Bike Races at the Basillica...what?

When I dragged my aching body out of bed this morning (morning-ish), I desperately wanted to return to Montmarte to check it out in the daylight. We ate dinner there on Wednesday night and I totally fell in love, so I wanted to go back solo and spend a little more time exploring. As I hopped on the metro I noticed that everywhere seemed to be packed today - maybe this is just a coincidence or because yeterday was a religious holiday or something, but there were swarms of people EVERYWHERE! And people were FIESTY! There were drunk homeless men starting fights with people on the metro and everyone seemed to reak of serious body odor.

Releaved to be back above ground and away from all of the crazies, I climbed the endless staircase up to Sacre Coeur. For some reason there was a lot of red tape - this is literal red tape, not the beurocratic proverbial red tape. There are workers with walkie talkies and areas taped off to prevent the crowds from crossing...then I see it, a cyclist!

It turns out the Tour de France Hexagonal completes its last stage today and the finish line is in Montmarte at the base of the basillica! The Hexagonal is a six stage version of the Tour de France and is for mountain bikers, not road racers. In this final stage, cyclists had to bike down hundreds of steps and up steep city staircases. It did not look like much fun to me, I saw a few guys put the bike over their heads and just start running. Can't say I blame them.

Aside from the cyclists, I found Montmarte to be filled with all of the artists and street muscians that I remembered seeing Wednesday night. This part of the city is absolutely breathtaking, it was hysterical to just roam around and watch the MIMES (yes mimes!), people getting their portraits done, and all the the freaky people that make this area so much different from the rest of paris. Montmarte part deux = success!