It's New Years Eve in Paris - Welcome 2015!

We are off to Montmarte to visit Sacre Coeur. We ask a resident, which way to Sacre Coeur? Her response is immediate with a pointed hand up, any road that leads UP. So we walked up and up the narrow cobbled stone streets until we reached a carnival souvenir location of walking artists complimenting your pretty face in order for your 20€. "I will draw for you your beuuuuuutiful face, mademoiselle!" The olde towne center was filled with artists each selling their works for one hundred years just like that today.

In Sacre Coeur - Sacred Heart. The church was receptive and embracing. A lighted Christmas tree near the door and the life sized crèche just beyond beckoning 2€ for us to light a candle. As we have in every one - we oblige.

The view to Paris center from Sacre Coeur is one beyond words. The Eiffel Tower is easy to pick out - the crown jewel in the horizon of neighborhoods, streets, buildings, Parisian shoppes, Paul's Coffee,  monuments, museums, tourists but mostly unique and independently warm Parisians.

Wine at a cafe as we watch artists selling their art, we waited for 4pm - dark and the Christmas lights turn on! Voila! Magic! But what do I see? Two young men in French military uniforms heavily armed with machine guns either side of the only Starbucks in Montmarte. I ask two Parisian residents, why? "Oh, you Americans! It's security for YOU!"  OK then ~ .....it's security.

A restaurant for New Years Eve is easy to find in Montmarte as most Parisians enjoy the event in their homes.  A man peddling roses gives me 2 - a red one and a white pair of roses with a kiss from his mustached wet mouth. He tells Rich 25€ - Rich works him down to 20€. We both receive a dam good kiss - it's Paris just a couple hours before midnight! 

Off to the Paris city center on the Champs Ellyssess with a small bottle of champagne with my sweetheart! The midnight brings a million lights twinkling up and down Champs Ellyssess, a beaming Eiffel Tower and a low, short set of firworks off the Arc de Triumph. A Happy New Year toast and loving kiss ~ best wishes in 2015 on the streets of the grand city - Paris!