On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
Steve from Mendocino – Paris
Sacre Coeur has an exotic feel to it largely because of the contrast of its architecture with that of most other architecture in Paris. Being at the top of Montmartre and offering the best view of the Paris skyline other than the Eiffel tower, it attracts large numbers of tourists just milling about. Street performers congregate here, and there are plenty of touristy snack outlets serving ice cream, crepes, etc. to visitors tired of moving from monument to monument around the city.
An iconic vista from the steps below the cathedral. I remember seeing this view in some movie and saying to myself “Wait! That’s MY shot!”
The cathedral from directly in front, populated by the usual collection of tourists.
A side view of the cathedral and its tower.
Interior of the cathedral during mass. Not sure this shot is kosher. <shrug> During my first trip to Paris I tried to take a picture in the old Paris metro with its rickety tracks and cars. Some official rushed up and told me photography was forbidden in the metro. I never know what’s permitted, so I generally use the old “shoot first and ask questions later” approach.
View of the rotunda at sunset from an adjacent street in Montmartre.
Front of the cathedral at sunset.
Lapin Agile night club in Montmartre. I never went there, but, since Anne-Marie’s sister and brother in law have had their Montmartre apartment for a very long time now, I’ve walked by the Lapin Agile quite a few times in the course of staying with them.
Montmartre balconies highlighted by the sunset.
Villago Delenda Est
Also, too, Moulin Rouge is just down the street! With all the accompanying sex shops and McDonalds’!
Another Scott
Beautiful pictures, Steve.
Shame about the timing today, eh? :-)
Cheers,
Scott.
Lapassionara
These are lovely and evocative. Thank you.
JanieM
Kosher in a Catholic church? I think you’ve got your religions mixed up. ;-)
I was chided a couple of times in London in 2019 for taking pictures of scenes that included children — Europe has laws about that, though maybe Britain is free of them post-Brexit. One of the scoldings was by a young nanny who was in the process of prancing in front of my camera, pushing a big stroller with about six kids in it, as I was trying to shoot. I’m all for protecting children, but then okay, go behind me instead of in front of me you sanctimonious twit.
A few minutes later I saw the nanny taking selfies with a couple of her friends….
Oh, and I love this set of pictures. So much to take in, so much to learn, so much vicarious touring. Thanks!
Benw
Really cool pics! Love the gargoyle in pic 3.
Leto
Beautiful pictures.
WaterGirl
@Another Scott: I just added a link to this post in Steve’s post for tomorrow night. That should make it easy enough for anybody who didn’t get a chance to see it tonight.
BigJimSlade
I once rented an apartment for a couple weeks near Montmartre. Eating at Le Queue du Chat around the corner was delightful, as were another couple restaurants within a couple blocks. Wonderful area!
Original Lee
I remember after touring the cathedral, we went to the artists’ market adjacent to the grounds and had our silhouettes done and bought a small oil painting. It was the day before the World Cup final, and the mood was exhuberant.
Tazj
Beautiful pictures. I love the picture at sunset.
I was in Paris years ago, a couple years after I got married, on one of those tours where you’re in a different country every couple of days. I’ve never been back.
I remember the tour guide telling us that there was perpetual prayer in Sacre Coeur so we had better behave ourselves.
These pictures bring back nice memories. When we visited it was a beautiful day. The first time I ever had Nutella was in a crepe off a food cart outside the church. Yes, I did have better food there but even that was very good.
Soprano2
When I went to Paris on a choir trip in January 1980, a few of us went up to Sacre Coeur. We climbed up the dome as far as they’ll let you go. The view is breathtaking, you’re so high up over the city! That place is otherworldly because it looks so different from everything else there. It looks like someone picked up a temple from India and dropped it in Paris.
Mary G
My college roommate and I went to Europe in 1975. We piggybacked on a charter taking a nice clean cut Christian youth group who spent the flight sneered at us dirty rotten hippies. We had the only free seat on the plane between us so we ignored them and slept. We spent the first week in London very enjoyably and then went across to Paris on a ferry, I guess? I have no memory of it at all, we probably were sleeping again. We arrived with a book of hostels and no idea of how to find any of them. We took the Metro to the Champs-Élysées because I recognized the name and wanted to see the Arc de Triomphe. Unfortunately the stop we had chosen was miles away and we hiked for what seemed like hours.
Finally we saw it and decided we needed a map. My roommate had taken years of college French, but freaked out and couldn’t understand anyone we talked to. I finally connected with a cute Portuguese guy that understood my two years of high school German. He helped us buy a map and gave us directions to a B & B off the Blvd. Saint-Germaine where we got a lovely tiny room. Montmartre was another place I wanted to see and enjoyed it very much. Your pictures take me back to those days, thank you.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Mary G:
In those days, I think so. I can’t remember when the Chunnel opened, but I know I had a couple of choppy crossings in the 80s.
(and since i never get to pedant around here… it’s a basilica, Notre Dame is the Cathedral– seat of the (Arch)bishop)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
If memory serves, that small squat church in the picture of the rotunda is part of the convent that used to occupy the top of the hill. I think it’s one of the oldest buildings in Paris.
randy khan
Sacre Coeur is a favorite. These days you’re not supposed to take photos inside, but I’m really not sure how anyone enforces a rule like that.* One reason I like it is that there’s a funicular to take you up the hill. I was very excited to see it there on my first trip to the basilica because I’d never been on a funicular. (And “funicular” is a funny word.)
*That somehow reminds me of when I did the Tower of London tour years ago and was about to take a photo in one of the rooms – a chapel, as I recall – and the Beefeater giving the tour stopped me (politely) and said “There are kings and queens buried here.” I did get a photo of the Crown Jewels, though, as apparently that was okay.
CaseyL
What a glorious view!
One thing that gets me about the really old cities of Europe is how densely populated they are, and how few-to-no parks or other green spaces there are.
I wonder how much that had to do with defensibility at the time they were built (Medieval if not older) – enclose a city in a wall and put soldiers up there to fight off invaders – and how much it had to do with “trees” reminding people too much of the “wildlands” just outside the city walls; or the farmlands where only peasants lived. So people didn’t want that sort of thing inside their nice, neat city.
quakerinabasement
New Years Day, 1992, I was at Montmartre with friends. It was my first visit to Europe. The night before, we had wandered the Champs Elysees drinking champagne from the bottle and watching crowds of young Tunisian men setting off fireworks. We went for lunch at a place on the hillside that had to be hundreds of years old–built of stone without a right angle in the place. All of the walls and ceilings were off-kilter. The rigors of the night before combined with the disorientation brought on by the architecture made me queasy. The waiter asked if I was OK. In my sparse French, I was able to explain, “Malade du bonne anne,”–disease of Happy New Year.
stinger
Beautiful pictures — thank you! The beauty and the escape are much needed today!
J R in WV
Great photos of a wonderful city.
I hope we get to visit Paris again someday. Not to mention the rest of Europe. Drive across the Alps, etc.
Cedichou
Not to be pedant, but the Sacre Coeur is not a cathedral. The cathedral in Paris is Notre-Dame. It is a basilica.