Day 4

This morning we took a much more relaxed approach in seeing a different part of Paris. We met up Sandy and Philippe who are friends of a mutual acquaintance of ours.  They invited us to join them at a cafe in Paris for some music and conversation.  So...we took a couple of subway rides this morning and found ourselves in a very cute corner of Paris.  At 11:00, there was quite a gathering of people to hear an accordion player, singer and dancer who, for the past 40 years,  on every Sunday morning, have been entertaining folks.  We had fun getting to know Sandy and Philippe while sampling some fine pastries from the boulangerie and sipping coffee.  After two hours, we took our subway passes and used them to take the bus to the Montmartre area, the area where can-can dancers, Moulin Rouge, struggling artists such as Toulouse-Lautrec, Renoir and others in the early 1900's, all hung out.  There is also a beautiful church there that was built during WWI, titled Sacre Coure.  This area is very steep and gives one a beautiful view of all of Paris.  And, was it crowded, especially because it was a Sunday and other parts of Paris were not fully operational. We took in the museum, had lunch and purchased a few pieces of art.  Eventually we tired of the inclines and headed back to our hotel knowing that we still had to climb the 100 steps back up to our room!  We are definitely getting a good workout here in Paris!