Day 5--Sacre Coeur



After spending the entire first half of the day at a flea market, we returned back to our hotel for lunch and a brief rest. Then we went back out and journeyed to see the Sacre Coeur (Sacred Heart) Cathedral in an area of Paris called Monmartre.

Sacre Coeur is really not as old as many of the other famous buildings in Paris, it was built in 1919. In Paris that is pretty new! To me, even though it is a Catholic cathedral, the outside almost seems to have some Islamic inspiration in it, but this is only my impression.

Sacre Coeur is perched on the top of a very tall hill. Here you can see the stairs we had to climb to get up to it, we walked all the way from that street in the very distance, and further, all uphill. We were quite winded when we reached the top.

Here you can see the front view of the Sacre Coeur, and the top of the main steps where people stand to take pictures of a grand view of Paris.

Here is the photo I took of the view at the top of the steps. The main thing that made me sad about the Sacre Coeur is that the building is meant to be white and sparkling, but it is caked with grim and muck. Many of the windows are completely coated with black gunk, it made me sad and I couldn't help wondering why they didn't take the time to clean it. Apparently, they do want to make restorations to the building because inside there was an area where they were asking for donations to pay for getting the work done. This cheered me up.

Here you can see some of the stone work above the main doors.

I loved this awesome door knocker on one of the main front doors, isn't it cool?



Inside we were not allowed to take pictures, but it was really pretty. The dome on top is completely hollow and is the main focus point of the ceiling. What I found funny was there were these two security type guys standing near the entrance to remind people to be quiet while inside. I call them the "shushers" because that's what they did to everyone as they entered, said "SHHHH!" very loudly. They were easily heard over everyone else and in my mind did not inspire a feeling of reverence expected for a church.



Once outside again we went around the building to see it from some different angles, but all I could think of was the depressing grime covering the outside of the poor building. Also, even though the sun was still up, it was getting darker and quite frankly I did not feel safe in Monmartre. I did not get this feeling in any other area of Paris I went to and at night I never felt unsafe as long as I was not alone and traveled with my friend. After looking around outside for about twenty minutes I turned to my friend as said in all honesty, "This has been interesting but I'd feel much better if we left as soon as possible," and she agreed. Nothing happened, of course, but I make it a point to never ignore my instincts. We headed towards the Latin Quarter where we both felt a bit more comfortable.