Is it is possible to really be at home in a place you’ve never lived? I’m not really sure, but after about ten stays over twenty years, I feel at home in Paris in ‘my’ neighborhood, the portion of Montmartre centered around the Jules Joffrin Metro station.
Town Hall of the 18th arrondissement, my Paris ‘home area’
Over the years, from different apartments, I’ve watched shops and restaurants come and go, pledged allegiance to a favorite boulangerie, and looked forward to familiar markets and familiar sights. It’s a neighborhood of families more than hipsters, much like my own.
While the area, north of Sacre Coeur, is my base for visiting all of Paris, it’s also one of the places I most enjoy wandering, noting people, and changes and, often some amusing oddities. And, walking south to the lower part of Montmartre, below Sacre Coeur, is a little like another world.
Montmartre is more or less draped over the hill that gives it its name, so many streets are quite steep…
In fact, many are so steep that portions are replaced by stair-streets that connect streets running across the hill.
A bit to the west of the Sacre Coeur basilica is the Place du Tertre. Montmartre attracted many artists, starting in the late 19th century, when it was still largely rural. Place du Tertre is on every tourist map of Paris as a place to see artists at work, although most of those to be seen on the sidewalks are there to cater to tourism.
It’s also a center for numbers of cafes and informal restaurants; you won’t starve if you stop there while wandering!
Other options include an unusual Starbucks, and my choice, a tasty baguette jambon beurre for a quick lunch.
Nearby is the Musee de Montmartre, located in a building once occupied by numbers of artists, including Renoir, Suzanne Valadon, Maurice Utrillo, Émile Bernard, Raoul Dufy and a host of others. The museum’s focus is both on the art heritage and the history of Montmartre itself.
Just below the museum is the oldest (and one of the very few) vineyards in Paris, first planted in the 16th century by the abbot of the Montmartre monastery. Across the road from it is a famous artist’s cafe of the early 20th century, le Lapin Agile, also the name of a Picasso painting that he created for the cafe to settle an outstanding bar bill.
One of Paris’s major cemeteries is located in Montmartre; it’s largely below the level of the surrounding streets since it was originally a gypsum quarry. A view from the bridge that crosses it makes some of the tombs like oddly part of the neighborhood.
Most buildings in the area, where urbanization took place mainly between 1870 and 1914, are multi-story and built to the street line, often with courtyards, there are smaller survivals here and there.
Le Petit Train runs through parts of lower Montmartre for visitors who don’t feel like wandering on their own…
A little hint of Montmartre’s rebellious past…
Here and there, also, some bits of beauty. First, stonework on an apartment building. Then, the classic 19th-century lines of the St Pierre market, now also a performance and exhibit venue. And finally, the gorgeous art deco gates of a decidedly utilitarian place: The Montmartre Factory Machine Department of the city’s Technical Direction of Water and Sanitation.
