Yesterday

Here's a little overview of what happened yesterday (Monday, January 1) since we were so exhausted we didn't have a chance to post...

Our late morning finally got started with a walking tour of Montmartre and Sacre-Coeur. It was amazing to be in the Montmartre area and see such a different side of Paris: seedier, sexier, and, well, more bohemian! We did the whole climb up to Sacre-Coeur (no funiculas for us, thankyouverymuch) and had a fantastic view of the city.

Josh pauses on our climb up to Sacre-Coeur.

Other interesting spots in Montmartre were: a club-turned-art gallery where Edith Piaf sang... the Lapin Agile Cabaret, still a hangout for local bohemians and a favorite spot for free thinkers like Picasso and Paul Verlaine... Place du Tertre, a whole square completely filled with artists selling their paintings and sketching portraits of tourists... and of course, the Moulin Rouge! (Baz Luhrmann sure took some liberties.)

The famous Moulin Rouge -- it's still a busy concert venue/cabaret.

By this point in our travels, the fast pace of the past week was catching up to us. We took the train home and did some much-needed laundry. Afterwards we headed to the Grand Palais museum which had an awesome exhibit on Walt Disney, oddly enough. The theme of the exhibit was exploring the artistic inspirations behind Disney's characters and films. It was really fun and very cool to see some original stuff from the Disney archives.

After the museum, we decided to pause from the hectic touring and went to see "Casino Royale" at the movie theater on the Champs Elysees. The ticket prices were absolutely outrageous!!!! But we both loved the film. We rested up and got a good night's sleep, which was useful considering the day we had on Tuesday........