There are so many reasons to visit Sacre Coeur in Paris. Here are some of mine.
A couple of days before I left for the UK I had lunch with an old friend. We met at a French immersion retreat in high school. She asked if I was going to France since I would be so close.
My response, “No, there are other countries I want to see. If I ever do go back to France, it definitely won’t be to Paris. I’ve seen that twice. I would want to see the rest of the country.”
The Universe said, ‘HA! HA! HA! I’ll show you. . .”
There was a problem with my UK visa and I needed to leave the UK and go into exile until the proper paperwork came through. France was closer than America, so I stayed in Paris for weeks. My husband remained in the UK to continue going to his job everyday.
AirBnB in Paris
Since I needed to stay for weeks, I wanted a kitchen. So, I found an AirBnB outside the city. Inside the city is expensive, so I stayed waaaaay up north in Saint-Ouen-sur-Seine. Check it out on Googlemaps. The neighborhood is much grittier and more working class than the fancy Paris you see in movies. There are a lot of Muslim immigrants and it was interesting to see this side of life here.
Then & Now: Me & Sacre Coeur
In 2006, I visited Paris for the second time. It was the first time I went with my husband. I wrote briefly about seeing Sacre Coeur cathedral in my essay Ex Libris, Libertas (mrshomefree.com). Everyone should see the Eiffel Tower lit up at night at least once. Everyone should see the gardens and flying buttresses in the back of Notre Dame at least once. But, for us, Sacre Coeur simply captured our hearts. It is one of our favorite places in Paris. Check out a super young me at the cathedral in 2006.
Boy, do we need to learn to be kinder to ourselves! I am sure I thought back then that I needed to lose weight or that I was having a bad hair day or whatever. Now, I look at this picture and am struck by how lovely that young woman (married only 8 years) was. How time flies!
In January 2023, I made a pilgrimage back to Sacre Coeur (a 40-minute walk), so I could take a picture of it to send to my husband. I am happy to say that it took my breath away just like the first time.
I tried to go early before the tourist swarm. I wasn’t successful. I walked up the hill at 9:30 in the morning and the tourist groups were already streaming in. But, the architecture and the view of the entire city still didn’t disappoint. Hopefully, 17 years from now, the pictures I took of the cathedral and of myself won’t disappoint either.
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