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From the Place de Clichy to Pigalle, the Parisian rabble’s badly-kept secrets are flowing everywhere in the streets and squares of Montmartre. Starting point of many walks, the Place Blanche, is the host of the Moulin Rouge, cabaret-turned-symbol where the crooks of those parts of Paris have been getting an eyeful since 1889. The rue Caulaincourt to the north-east, the boulevard Rochechouart to the south and the rue de Clignancourt to the west, mark the boundaries of the hill. From the bottom, you can climb up the stairs which scramble to the hill-top or you can follow vertical paths which hang on to the cobblestones as hard as they can. On a small square paved with polished stones, a minuscule theatre pops up out of the blue or a bar which lets out a happy rumour, the entire scene lit with the dim yellowish beam of a bended lamppost.

When you’ve reached the top, you won’t be walking long before you end up on the Place du Tertre around which the area unwinds. This small paved square is well-known for its “artist square” who put their drawing talents to the disposal of the tourists’ wallet with their minute-portraits from caricature to oil-on-canvas. Everywhere, “La Tournée du Chat Noir” or “Aristide Bruant dans son cabaret” take to the postcards and posters. You too, bring back a kitsch portrait: odd souvenir of the square flooded with people most of the time. Around the Place du Tertre, you will find “diner-show” type restaurants which steal the traditional bistrots’ thunder. The humble bohemian coffee shops are becoming rarer while shops are springing up on all sides of the rue Lepic. But these light distractions cannot take anything away from the disarming charm of the area which continues to attract romantics from Paris and elsewhere. Like them, you can stand pensively before the Mur des je t’aime (I love you wall) in the Jehan Rictus Park. A landmark for lovers, Montmartre also attracts part-time artists, party people and a young and yuppie (bourgeois-bohemian) crowd.

Like any good Frenchman, the Montmartre local likes his red wine and the beverage is even tastier that it is locally produced in the vignes de Monmartre. Stroll to the rue des Saules to find this little patch of land which every year, becomes the excuse for a well-soaked party. Until the end of the XIXth century, the vine of Gouais variety was the main one grown on the land which belonged to the abbey which would later become the Eglise
St Pierre. Today, the Clos de Montmatre (vineyard) hosts some 1679 vineyards of Pinot and Gamay varieties, on a surface of 1500m²: quite enough to quench anyone’s thirst. But, careful, there might not be enough for everyone: the lucky ones who will get their hands on a bottle sold there during the Fête des vendanges will be pleased to sample it. Other than them, only the happy winners of the 2009 auction have been able to savour a glass of the 800 litres of this vintage not like any other.

If the area likes a good party these days, it wasn’t always this restful. The Place du Tertre, for instance, has knows many stories, first in 1790 when it became the siege of the first town hall of the Commune in the aftermath of the French revolution. Montmartre was still a countryside village at the time since the area only became an official part of Paris in 1860. At the front of the Commune events of 1871, the area kept the cannons which attempted to push back Adolphe Thiers and the Versaillais. The crow took up arms and gave everything they had to the battle which had killed tens of thousands of Parisians at the end of the bloody week. In order to repent, the idea came up to build a church to forgive the many sins of the communards (revolutionaries) from Montmartre. Perched on its hill was edified the beauty of the hill: the Sacred-Heart basilica which holds the highest point of the French capital.

And the Sacred-Heart wasn’t the only place where sins, nightly follies, and an over-developed taste for what life has to offer could be forgiven. You can still find on the hill today the Eglise Saint Jean des Abbesses and the Eglise St Pierre, one of the oldest churches in Paris (1147) which faces the Place du Tertre. And like any village, Montmartre had its cemetery: the Cimetière St Vincent where lay Utrillo and Aymé. Not to confuse with other local cemeteries like the Cimetière du Calvaire, the smallest of all Parisian cemeteries and the Cimetière de Montmartre. There, you will be able to pay tribute to some famous figures at the parting of the ways. Among them: Dalida, Berger, Truffaut, Berlioz, Alexandre Dumas Jr and Degas.

By Alice Cannet
Published : April 29, 2010

Photo credit : © S.I Montmartre