Opera Garnier and Montmartre

April 13 

The Paris Marathon was today. 55,000 participants! Paris is gridlocked as far as traffic. We walked to Opera Garnier where we had an open ticket for the day. We had to cross the marathoners 4 times today with well-timed runs over the zebra walks! Our neighbors’ son Alexander ran it and the proud parents sent me a photo. 



We finally made it to the Opera house. Just gorgeous inside. Commissioned by Napoleon III. 







Afterwards, still with the marathon going on we finally found the correct metro station to take us to the Funicular to Sacre Coeur. Once there, we strolled around and found a nice cafe to people watch and enjoy lunch. 





After lunch we walked to the artists’ area and found a woman doing pastels of dogs. Meg found a favorite photo of Suzette and Sweet Pea. The artist needed 1.5 hours. So we found a nearby cafe and had a drink and people watched. 







Although Montmartre is hard to get to and steep terrain, it was well worth it. 

We stopped at a monoprix for a bottle of wine and came back to the room to rest. Tomorrow is our last day and we are planning a day trip to Giverny and the Monet house and Gardens. 

Today’s weather was overcast but no rain, so the Gottfried weather blessing still holds!! 


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