Montmartre Walk
Montmartre hill is the highest point in Paris, and from the Basilica de Sacre Coeur which sits on top of it, one gets an awesome panoramic view of Paris. Montmartre means 'mountain of the martyr'; it owes its name to the martyrdom of Saint Denis, who was decapitated on the hill around 250 AD. Saint Denis was the Bishop of Paris and is the patron saint of France. Montmartre is an officially designated historic district with limited development allowed in order to maintain its historic character. A leisurely walk around the historic area is a must even for first time travelers in Paris.
From the metro, we took a short walk to rue de Abbesses and took photos of the Abbesses Metro, one of the few remaining stations in the original Parisian art nouveau style.
Then, uphill we climbed rue Ravignan, which leads to tree-studded Place Emile-Goudeau, and stopped at no. 13, across from the Timhôtel, where the Bateau-Lavoir (Boat Washhouse) is situated. This building has been known as the cradle of cubism, where Picasso lived (1904-12), and other artists like Modigliani, Rousseau, and Braque had studios nearby.
From here we proceeded to Espace Dalí Montmartre (Dalí Museum), dedicated to the work of the surrealist artist Salvador Dalí, which contains over 300 of Salvador Dali's original drawings, cartoons, sculptures as well as a few of his paintings.
At nearby Place du Calvaire, we enjoyed a panoramic view of Paris, and finally reached Place du Tertre, a charming artists' square where works are painted and sold on the spot. This old town square, home of artists such as Dali, Van Gogh, Picasso, Renoir, Degas, Matisse, Utrillo, Toulouse-Lautrec and Claude Monet, overflows with people, artists, tourists, peddlers, and beggars.
Right off this square fronting rue du Mont-Cenis is Église Saint-Pierre de Montmartre, originally a Benedictine abbey, now one of Paris's oldest churches. This is where we heard mass, and right after, took photos of the altar, stained glass windows, and the massive doors. Facing St-Pierre, on rue Azaìs is the awe-inspiring Sacré-Coeur Basilica, located at the highest point in the city, and dominating the Parisian skyline since 1914, when it was dedicated to the 58,000 who lost their lives in the Franco-Prussian War.
At the time of our visit, the basilica's entrance had a long long queue of people and too many tourists, it looked like a marketplace, and not a place of worship. So we proceeded with our walk instead. Behind the church, clinging to the hillside, are steep, crooked little streets that have survived the march of progress. At rue Cortot , we found Musée Montmartre, and at the intersection of rue des Saules and rue St-Vincent is Cabaret des Assassin, one of the most visited and photographed corners of the butte. Now renamed Au Lapin Agile. this little cottage was frequented by Picasso and Utrillo, and patronized and painted by numerous other artists.
From rue Girardon, we spotted the Moulin de la Galette. This windmill was built in 1622 and was immortalized in oil by Renoir. From rue Lepic, we took a long walk to get to house no. 54, where in 1886, van Gogh lived with his brother, Guillaumin. Then onto rue Joseph-de-Maistre and rue Caulaincourt until we reached one of the most visited places in Montmartre, the Cimetière de Montmartre. Here we rested, and then took photos of selected graveyards, monuments and markers of the resting places of famous artists and writers in France.
From the cemetery, we walked towards boulevard de Clichy, and stopped at Place Blanche, where stands a windmill even better known than the one in Renoir's painting, the Moulin Rouge (built in 1889), one of the world's most-talked-about nightclubs, as immortalized by Toulouse-Lautrec.
From here we walked back to Place Pigalle, along Promenade Georges Ulmer, and took photos that will remind us of the red-light district of Paris. The place takes its name from the sculptor, Jean-Baptiste Pigalle (1714--1785), and it is the best-known district of the Quartier Pigalle, Toulouse-Lautrec had his studio right off the square at 5 av. Frochot, but we couldn't find it because of the many souvenir shops and peddlers along the boulevard. So we went shopping instead. We arrived back to our hotel before 5pm, dizzy and tired as usual.