Sacre Coeur, Notre Dame, and LOTS of stairs.

Yesterday we made the pilgrimage to Sacre Coeur... not the religious pilgrimage, but the "best view" pilgrimage.   One of the highlights of my less than wonderful trip 20 years ago was climbing the dome at Sacre Coeur.

Most people, when you say you climbed to the top of Sacre Coeur, assume you mean you climbed up the 100 steps from the Moulon Rouge to the base of the Church.  Nope - there's an additional 300 steps you can take up to the top of the big dome.   We saw the church - beautiful, then paid our admission to go up to the top of the dome.  Our calves and butts felt it - but we made it.  I've heard it's the 2nd  highest spot in Paris - behind the top of the Eiffel Tower.   (I suspect some of the high rises west of the city may be taller.)  Here are some pics:

That last pic - I think Piero is trying to do the can-can.  LOL.

So - 400 steps for Sacre Coeur yesterday... how to top it?  422 steps to the top of Notre Dame.   We had a light schedule today - I'd promised to take the boys on some rides at the Jardin Tuileries... and Notre Dame is on the way...  So I stopped in the queue.  We'd walked past the queue 4 times this week - blowing it off because it was so long.   This time, I stopped.  The boys whined, but I promised them equivalent screen time (tablets) to line time.  That shut them up.  (They're both on their tablets as I type this.).   1 hr and 45 minutes of screen time earned - but actually less for bad behavior.  We also had our first crepe while waiting - with Nutella... Meh... (more on crepes later).   Notre Dame is the classic gothic church - lots of gargoyles, etc.  This tour/climb involves going up the parapet and to the top of the bell tower.  So basically - in Quasimodo's large footsteps.  But the views were amazing.  More pics.

From there - we split up... Lou to find a place to draw Notre Dame... Me to take the boys on rides.  I'd also promised we'd be ham and cheese crepes on the way, for lunch.  By luck we found a creperie that wasn't using premade crepes and reheating them - but starting from the batter.... (Literally every other street facing to-go crepery seemed to be the premade ones.).   OMG... what a huge difference.  The gal made them perfect - lots of cheese and ham, and PERFECT crepes.  I had almost finished mine before I remembered to take a picture.   This picture doesn't do justice to how good it was.

Finally - the annoying selfy picture from the ferris wheel with the Eiffel tower in the back.

Tomorrow it's off to Nice and some beach time.