whew!  I was so relieved and excited. 

 It's a very small restaurant, maybe 4-5 tables at the most, but one party of four left as we arrived so we didn't have to wait long.  Our waiter was the son of the owner and he got the boys' pizza started while we decided on what to order.  Matt ordered his favorite gnocchi with basil pesto and I ordered veal scaloppini.  Had a bottle of red wine from Montalcino.  Our best meal in Paris!

 

Manege: The Trilogy

We headed out to Montmartre this morning to show the boys the Basilica du Sacre Coeur, the carrousel near Sacre Coeur, as well as the artists square in Place du Tertre.  But we had to take a detour as soon as we stepped out of the Metro station.  A carrousel!  Of course we had to stop and ride it.

 

La Accordeoniste

One of the things I enjoy on the Metro is the musicians.  I was hoping that we would find a quartet playing on some hallway or something so the babas could experience this too.  We lucked out today when an accordionist got on the same car.

Stohrer to the Rescue!

Maison Collet is closed to weekends (good for them!), and Eric Kayser is closed on sundays (good for them too!).  So this morning to set out to try the croissants from Stohrer for comparison.  I also picked up some brioche, a two pastries for which they are famous: baba au rhum cake and a chocolate eclair.  Honestly, I thought Stohrer had the best croissants, but Matthew liked the ones from Eric Kayser the best.  The baba au rhum cake was completely soaked in rum - so much that it took away from the flavor of the cake, in my humble opinion.  But the chocolate eclair was fantastic.  Boys liked it so much, I considered going out to pick up another one.