WithLocals - Walking tour through Montmartre with Photographer

 We discovered the app called WithLocals when we went to Rome and did a cooking class with Massimo (at his house), so when I was planning our Paris trip I looked at the options for Paris and found a walking tour through Montmartre with a photographer.  I thought it would be a perfect tour for when we were in Paris with my mom and my brother and his family.  

We met Joao in front of Moulin Rouge and then started our walk through Montmartre.  He took lots of pictures of us and told us some fun stories about the neighborhood.  I enjoy these kind of tours a lot.  It was more story telling and fun facts about the neighborhood instead of just history.  We learned about some of the locals favorite bakeries, stores and restaurants.....We also learned that the neighborhood started to become more popular ( long time ago) when there was no tax on alcohol yet in that district, so people from the center of the city came out to Montmartre to eat, drink and party!

Montmartre is knows as the artist district and small cobblestone streets wind up the hill to Sacre Coeur.  It is my favorite part of Paris, even though it has become extremely crowded.  

Joao stopped in front of the Michael Jackson mural and asked the kids to do some MJ poses or dance moves.....

My brother jumped in to help Evan :)

I love this picture of Hannah

We also went to a bakery that has the best baguette of Paris!  

This is not just a self proclaimed title.....every year there is a contest in Paris for the baguette supplier to the French president.  There are hundreds of entries every year and it is not just a taste test, but they also judge on appearance, smell and crumb.  The competition is called the Grand Prix de la Baguette.

This was probably our favorite part of the tour.....had to get a baguette and croissant.

This bakery has won the title twice and another title for their croissants

This is in front of a popular Parisian cafe....

Next we tried some ice cream.....

Then we went to the wall that has "I love you" written in 250 languages.....this piece of art was created in 2000, but has recently become more popular due to the show "Emily in Paris"....we heard that a lot from the guides we had "this was made famous by the Netflix show Emily in Paris" and I am sure they only tell this to Americans :)

Found "Ich liebe Dich"

This is the best family picture!

Oma and all her grandkids!

Joao sent me 107 pictures from our afternoon together.  We spent the morning and the rest of the day exploring Montmartre some more.....