Montmartre: the village of artists

There are, in Paris, neighbourhoods one walks through and a single one that one climbs. Montmartre has to be earned. You go up by staircases that take your breath away, you emerge onto a square where painters still work, and you suddenly understand why this hill held so many artists over the decades. At 130 metres above the city, the 18th arrondissement keeps the air of a village that refused to become entirely Parisian.

What strikes you first is the contrast. The crowd on the parvis of the Sacré-Cœur on one side, the silence of the rue de l’Abreuvoir a few steps away on the other. Montmartre lives at two speeds, and it is by knowing the second that one grasps its charm. Here is how to inhabit it, not merely visit it.

Where to find the finest view over Paris?

The Sacré-Cœur dominates everything. Its limestone whiteness, which revives with each rainfall, can be seen from afar across Paris, but it is from its steps that the city unfolds best. At daybreak, before the coaches, the parvis still belongs to local residents and runners.

For the view, a few markers kept by those in the know:

• The steps of the basilica early in the morning, when the mist still floats over the rooftops.
• The square Louise Michel below, for the perspective of the climb.
• The Montmartre reservoir and the discreet terraces of the rue du Chevalier-de-la-Barre, less frequented.

Place du Tertre and the painters

The historic heart of the old village, the place du Tertre keeps its tradition of portraitists and landscape painters working under the trees. The spot has become touristy, yet its soul survives for those who come out of season or at the close of day, when the light fades and the easels fold away.

All around, the church of Saint-Pierre de Montmartre, one of the oldest in Paris, recalls that the hill was an abbey long before it was a studio. The Musée de Montmartre, set in the oldest house in the quarter, where Renoir and then Suzanne Valadon lived, tells this lineage better than any guide.

The vineyard and the last windmills

Few Parisians know it: Montmartre has its own vine. The Clos Montmartre, planted on the northern slope, produces each autumn a confidential vintage celebrated during the Fête des Vendanges, in October. It is one of those rural relics that recall the hill of the days before the city.

Higher up survive the last windmills, the Moulin de la Galette and the Radet, witnesses to the time when dozens of sails turned here. Renoir made a painting of one, the quarter kept its name and its silhouette.

Where to wander between lanes and staircases?

It is in its streets that Montmartre gives itself away. The rue de l’Abreuvoir, lined with low houses and a famous little pink house, curves down towards hanging gardens. The rue Lepic winds between food shops and old façades, up to the café made famous on screen. Lower down, the vines of the rue Saint-Vincent and the villa Léandre, a cobbled dead-end with the air of London, offer a rare calm.

A few routes for getting lost with method:

• Go up by the rue Foyatier and its staircases, come back down by the rue Lepic.
• Follow the rue Cortot and the rue Saint-Rustique, one of the oldest ways on the hill.
• Reach the southern slope, more secret, by the avenue Junot and the place Dalida, where a statue watches over the singer who lived there.

What remains of the bohemian heritage?

Montmartre was the studio of Paris. Picasso and his friends worked at the Bateau-Lavoir, Renoir painted the open-air dance of the Moulin de la Galette, Dalida made the quarter her home. Toulouse-Lautrec, Modigliani and Van Gogh crossed paths here. This heritage is not a frozen set: it still lives in the artists’ studios, the galleries and the cafés that have lost none of their wit.

The terraces at the foot of the hill, around the Abbesses, keep that neighbourhood spirit. You take a coffee without ceremony, you hear the Montmartre of today spoken, that of residents more than of visitors.

How do you live Montmartre day to day?

To live on the hill is to accept its slopes and savour its pauses. The market, the shops of the rue des Abbesses, the gardens hidden behind carriage doors compose an art de vivre of their own, almost provincial, ten minutes from the Grands Boulevards. The key is to know the quiet hours and the passages the crowd ignores.

A dedicated concierge who knows Montmartre saves you that time of getting acquainted: they know when the parvis empties, which tradesperson truly answers, where to book a table with no touristy front, and how to keep a perched pied-à-terre alive without suffering its constraints. That, in the end, is the promise of French Realty: time given back, in a quarter that invites you to take it. A few markers to compose the day:

Marker	Why go there	Best moment
Parvis of the Sacré-Cœur	the view over all of Paris	at daybreak, before the coaches
place du Tertre	the portrait painters at work	at the close of day, when the light fades
Clos Montmartre	the vine and the harvest festival	in autumn, from the northern slope
rue de l’Abreuvoir and villa Léandre	low houses and a cobbled dead-end	in the afternoon, away from the crowd

To extend the pleasure, the bespoke concierge service describes this delegated daily life, and the Journal’s Art de vivre category gathers all our Parisian subjects.

Also worth discovering

To extend the day: the markets of Paris, neighbourhood by neighbourhood, the finest gardens and parks of the city and the finest panoramic views over Paris. And for the Butte as one film fixed it, in the footsteps of Amélie Poulain.