Paris Day 3: The one where we almost made it to the catacombs

Today was a much more relax day compared to yesterday.  We walked toward Moulin Rouge, which means red windmill, and did a walking tour through Montmartre starting from there.  We learned that before, Montmartre was actually separated from Paris by a wall and people had to pay taxes to come into Paris.  However, Montmartre was a cheap place to go so people would go to drink and party, which is why the area around Moulin Rouge is the way it is today.

One of the first things we saw was the cafe where many parts of the movie "Amelie" was filmed, which I'm sure was exciting for the film majors to see.  We then saw the places where Van Gogh and Picasso once lived for a short time.  This was really interesting because I didn't know how important the area was to art history and I got to learn more about the lives of these famous artists.  For example, the studio Picasso worked in is where he started cubism, which is one of my favorite art styles.  There are many more artists that we will be able to see at the museum tomorrow that we're from Montmartre or painted the windmills there too.  I loved all of the art we saw walking as well.  I think that graffiti is a very unique but often misunderstood art from, so I thought it was fascinating that it was actual encouraged there.  Another example is the wall of love.  The wall of love is just a blue wall with "I love you" written in 250 languages and red parts throughout.  I already love art like this because I'm such I am such a sucker for cute things like love stories and the red parts all come together to form a heart.  After we kept walking we saw the statue of St. Dennis where he is holding his head in his hands.  The story is that he was beheaded and then continued to walk while holding his head for a long time.  Zürich's patron saints had almost the same story, so it was interesting to see the similarities between the two.

We then made our way to the Basilica.  It was such a beautiful sight and the inside was even more amazing with the stained glass and detailed mosaics.  I learned that the outside appears white because it was made with a special stone that becomes whiter when it rains.  The Basilica reminded me of a mosque or the minarets at UT in its design, but with more gargoyles.  

After the Basilica, a couple of girls and I headed to try baguettes from the bakery that won best baguette two years.  I pretty much live partially off bread, so I was so excited. I can definitely say they deserved to win best baguette because it was extremely delicious.  Then Haley, Kellie, and I decided to see the catacombs.  However, our connecting train was cancelled because of security reasons, so by the time we just started walking toward the catacombs, the line was cut off so we couldn't go.  We made the most out of our metro tickets though and walk around the new area.  I can't wait until tomorrow though when we can hopefully actually make it to the catacombs!