Sacre Coeur

I woke up early this morning to see the sunrise on the steps of the Sacre Coeur Basilica. It's the second highest point in the city, so I thought I would have a good view. It was a fairly quick metro ride to Abbesses station, and instead of the usual stairs you find at the other stations, this one had a massive elevator to take you up to ground level. I walked a bit to the Montmartre funicular which takes you up the rather steep hill. The regular metro tickets are valid on it, so that was nice. The dropoff is just steps from the Basilica. It was so cold! I have to buy a hat and mitts soon. Anyways back to Sacre Coeur. It's an interesting church, and fairly recently built(finished in 1914, consecrated in 1919), as Parisian churches go. The story goes that during the Prussian war in 1870, two businessmen made a vow that they would build a church dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Christ if France would be spared from the impending onslaught. Evidently their prayers worked since the church seemed quite real as I stood in front of it. Cameras are forbidden inside, so google it. It wasn't bad but not one of my favourites. I had arrived around 8:30am and it was perfect timing; I was walking out as an enormous tour group was panting up the hill(I guess they hadn't been informed about the funicular haha). On the way down I met Johnny(definitely not his real name)from Nigeria who asks for money to support the local Nigerian "artists". Yeah, scam artists. He didn't speak much French or English, but thought my Quebec accent was quite cute.


P.S: Not my picture, wish it was, but this place doesnt have a card reader, so I can't upload mine just yet.