PARIS, France — On the morning of Saturday (Dec. 30), we visited the highest church in Paris, and probably the whole of Europe — Basilique Sacre Coeur or The Sacred Heart Basilica. As a matter of fact, this is the only church I know with a funicular service for visitors. A funicular is a cable railway ascending a hill. But alas, the funiculaire was not working that day. And worse, it was drizzling. So we had to take the almost 300 steps going up to the church from street level. Hindi ka pa nagsisimba, kasalanan mo’y bawas na! Pagdurusa…pero aangal ka ba?
And imagine, we just came from a similar ordeal. We just arrived and recovered from the Montmarte station which I think is the deepest train level in all of Paris that I have encountered. To get to the street level, we had to manage and maneuver another 200 plus steps — spiraling pa! I had to pause (dahil kinakapos) several times to catch my breath. And while undergoing this challenge, I remembered one of the funnier tales about Mother Lily Monteverde in a similar situation. It happened long ago when she still needed help from above. The Regal matriarch walked on her knees in Baclaran Church one day. Usually, this sacrifice, which my nanay calls lakad-paluhod, takes you from the entrance door to the altar. Mother Lily, in her famous white get-up, gave her handbag to her gay alalay so she could clasp her hands together in prayer while walking on her knees. All the way, Mother was in deep concentration with her eyes closed mumbling prayers, while the gay alalay, who was also walking on his knees, just followed her about a meter far behind. But a few steps upon reaching the altar, Mother Lily, still with her eyes closed, turned around the gay alalay and said, "Hoy bakla, baka ikaw dukot pera bag ko ha?!"
And just like the typical Mother Lily who could mix being religious and being quite salbahe, from the Basilica of Sacre Coeur. We walked to the direction of Pigalle where the famous Moulin Rouge is. Pigalle is the Red…ah…Windmill district. The boys wanted some tease, I mean, tees pala. Pero nagtitiis na pala sa gutom ang anak kong babae, si Jocas. So, being the bossy one of my kids, siya nasunod. She’s Hugo Boss — where you go boss, we go. But she had the best decision. We had a superb lunch at the Braisserie du Louvre. Syempre, Jocas is really her father’s daughter — we both downed once again several orders of escargot and belon oysters from Brittany. My boys are meat eaters. But we are all sweet eaters.
After dessert, it was time to visit the Les Miz or the Less Misses — the armless Venus de Milo, the browless Mona Lisa and the headless Winged Victory statue. O, di ba? Well, kahit kilay ay ahit, Mona Lisa is still a hit!
From the Louvre, we found ourselves strolling once again with thousands of people along the beautifully lighted Champs Elysees. Syempre, napagod at nagutom na naman kami. And again, we were looking for a Japanese or a Chinese restaurant nearby but sorry, no chinky cuisine around. But then, we saw a place called Leon de Bruxelles. Kaano-ano kaya ni Leon de Joey ito? Ayos! Seafoods at may kanin. Rice pilaf nga lang. By the way, according to Roseanne, our tour guide-driver at the Loire Valley excursion, there are two Chinatowns in Paris. In the long run, China will twin!
Next day, New Year’s Eve, ang saya-saya sa Metro stations. No tickets needed. Free! Actually, libre pa rin the next day in the early hours. We never knew why.
In the final day of 2006, we went tot the final resting place of the Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte in Invalides. It’s a gigantic and very huge tomb. My son Jako quipped, "Pinalakihan yan talaga para hindi mahalatang maliit siya." I wanted to tell my son to have respect for dead people, but I was thinking, too that he might shoot back at me, "Daddy, you mean short, dead people." So, to make the story short and make it a dead issue, I just shut up.
It was time to see the Eiffel Tower in the daytime. Syempre, Kodakang umaatikabo — patayo, pahiga, patagilid, patuwad, panic talaga. We wanted to have lunch at the Jules Verne restaurant at the tower, but we learned that you have to make a reservation months before! Ano, patatalo? Nag-hotdog at nag-crepe kami sa tabi. Minutes lang.
Then we took the Batobus and stopped by Musee d’Orsay. Tama na muna yang mga Da Vinci…Da Impressionists muna. We ended our New Year’s Eve Day with a dinner at Les Patios by the Sorbonne. We went back to the hotel at around eight. We were thinking of going to the Concorde at around eleven-thirty to wait for the fireworks. Eh napasarap ang tulog. We all woke up at a little past midnight, awakened by the CNN reports about countries around the world celebrating the coming-in of 2007 in their different time zones. We had a big laugh and greeted, hugged and kissed one another. Then, we had our medyo late media noche around alas doce y media.
The next morning, Jan. 1, 2007, we heard mass at the Cathedrale Notre Dame de Paris. Again, Bonne Annee!
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