Montmartre
Windmills, vineyards, squat houses: built around its mound, Montmartre has preserved its atmosphere of a small village. Visitors may enjoy the aromas of the “gentle France” of former times, and the more sulphurous odours of the time when the mound was devoted to the escapades of its painters and Pigalle abandoned itself to the joys of the French cancan.
Revolutionary and bohemian
At the start of the 19th century, Montmartre was a verdant hill scattered with windmills. There, in 1534, the Jesuits founded their order and a Benedictine monastery flourished for many years. However, the industrial revolution rang in the changes and Montmartre became a working-class district which was annexed to Paris in 1860. Eleven years later, the mound was the birthplace for the Commune: the revolutionary episode and the resulting terrible repression forged the identity of Montmartre, in the same way as the district’s intense artistic life.
With its cheap rents, open-air restaurants and the free, debauched way of life, the mound became a centre for some of the most important painters of the time up until the First World War: Géricault and Corot; Renoir, Degas and Cézanne, and, then, later, the entire avant-garde movement which grew up around Picasso. Poets and singers, such as Aristide Bruant, made it their playground and, at the foot of the mound, cabarets invented the world-famous dance, the French cancan.
From the Sacré-Cœur to the Moulin de la Galette
Eternally white, watching over Paris from the top of its dome, the Basilica of the Sacré-Cœur is a very familiar silhouette for Parisians and tourists. From the foot of the mound, an infinite succession of staircases leads to its parvis which offers up one of the most beautiful views of the capital. To the west and the north of the Sacré-Cœur, ancient streets follow in the footsteps of Montmartre’s writers and painters; those, who, today, sketch tourists at the well-known Place du Tertre and those of yesteryear, who used to frequent the rural neighbourhood of Rue Saint-Vincent. Opposite a vineyard which, every year, produces its own wine, the pink facade of the Lapin Agile has watched over the frenetic evenings of many important figures, including Apollinaire, Modigliani and Utrillo.
An atmosphere of calm reigns in the area around Square Buisson. Many beautiful homes can be glimpsed behind the high walls on Allée des Brouillards, and Avenue Junot – the “Champs-Elysées of Montmartre” – displays an opulent atmosphere with hints of Art Deco. At the Moulin de la Galette, Montmartre’s historic past reappears: Renoir, Van Gogh and many more immortalised this building, which, at the time, was a famous cabaret.
From the Bateau Lavoir to Pigalle
From Place J.B Clément, home to the Espace Dalí, a flight of stairs descends towards an attractive small square shaded by horse chestnuts. This was the centre of the avant-garde movement at the start of the 20th century: the Bateau Lavoir, destroyed and rebuilt in 1970, saw Picasso paint “The Young Ladies of Avignon”. Further down, Place des Abbesses is a reminder of the former presence of the Benedictines. Today, it is a fashionable meeting place, where Parisian youth fill the cafes with their smoke and where, on Sundays, the square bustles with market traders.
The slopes of the mound end at Boulevard de Clichy and Boulevard de Rochechouart, where Pigalle takes over. The authentic cabarets from the end of the 19th century have been replaced by a string of nightclubs and sex shops which attract visitors drawn by the reputation of the site and the neon lights which illuminate it. From the Moulin Rouge to the more recent concert halls, a variety of night visitors wander these boulevards which continue to be an important Parisian meeting point.