Beginning to discover Montmartre - one of my favorite areas of Paris

Since I didn't get this blog done each day in Paris - there was just too much living to do to spend time writing and sorting hundreds of pictures from 4 photographers - I am going to split the entries into smaller more manageable entries. Still mostly chronological as we did it but each one will be only a smaller part of the day.

We started our first morning (and almost every morning) in Paris with breakfast prepared by Jacques and Helene, our B&B hosts. Every morning the table setting was a little different, each breakfast was a little different too - but all pretty typical French breakfasts. And yes, the croissants and bread were as good as you might imagine... miss that as much as anything.

Each morning we would sit at the table and plan our day if it wasn't already all decided. Sometimes Jacques gave us ideas or advice.  This day we decided to follow a walk outlined in a book Judy had found as we worked our way up the hill of Montmartre to Sacre Coeur. With that in mind we started off...

Just past the Moulin Rouge is Cafe des 2 Moulins - the cafe featured in the movie Amalie.  Last time we were in Paris, Bill and I ate lunch here and watched a steady stream of tourists take pictures... including us since we were outside.

There are so many plaques commemorating events or saying who lived in a building and here is one more - Vincent Van Gogh lived here with his brother Theo. I actually like seeing these because you are at least for an instant transported back in time and imagine Van Gogh walking in that door... Proud to say I can read the sign although many of the signs which were predominantly in French, I could only read a tiny bit. 

And we are there like we were going to go visit, right at that door....

People have written books about doors in Paris (and other places) and I can see why - this was a totally nondescript building but has a beautiful door. 

And obviously, something about the windows in the building especially appeals to me - when I got home and looked at it, I realized I had taken a picture of the same windows two years ago in Paris. 

The Moulin de la Galette - built in 1622 has been the site of a mill and restaurant and still is a restaurant - next time I'm in Paris I want to eat here. It was a well known place to go to eat, where the bread was made from flour milled by the windmill and was immortalized in paintings by Renoir, van Gogh and Pissaro. We saw Renoir's painting in the Louvre. 

 

Renoir's painting of a party at the Moulin de la Galette