It's very easy to link the two, just google 'python C++' and check out some of the top links. It makes a lot of programs a **** of a lot easier to write. For instance, back in my college days, I wrote a bit of code for a remote control with C++, then wrote a controlling GUI for the pc with python.
It's not necessary to learn C to get a handle on C++, but it helps, as will learning basically any variant of C.
I started with some obscure version of C, moved on to C++, then did C then C#. Even before I started C I did assembly language, which made writing code in C seem extremely easy
I guess you should start with a simpler language, and understand it FULLY before moving on. The assembly language was the most difficult part for me, because I hadn't yet grasped the basics of programming, and the logical syntax that's required.
So yes, I would recommend learning something simpler, like C, before getting right into C++, but if you've got previous programming experience then you might want to skip it and go straight for C++