Yesterday, mom and I took an Uber up to Montmartre, leaving our quiet neighborhood in the 14th to join the throngs of tourists visiting this quaint, historic neighborhood at the highest point in Paris.

I wanted mom to see the Sacre Coeur Basilica, that beautiful white cathedral that sits on top on Montmartre, but I knew the climb required to get to there, up multiple sets of steps like these, would not be possible for us.

Thanks to some Internet research, I was able to direct our Uber driver to the rear of the cathedral and to an unmarked, accessible entrance. Kinda like a Catholic speakeasy.

After ringing the bell at the gate and wandering the around the inner courtyard for a couple minutes, we finally figured out where the entrance door was. Once inside, the very kind lady at the reception desk directed us to the elevator and instructed us to go up one flight to access the Basilica.

(As found out when we were leaving, this building was actually part of the cloister complex. How did we find that out? By wandering around, looking for the door to take us back the elevator.)

Once we exited the secret access passage, we entered the Basilica. And it is gorgeous, as gorgeous as I remember from my visit in the 1970s.

The center of the Basilica is massive, and crowned by an extravagant mosaic in the dome over the altar.

The walls surrounding the central portion of the church feature lovely chapels, dedicated to saints as well as such professions as mariners and physicians. Although the Basilica dates from the late 19th and early 20th Century, most of the stained glass windows are 1950s replacements due to bombing during WWII.

My personal favorite chapel was the one devoted to the Virgin Mary.

Amazingly, despite the continuous flood of people walking through the Basilica, the atmosphere was one of quiet contemplation and prayer. Lovely.

Mom and I ducked out the front door so I could show her the view of Paris from the steps of the church…but it was so cold and windy that I took a quick photo and we took advantage of our “old ladies with canes” status to hurry back in through the out door.

Tourists, tourists everywhere…as far as the eye can see…

We made our way back to the hidden elevator (see above) and exited the courtyard back out onto the street. Our goal was to find the Place de Tertre, where the artists hang out, then find a cafe that has intrigued mom since the first time she saw a photo of it on Facebook. Success on both fronts! On the way, we passed a dog park where canines and their people relaxed and took in this view of the Eiffel Tower.

Earlier in our trip, mom asked me what I would like for my 65th birthday. I told her that I wanted a portrait of the two of us, and wanted to have it drawn by an artist during a visit to Montmartre.

We wandered around the square a bit, first admiring the oil and acrylic paintings for sale by local artists. Then we made our way to the line of portrait artists, and spent some time observing the different techniques. In the end, we chose M. Waniek, whose easel featured a self-portrait in pastels. Clearly, this guy knows how to draw us older folks!

After a brief discussion about price and what we wanted, he had the two of us pose together so he could do a quick sketch to capture the composition. Then he plopped mom down on a folding chair and went to work.

Mom was very good about maintaining her not-so-comfortable pose for such a long time. She remarked that she now has a whole new appreciation for professional models.

After about 45 minutes, it was my turn in the chair. Since M. Waniek insisted that we take off our glasses for our portrait, I had only a very unfocused view of the parade of people who passed by and took our photos. I heard several people, in multiple languages, comment on how good the likeness was that he was creating. But M. Waniek was very strict and would not allow me to peek until he was finished.

Then it was time for the big reveal.

I teared up a bit when I saw it…such a perfect representation of the two of us.

We paid our bill, accepted our masterpiece which Monsieur placed in a protective tube for us, and headed out of the square and along Rue Norvins to our next destination: Le Consulat.

This cafe has been around for several centuries, but its claim to fame is that it was an artist’s hangout for the likes of Van Gogh, Toulouse-Laurence, Monet and Picasso. Not bad company to keep.

These days, it is all tourists and the staff shifts effortlessly between French, English, Spanish and German to greet and serve guests. Mom and I were pretty chilled from our more than 2 hours of posing in the windy square, so we started with a nice, hot chocolate before ordering the restaurant’s famous onion soup and a Croque Monsieur.

I gotta say, that onion soup was pretty darned good. And hot!

After a leisurely lunch, we left Le Consulat and made our way down the hill.

Our last destination before heading back to the apartment was a store that I saw advertised in my French FB feed and became obsessed with: Les Pylones. There are location in several neighborhoods in Paris, and since we were close to the Montmartre store, I HAD to check it out.

We walked carefully down the sloped streets and even down a looooong flight of stairs. Mom charged down like a trooper…I was a bit slower, but made it to the next street down unscathed.

And there it was: Les Pylones. For those of you who know my obsession with color, you will immediately see what drew me to this store brand. It is gorgeous!

Keeping with our artistic theme of the day, I purchased this small cheese board shaped like a painter’s palette.

Can’t wait to show it off at home. Honestly, I could have dropped a couple hundred Euros at that store. Oh well, maybe next trip.