Dali-cious, or How Surreal Was This Day?

Last night we dined at Pause Café. The food, excellent. The service left much to be desired. I thought it was just the places I was choosing, but the Pause Café was packed, so I wasn't the only one choosing the joint this time. I thought it was funny that they really do let you bring your dog in restaurants here.

We decided that tomorrow we will grab dinner on the cheap, just to compare. We'll see how that goes.

Walking back to Hotel Royal Bastille, the Velibs were lit up.

We planned on waking up semi-early and venturing to the SNCF train office at Gare de Lazare to book some tickets to Reims for Friday. We set our alarm for 7:45am. I think I got up at 8:45am. There's a Metro train leaving Bastille station every 5 minutes, so no worries.

There's nothing like getting on the Metro in the morning and listening to a horn. Ouch.

When we got to Gare de Lazare, it was time to fill our bellies. There was a little Café called Mi Do Re and they had quiche, pastries and café allongé for cheap!

We got our tickets to Reims (very excited for this, had to stop thinking about how much money we've spent now). We got back on the metro and ventured to Montmartre.

Upon arriving at Montmartre, we realized that there was an elevator so we didn't have to walk up a zillion steps to the surface.

After walking many skinny streets and long stairs, we happened upon Place du Tertre.

It's a little square filled with artists painting and drawing some amazing pieces.

After browsing the artists work and kindly refusing to get a portrait sketched, we visited a Catholic church called Sacré-Coeur.

It was massive inside. I don't know much about being Catholic, but if you like lighting little candles, statues and stain glass windows, this would be your kind of place. There was also a big silver Jesus that glistened on one side of the building. There was a no picture policy, but I figured that with no shortage of confessionals, I could take one and get it wiped off my slate right quick.

Next, my favorite part of the day. The Salvador Dali exhibit.

After watching Midnight in Paris, I told my true love that I would laugh if I saw any rhinoceroses. There were two. Dali was a bit of an odd one, but he is one of my favorites. When you start to understand some of his work, it's quite interesting and makes sense (to me anyway, but I'm also a little bit of an odd one). My favorite Dali is piece is The Vision of the Angel.

Did you know that Dali played a part in Disney's production of Alice in Wonderland? Here's a self portrait with Alice.

After an awesome time at the Dali exhibit, we sat down for lunch a little eatery on Rue Norvins. Wine, French onion soup and some lasagna.

We made our way down Rue des Saules and then up Rue Cortot to the Montmartre Museum.

The museum was interesting, but my mind was still buzzing with Salvador Dali's art, so I didn't pay as much attention to everything as I should. It was definitely an interesting time in Montmartre during the bohemian revolution. I almost feel like I was born in the wrong century.

We walked around Montmartre for another hour, checking out nooks and crannys, going up stairs and through gates. I can just imagine how alive the place must have been a hundred years ago. Brimming with art, music and poetry. Today it's pretty quiet and most of the people I saw were tourists, hopefully imagining the same thing as me.

To get back to Hotel Royal Bastille, we decided to walk. Along the way we passed the Louvre and checked out a galleria full of antique stores. Antique stores for people with lots of money. LOTS of money. My true love had her eye on this piano.

Maybe we can take it off their hands after we move into the hall of mirrors at the Palace of Versailles. I'll put Dali's Vision of the Angel beside it.