Paris  -  Montmartre

Montmartre

No trip to Paris  - and certainly no once-in-a-lifetime trip - is complete without a visit to Montmartre, the hill overlooking northern central Paris, famous for its dazzling basilica and its lively narrow streets thronged with bistros, restaurants and artists. After the Eiffel tower, the Louvre and Notre Dame cathedral, Montmartre is one of the four must-see locations of Paris.

How to get to Montmartre:

The area known as Montmartre is located in  the 18th arrondissement or district of Paris, due north of the Louvre. It can be easily reached by metro, stations  Abbesses (line 12), Pigalle (lines 2 and 12) or Anvers (line 2).  The classic way to get up to the top of the hill of Montmartre, known in French as La Butte Montmartre,  is from the Anvers metro station. From here walk up the Rue Steinkerque until you reach the gardens at the end. From here you can either take the funicular railway up to the top, or walk up more than 250 steps to the basilica at the top. The exact number of steps depends on the path you take.
   One way or another, the higher you climb, the more the panorama over the roofs of Paris opens up below you.
   The greatest view of Paris is to be had from the top steps or from the esplanade in front of the Notre Dame basilica.

   Another easy way to get to the top of the hill is to take the Montmartrobus shuttle, a small electric city bus that runs from Pigalle metro station and up to the village on the hill (and down the other side). Normal Paris travel tickets, including day passes, are valid on this service. Services run 7/7 year long, on average every 10 - 15 minutes during the day.

What to see in Montmartre

• The Sacré Coeur basilica is one of the emblematic monuments of Paris. It's not old by European standards, as it was built ibetween 1875 and 1914 - one of a number of white stone basilicas put up in France at the end of the nineteenth century – the other most famous one being the Basilique de Fourvière in Lyon.
     Designed by the architect Paul Abadie in the neo-romano-byzantine style popular at the time, the basilica was for some a monument to the victims of the Franco-Prussian war of 1870, for others a monument to the martyrs of the revolutionary Paris "Commune".
     The interior is richly decorated, notably the apse, whose vault is decorated in 19th-century byzantine style with one of the world's largest gilded mosaics, depicting Christ in Majesty.
     Entrance to the basilica is free; there is however a charge for those who want to climb the 330 steps to the viewing gallery around the dome.
  

• Place du Tertre This is the throbbing heart of the "artists' village" of Montmartre. Lined with brasseries and restaurants and cafés, most of the square is now occupied by artists boutiques. It is here that tourists can get their portrait painted or sketched, or buy souvenir artwork. The atmosphere here is very lively and busy – but don't imagine that all the artists are Parisian. Some are, but the square attacts artists, art-students and instant-portraiteers from all over Europe and beyond. As does Paris in general.
     The "village", the narrow cobbled streets around Place du Tertre are full of more cafés and restaurants, as well as small arts and crafts shops
• Eglise St. Pierre: this small church close to the Basilica is one of the oldest in Paris, though it has been much restored. Built between 1147 and 1470, the church fell into disrepair in the 19th century before being renovated between 1900 and 1905. The nave contains some very early mediaeval sculpted capitals and possibly some even older capitals recovered from the Roman temple of Mars that once adorned the hill of Montmartre. 
• Le Musée de Montmartre 8 - 14 rue Cortot. The Montmartre Museum occupies a large 18th century house which was once home to some of the artists with whom Montmartre is most intimately associated. Renoir painted here, as did Suzanne Valadon, Maurice Utrillo, Othon Friesz, Raoul Dufy and several more. In the museum visitors can see Valadon's studio, as well as paintings, drawings, posters and other works of art that tell the story of Montmartre in its artistic heyday. The enclosed gardens have been restored to appear as they did in Renoir's time.
     The museum gardens overlook what remains of  the Montmartre vineyards, which still produces several hundred bottles of "Paris" wine each year - more as a curiosity than as a good wine.
• Espace Dali.  11 rue Poulbot - Close to the Place du Tertre, the Dali Museum celebrates the life and work of the surrealist painter Salvador Dali. With 300 original works, mostly sculptures and engravings, this is the largest collection of Dali's works in Paris.
• The Moulin Rouge and Pigalle.  While strongly associated with Montmartre, the Moulin Rouge and other cabarets are not on the Montmartre hill, but below . A popular tourist attraction, the Moulin rouge is located on the Boulevard de Clichy, just outside the entrance to the Blanche metro station.
  ► Click  for Moulin Rouge bookings

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