Day 3 – Friday, April 6 – Paris
On Friday morning Jeremy and I got up at the crack of dawn (actually, before dawn), and packed up our things to head back to the Tube. Leah was kind enough to drop us off at the Tube station near her house, and in no time we were at St. Pancras to catch our 7am train to Paris. The ride to Paris was fairly quick, and the majority of it was underground. We noticed that on the England side the announcements were first in English and then in French, and once we crossed to France they were first in French. Most of our journey after we exited the Chunnel was above ground, so it was nice to be able to see a little of the French countryside.
Two and a half hours later (plus a one-hour time change), we arrived at Guar de Nord, Paris’ main train station. Jeremy and I successfully found the information desk, and were able to purchase our two-day museum passes, which we would take full advantage of in our travels on Saturday and Sunday. From the train station we walked a short way to the apartment that Becky had found for us to rent in the Montmartre district. We arrived at our building, walked up the 70 or so stairs, and got settled in which we waited for Becky and Eric to arrive from the airport. Once they arrived we headed out to get some lunch (I had a crepe to get my fill before pesach started), then walked up to Sacre Coeur.
Since in addition to being erev Pesach it was also Good Friday, we were able to be at Sacre Coeur for the reenactment of the Stations of the Cross. It was so interesting to hear the whole crowd of people singing and see them kneeling as the priest carried the cross. From there, Becky led us on a great walking tour of the Montmartre area. We started up on top of the hill, and meandered through the neighborhood, which once was full of artists, writers, and musicians. We passed by the Montmartre vineyard, the Au Lapin Agile (an 1860s cabaret known for its rabbit stew), and the Moulin de la Galette (a 17th century windmill that is now part of a restaurant). From there we meandered along the streets and stopped in a bakery to get a baguette (again, mostly for me before pesach started). We continued our tour at the famous Moulin Rouge, where Jeremy and Becky danced for the video camera. Walking along the Boulevard de Clichy we passed many houses where famous artists had lived and worked, and made our way to the Place Pigalle. At the shuk-like market we got vegetables and a chicken to make for dinner, then went back to the apartment to drop off all the things we had bought.
On our way back out to do a little more touring we stopped at a neighborhood patisserie where I got an apricot pastry – very delicious. The four of us walked back up the Sacre Coeur, this time from the bottom of the hill so we could see the views on the way up. Since the Good Friday festivities were over we were able to visit the inside of the cathedral, which was beautiful, yet we were taken a bit by the amount of gift-shop elements in seemingly sacred areas. From there we stopped at a local grocery store and picked up a few more things we needed for dinner, and went back to the apartment to start preparing for seder. We prepared delicious roasted vegetables and a salad to go with the rotisserie chicken we had gotten in the market, and I made an artichoke with a mustard-honey dipping sauce. We boiled some eggs, put together a seder plate, and sat down for our own little seder. Jeremy had put together a haggadah for us before leaving Israel, and led a nice seder.
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