We planned a packed walking trip today. There is a market on Ternes that only opens in the morning, so we went there first. We made multiple stops at different patisseries to try their wares (mostly croissants). There are patisseries around almost every corner it seems!
Chocolate Pistachio Brioche- tasted like Entenmann's danish pastries.
Chocolate Almond Croissant at Aux Armes de Niel was the BEST! EVER! Chockful of almond and chocolate, as the filling was oozing and tasted like rum.
Here is the famous Moulin Rouge:
We thought it would be much bigger and grander than it actually was. We almost missed it, as we were on the other side of the street and it is quite unassuming. The area is pretty seedy, almost like San Francisco's strip with lots of strip clubs and sex toy shops.
Across the street is a shop recommended by David Lebovitz called L'etoile D'or. They sell only sweets that they like eating themselves, so they are kinda like middlemen. We bought some caramels that we heard were really good, and they really were. I ate a mango-passion caramel that was oh-so-creamy and intense mango & passion flavors.
Angel had a beurre de sel caramel that was very buttery and rich.
Rue des Martyrs is another street with many food shops on it. It was also our next stop for croissant break ;) One of the patisseries is also quite awesome, and we actually stopped by there again on the way back to buy some to take home.
Sacre-Coeur, meanwhile, overlooks the entire Montmatre area, which is where we were spending the whole day. I kept looking up and thinking, there's no way I'm climbing that mountain. But by the time our stomachs were sated with all those croissants, we were already halfway up the hill! We were gradually making our way up, without us knowing it! Thank god for patisseries!
The church itself was gorgeous.
The village immediately surrounding it was full of tourists, but had a Swiss village feel, with cobblestones and Swiss architecture. There was a pretty cafe with a windmill called Moulin des Galette. Surprising that the Sacre-Coeur was built in 1919 because it looks like it was built in the 1500s. Many wealthy patrons donated money to built the church.
Our walk down the hill was when things started getting testy. Angel really needed to go to the bathroom at this point (she had been complaining since Moulin Rouge that she needed to go) and she gets extremely antsy when she needs to go! It's like walking on eggshells around her. I told her her bladder and intestines need to be better trained for traveling. (And I told Jen that she's going to get a bladder infection from not going to the bathroom at all for the whole day! And did you know that she only went #2 twice so far this trip?!?!?! That's not normal!) And Angel insists on going TWICE everyday... in the most INCONVENIENT of places! We walked into 5 different starbucks, mcdonald's and kfc for her to find a bathroom today!
After that whole ordeal, we went to Arnaud Lahrer (see Macarons).
We walked back on Rue de Batignolles (getting lost twice and having a lovely French lady stop to help us... without us asking! we love the French!) for a famed baguette shop. On the way there, we walked through a lovely park with the strangest ducks we've ever seen. Some didn't even look like ducks... or pigeons, but could still swim!
Laurent Conant's boulangerie has won awards since 2000 for his baguettes. Since we are going to Fontainebleau tomorrow, we wanted a baguette for picnic, to pair with foie gras.
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