Today we finally went to La Basilique du Sacre Coeur (Basilica of The Sacred Heart). Set amidst the beauty of Montmartre or "hill of martyrs" on what is (geographically speaking) the highest point in Paris. The Basilica was built between 1891 and 1914 in the place where the first bishop of Paris, Saint Denis, was decapitated for his faith. Ouch! A truly magical and beautiful building inside and out. Whilst the actual main interior of the church was definitely worth viewing (and it's free!) the best part about this visit was climbing the ridiculously narrow stairs to the dome, giving you a 360 degree view of the city. It is spectacular and we happened to get great weather. Check out the photos from the day...
This is a little restaurant on the east side of the base of the Sacre Coeur.
The gates to the east side of the base
We saw around 6 cats just walking up the steps. Homeless or not, these kitties are clearly being fed by some stranger.
A crowd watching some buskers at the base of the Sacre Coeur and some guys selling Heineken to on lookers. Some of the things people can do here! It's crazy. Imagine some guy offering you beer at the Perth Bell Tower. This is why we love Paris! Plus the busker tried to get the audience volunteer to lift her shirt up. Sly devil.
There is the church...but unfortunately you can't actually take photos inside the main part, or wear hats (Sophie accidentally breaks this rule later... It was cold) But rules are rules! There is a staff member who greets you at the main doors who will tell you all the rules before you enter (Thank god! It's a church after all) so don't worry about faux pas here. You will be told. It was a shame we couldn't take any photos inside the church because the ceiling looks amazing! Sadly there were quite a few nasty commercial aspects inside the church. Including a few of those ugly vending machines that spit out souvenirs and various sized votive candles.
The best part about this whole day, however, wasn't the actual inside of the church but the dome at the top. Once you walk out of the church you will see signs pointing to the dome which is located on the west side down some stairs where you will also find the entrance to the crypt.
You will find a ticket machine asking you (in English or French) if you want to visit the dome or the crypt or both.
We did both and it cost us €8.
One of the many statues inside the crypt.
Sophie making a faux pas. NO HATS!
The crypt was worth doing as it was only a few Euros extra. How ever we ended up in there when we shouldn't of been (during some kind of mass) and were kicked out. I think? Our French is still rubbish and so we just had to guess, it was like charades.
The staircase to the top of the dome. We both got dizzy walking up the never ending and narrow spiral staircases. Not for the claustrophobic or unfit that's for sure.
...more stairs...
...and we finally made it to the top!
The view from the dome was amazing and well worth the effort of all those stairs. A highlight of our trip so far. Highly recommended!
And now to walk back down to the bottom.
We made our way down to the base of the Sacre Coeur.
BEWARE TOURISTS! There were so many of these guys at the base of the Sacre Coeur who look around for innocent folk like ourselves and ask you to stick out your finger. Don't. We did. They tie some string around your fingers and start to make bracelets. It all seems like a bit of fun, and they were nice and made some funny jokes BUT when it's all done of course they ask for some money. You feel bad if you don't give them something so you end up handing over some change. I only had a €10 note and even though they said they will give us change they just put it in their wallet and changed the subject and walked off. Lesson learnt! Oh well, we had something to joke about later.
Lastly here is a video Lloyd shot at the top of the dome: (ONCE THE VIDEO STARTS please change the video into 720HD using the option bar at the bottom of the video. This way you will be able to see the detail of the buildings and the Eiffel Tower)
The Sacre Coeur is open from 6 am until 10.30 pm, but if you're looking to adventure up to the dome then between 9 am and 7 pm or 6 pm in winter or down into the crypt then you gotta take your chances because times vary... as we discovered.
6 euro for dome or 3 for crypt or 8 if you want to do both... or if you want stone proof check out the official website linked below.
The official website of the Sacre Coeur can be found here: http://www.sacre-coeur-montmartre.com/
The Wikipedia page can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacre_coeur
A map to the place can be found below:
Agrandir le plan
A map to the place can be found below:
Agrandir le plan
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