TRIP 6/9 January 1

Sundays are usually down days in big cities. Add that to it being a holiday and we had to be very selective about our activities.
First thing in the morning we tried again to take our clothes to the laundromat. It was lightly snowing.  None of these joints have websites so we just tried our luck . . . and failed. It may be time to buy some new clothes!

Silas needed some time to himself so we let him rest in the hotel while Mimi, Jude and I went in search of the Grevin Wax Museum. My phone decided to not work outside of the hotel today so navigation was very difficult. We had paper maps but it was cold and we didn't know which metro exit we'd used so we got turned around. Turns out I'm heavily reliant on my maps app. After much walking we found it, it was basically a hole in the wall, and were ushered in to a completely black room and told to stand still. I thought we were going to be murdered. It was literally terrifying. Suddenly lights flickered here and there around the room and I saw faces staring at me. I couldn't tell if they were real or wax, but they were all around and within arm's reach. Was it a maze? A hall of mirrors? Mimi, Jude and I clung to each other. Then some kind of light show started. We realized we were standing in a ring of about fifty people inside an octagonal room covered in floor to ceiling mirrors. At each corner was a pillar with a display of an elephant or a snake. Laser type lights in rainbow colors flashed and danced and lit up the room. It was like being in the Haunted Mansion's stretching room but all mirrored like the eternity mirrors in the temple but with the tiki room above. The sets kept changing. There were loud jungle noises. It was SO SCARY.
After ten minutes of fearful paralysis the lights went up and we were guided through a back door and into the rest of the scary museum.

Note the freaked out faces at this freaky place.

I don't like wax figures. They're creepy. But I like seeing how tall famous people are. Most were French celebrities but there were some politicians, historical figures, artists and Hollywood celebrities. You'll be saddened to learn that Angelina and Brad no longer stand next to one another. Downstairs were torture scenes from history including Joan of Arc and the inquisition. Fun.
After the Grevin we found ourselves at an adorable cafe for "the best crepe I've ever eaten" according to Jude. Ham, egg, emmental cheese.

We taxi'd back to our hotel because my stupid phone wouldn't work and then planned our afternoon.
I've been to Paris many times but I'd never made the pilgrimage to Jim Morrison's grave. He was buried in Paris because he'd come here to detox and get away from his drug riddled life so he could focus on writing. And then he overdosed in a bathtub. He's in the 27 club (Hendrix, Joplin, Cobain, Winehouse etc all died at 27).

Familie not feeling Gay.  Feeling scared of the cemetery.

The kids indulged me and we bundled up, took a subway over there, and trekked through the old graveyard in the dusk. We had to consult two maps to find it but find it we did and it was a cool experience. The rest of the graveyard was like a city of art and mourning. We all liked Pere Lachaise and would recommend.

Morrison's grave

By this point Si was driving us all nuts.

My kids have been obsessed with large scale death since I've been giving them history lessons that apply to Europe: they know about the Holocaust because Mimi wanted to learn about Anne Frank, I've shown them YouTube videos about the French Revolution so they wanted to know all about the guillotine, they learned about the Black Plague and how 800 people died per day in Paris wiping out 1/3 of the population of Europe. I'm prepping them to visit the Catacombs later this week. It's far and away my favorite thing to do in Paris.

Childhood at the Carousel below Sacre Couer 

After Pere Lachaise we took the metro to Montmartre. It was getting dark but Sacre Couer was all lit up. We ran for the carousel and caught the last ride and then we raced up the stairs to the church. I thought we'd just tag it and run down again but we went inside and were swept up in the warmth and light and smell of candles. The ceiling was covered in a huge breathtaking mosaic. I've been in a lot of churches but the spirit in that building was so peaceful and exactly the cherry on top I needed to end this most magical of days and start what promises to be a peaceful year. My children (on their own accord) sat for nearly an hour in the pews while a nun and some priest guy sang in French and Latin.

This whole trip is filled with memories, but that time in Sacre Couer is written on my heart.