Paris, Day 3 - Sacre Coeur, Le Marais, Monet and Eiffel Tower by Night

Our final day in Paris was maybe my favorite, despite it being the rainiest. It seems on the last day we did the most wandering and meandering through city streets in between planned stops.

We started the day by making our way up to the church of Sacre Coeur. Our way up very much summarizes the journey - even getting out of the metro station involved climbing up a spiral of stairs to get to the street level, and then we rode a funicular to the top of the hill. 

(Dioramas, I want one of you for everything!)

When we exited Sacre Couer, we walked a few blocks to the art markets of Montmartre. Here we took a pit stop for some cappuccinos, shared a Nutella crepe and did some window shopping and people watching.

Once we left the Montmartre area, we took the Metro to Le Marais neighborhood, a part of Paris I just wanted us to explore. It's where we had my favorite macarons of the trip at Lenotre Bastille. We ordered two and the shop clerk gave us two more for free (really, we weren't charged for them!). That alone makes the place go down as my favorite, but the macarons were lovely, delicious flavors to boot.

We ended up at Place des Vosges, the oldest planned square in Paris and where Victor Hugo lived. It had been raining off and on all day, so walking beneath the overhangs of the square was a nice, quiet break. We window shopped in all of the art galleries that call the square home, and it's one of my favorite memories of Paris - a simple late morning, nothing hurried or too frantic.

We had a quick bite at Paul bakery (look how cute the little Euro Cup soccer player pastries are below!) and then got on the Metro to head to Musee de l'Orangerie, home of Monet's beautiful room-size water lily paintings.

Alright, confession time - that 2-Day Museum Pass we grabbed expired June 20, but the only indication of that was a handwritten June 18 on the front of the ticket ... so yours truly forged a June 19 on it (guilty, guilty!). It was just in the name of seeing art more quickly, ok! 

Now that that's off my chest, on to the art! 

That museum is truly one of my favorites - it's such a unique house for art. 

We ended our day by visiting the Pantheon - the Parisian version, that is. It's another interesting landmark, formerly a church and then a secular building of government. Evidence of both times remain and create a striking contrast. The basement is a crypt with tombs of several historic figures, including Rousseu and Voltaire. 

Ok I lied, we didn't end our day there (writing this I'm realizing, holy moly, this day was packed!) We walked through the Jardin du Luxemburg on our way back to the Metro station. As was the rest of the day, it was rainy, but look at the garden still looking all spectacular!

For dinner (you're going to laugh) - we had Japanese food. Look, there's only so much French food you crave at any given time, and this place close to our hotel really hit the spot for us. So no regrets. Plus, that night we had plans to go back to the Eiffel Tower to see it all lit up by night. So an easy dinner was a must.

Since the EuroCup was going on in France, there was a Fan Zone viewing area set up on the grounds in front of the Eiffel Tower. We went through three or four rounds of security (our small tripod caused much concern each time but we got to keep it in the end!). It was a cool experience that we probably won't get to be a part of again, and it was a great way to bid adieu to our time in Paris.

(In case you're wondering why that's not the French flag on the tower: Every day of the EuroCup there was a competition among the teams that played that day to see which fans were more present on Twitter. That evening, the winning country's flag would shine on the Eiffel Tower.)