sacre-coeur

By -
in my last few hours in paris, i explored the montmarte area and the first stop was the sacre-coeur.  my hostel in paris was a few minutes from the basilica.  so, i headed over first thing in the morning.   

the steps are legendary.  it is the highest point in paris.  here is a picture of the basilica from the arc de triomphe.  as you can see, it is quite prominent in the skyline.
view from the arc

the steps up to the basilica seemed slightly daunting after my 800 step day the day before.  

it is a great view from the top.  unfortunately, a large tree blocks the eiffel tower!  i did not climb up to the top of the church although the view is supposed to be fantastic.  the inside of the basilica is beautiful.  inside the church, no cameras are allowed.  the interior is not as spectacular as the other two churches, but the outside and view seem to trump that consideration.  none of the church descriptions were in english, unfortunately. 

the statues on the top of the building are beautiful.  the statue of christ is giving a blessing to all that enter the basilica.
be careful on the walk up.  the pushiest street vendors i encountered on the entire trip were on the steps up the basilica.    

time in church: 40 minutes
times visited: 1 
overall: B+
Location: Basilique du Sacre Coeur, 35 Rue du Chevalier de la Barre, 75018 Paris, France

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

detroit institute of arts

By -
i went to the detroit institute of arts museum to see the rembrandt and the face of jesus exhibit.  it was really great. we bought tickets online the night before to reserve our viewing time.  our biggest gripe about the entire experience was the $3.50 "convenience fee" that was tacked onto each ticket purchased.  the ticket price was $16, so this "convenience fee" was almost 22% of the ticket price.  at this point, purchasing tickets online is cheaper for the museum since they do not have to employee someone to speak to me and they don't even have to print the ticket!  if they are really counting on this fee, just roll it into my admission price please; it would make me a little less grumpy while still getting the same amount of money out of me! we arrived a little early to the exhibit, which ended up being a good move since they had completely sold the exhibit out for the day.  they let people into the exhibit in batches, so it was fine that we got...
Read more

neue gallery

By -
i went to the neue gallery with my college sister. i had wanted to go for a while. the first time i wanted to go, there was a line out the door and i ended up going to the whitney instead. i found out later it was one of the first weekends for a new exhibit. well, this time we went, unbeknownst to us, but a new exhibit on klimt was opening the weekend we were there as well. we were able to get in no problems, but as we were leaving we noticed that a line (again) out the door had developed. the museum itself is quite small, which i think causes this out the door problem. we really enjoyed the museum. it was just about the right size and pretty easy to navigate. they limit the number of people in it because it just would get to hard to move. the klimt exhibit itself was quite nice. my sister knew a lot more about klimt than i did. i recognized some of the paintings, but my sister knew much more about his background. the museum did a nice job putting the exhibit together...
Read more

metropolitan museum of art

By -
i went to the metropolitan museum of art today to see the art of the samurai: japanese arms and armor, 1156-1868 . this exhibit was in the typical special exhibit location....second floor to the left passing through the marble statues. the exhibit was fantastic. as described in the introduction to the exhibit, it is the most comprehensive exhibit ever devoted to samurai art. most of the art were designated as "national treasure" and "important cultural property." i found quite a few of the items on the wikipedia page for japanese national treasures . the exhibit had a number of swords, sword mountings and armor. a number of the items (~60) will be switched out in the next week with new items. most of the items cannot handle light for such long periods. some of the armor was fantastic, in particular one. this particular armor was replicated 100 years later for a child in the same family. this helmet was absolutely fantastic. i cannot believe that i spent ...
Read more