Does History Repeat Itself?
Sunday night was our visit to Moulin Rouge, the famous cabaret show in Montemarte, now open since 1889. It is best known as the birthplace of the modern form of the can-can dance. I'm sure this has something to do with that saying from my previous post about once the doughboys (in WWI) saw Paris, there was no going home!
It was in a large ballroom, elegantly decorated. I saw on arrival that those who ordered dinner plus the show had the best seats. We were there simply for the show after a very nice dinner at a nearby brasserie with the highlight being the 12 snail (langastino) appetizer we shared. Our table at Mouln Rouge seated 6 so we shared it with three young women from the Netherlands. As one of them said after we exchanged pleasantries, "Worst seat, best people"!
The show lasted about 90 minutes and was a healthy splash of Cirque de Soleil and Bob Fosse thrown in on top. The participants (about 20 or so) were men and women, all in fancy costumes with many changes during the show. The women were bare-breasted some of the time, but it was not a distraction because it was so tastefully incorporated. One glass of champagne into the show I told our table that, if I had another, I'd be jumping up on stage to add my dancing skills to theirs. Our seats were so far in the back that I'm sure one of the beefy Security guys would've had me down about 10 feet away from our table. It was a wonderful evening and a cultural touchstone for anyone visiting Paris.
Today was Monday, our third day here, and we awoke to beautiful sunshine. It was a nice break from the on-again-off-again rain of the past two days. Our agenda for the day was twofold: a walking tour in the Latin Quarter focused on the French Revolution, and a visit to Montemarte - the highest part of Paris with the beautiful Sacre Coeur basilica.
Our second metro trip went smashingly well as it really is pretty easy to decipher which way to go and which train to get on thanks to Google Maps and excellent signage within the metro system. We arrived a few minutes early for meeting the guide so had an espresso and croissant at a nearby cafe. Across the street we met at the statue of Danton, one of the leading figures of the French Revolution and spent the next two hours walking around to various sites in the Latin Quarter.
One of these sites was La Procope, the oldest cafe in Paris (opening in 1638), a hotbed for the revolutionaries to meet and discuss their strategies. An interesting story about it was that Napoleon (who emerged at the end of the French Revolution) went there when he was a poor, struggling Corsican looking for entry into the military. When he was done with his meal, he had no money to pay the bill and offered to leave his hat (the famous tri-cornered style) for collateral for a later return to pay his bill. That hat is still there and now on display!
Our guide, Chris (an Englishman now 30 years in Paris), was excellent and went into detail about the causes of the Revolution. These included: 1) a state of bankruptcy because France provided the funding for the American Revolution (thanks to Benjamin Franklin's work), 2) excessive taxation of the middle and lower class to make up for the bankruptcy, and 3) the oligarchs. It was the latter two causes that got my attention because I wonder if we're beginning that same thing in the US right now. Time will tell.
After our two hour walk, we went back to the Procope for lunch and saw Napoleon's hat first hand. Napoleon emerged in the Revolution as a key figure who got lucky and found his way up through the ranks of the military, beginning with firing artillery on a crowd of 30,000 with guns who were making their way to the royal palace in Paris to claim it for the revolution. That display of carnage resulted in him becoming a general rather quickly and then on to Emperor. Interesting stuff.
From there, we did a self-guided tour of Montemarte and saw some of the many sites. Of course Connie and Cheryl had to stop at the first (of a million) souvenir shops and load up on "stuff". I have to admit that I just had to have that beautiful blue sweatshirt that said "Paris" on it so we were all guilty of buying more stuff we don't really need. Oh well, that's what vacations are for, I guess.
We closed the day tired and Ubered home as Cheryl had some blisters on her feet and the Metro seemed a bridge too far. For dinner, we did Uber Eats in Paris and got brisket sandwiches which were excellent. Of course the delivery man called me when en route and, not speaking a lick of English, had a yelling contest with me until - voila - he showed up in front of our apartment with dinner.
Tomorrow is an open day so Connie, as our week 1 guest, has the job of picking the agenda with things she wants to do. She and Cheryl are starting the day going to City Pharma for God knows what girly-type things. I'm walking to the nearby Monoprix grocery store to hopefully score some additional Nespresso pods for our machine here at the apartment.
Great day but tired from walking. I'll report in tomorrow after we do whatever we're going to do. Love from Paris.
You really did a great job of planning… seeing so many things every day.
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ReplyDeleteOooops. Sent too fast! We haven't been to the Moulin Rouge--sounds fun. And the following day sounds FULL! No wonder Cheryl had blisters. The view from Sacre Couer. is even better in person than in photos. We think of the movie "Amelie" (one of our favorites) whenever we think of Sacre Couer and Montemarte.
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