Paris Day Four: Notre Dame, Sacré Cœur and Panthéon

Since Tuesday is the day museums that are closed tomorrow,  today was a day of big religious buildings: Notre Dame de Paris, Basilique du Sacré-Cœur and The Panthéon.

The Pantheon

The negatives:

• The weather was pretty rubbish since it was raining almost all day. We visited all these places today, not only because everything else was closed, but also as they were all indoors.
• Notre Dame and Sacre Coeur are both functioning churches so I felt quite bad for the minority of people who were actually at the church for worship, rather than just for some superficial sight-seeing. Even though photography was forbidden in the Sacre Coeur, many people were still taking snaps. Though, it was even worse in Notre Dame as the rules were less strictly enforced, so even though you weren't allowed to take pictures with the flash on, many people still were. Lots of tourists were also really noisy - there were some annoying Americans in the Pantheon visiting the crypt, which contains the remains of distinguished French citizens. It's really quite similar; just respect the places you're visiting. 
• The Montmatre area surrounding had lots of people were trying to sell those tacky Eiffel Tower key rings that I mentioned in my post here. Turns out that if you are court illegally selling souvenirs, you could get sent to prison for 6 months. Also, there were some soldiers/police patrolling the area carrying some hefty guns, so these shifty men selling these souvenirs definitely have balls. However, the area was ridden with "Beware of Pick-pockets" signs, and we couldn't use cash to pay for our tickets in case of theft, so I was not suprised that some people say the area surrounding the Sacre Coeur is plagued with drug dealers and seedy men.

The postitives:

• The architecture today was breathtaking (both literally and figuratively for the Sacre Coeur as it is up the Montmatre hill). I cannot be bothered to describe it, so here's some pictures for you to enjoy. 

Pictures not too fantastic because of a lack of flash

• We had another awesome meal at Chartier! This time we had a beef stew, duck confit and some pork which just seemed to be gammon. I also tried foie gras for the first time and I surprisingly enjoyed it! One portion of foie gras probably had enough calories for an entire meal, but I was quite yummy - I do like liver anyway. We were also hoping for some snails, just because we are in France but unfortunately, it wasn't on the menu today! 

The old lady sitting on the table next to the two other ladies was so cute! She was by herself, drinking a bottle of beer and had a salad, soup and a dessert for dinner. She ate so slowly but attentively.

So that was day four, see you tomorrow for my second to last day in Paris!

Rebecca x
P.S. I know the formatting is messed up here, but I'm tired now. I'll fix it tomorrow morning. If you still can read this message after that time, I've been lazy and left it.