Montmartre sits above Paris on a hill, and for the decades either side of 1900 it sat above the rest of the art world too. Renoir painted the dancers of the Moulin de la Galette a few streets from here, Van Gogh spent two years on the rue Lepic in the flat he shared with his brother, and a twenty-three-year-old Picasso moved into a wooden studio on the Butte to paint the picture that rewrote all the rules. The rents were almost nothing. The work changed everything. The neighbourhood still carries that history in its streets, its stairways and its improbable village atmosphere.
We walk the village first, the one that held out against Paris until 1860 and in places still behaves like one, and the streets where the painters lived because they could afford nowhere else. Above it stands the Sacré-Cœur, on a hill that was a place of martyrdom and pilgrimage centuries before the basilica crowned it. Around it are the cabarets and cafés where all of that met at the same tables. It is a walking tour, at the pace of a conversation, and the streets bring the threads together as we go.
What you will see
We climb the Butte on foot, which is how the hill is best understood, though the funicular is there beside the steps and we are happy to take it if the climb is not for you. At the top stands the Sacré-Cœur, the basilica that still divides Parisians: raised in penance after the Commune, on the very hill where the insurrection had begun, by a city that could not agree on what it was apologising for. We go inside, where entry is free and the mosaic in the apse is one of the largest in the world, and we read the building for what it says rather than only for the view. From the steps, the whole city opens out below. Behind it lies the older Montmartre the crowds walk through without seeing: the last vineyard in Paris, the quiet lanes of the former village, and the streets where the neighbourhood was a place people lived long before it was a place people visited.
The walk also follows the artists. We pass Le Bateau-Lavoir, the ramshackle building where Picasso painted Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, and the studios and squares where modern art took shape, from Impressionism to Cubism. Place du Tertre sits at the centre of it, and we look at what it once was, what it became, and what it still says about the neighbourhood. Between the studios and the street sit the places that kept both going: the Lapin Agile, whose owner took paintings in place of payment from customers who had no money, and the Moulin de la Galette, a working windmill turned dance hall long before Renoir made it famous. Down the hill, the Moulin Rouge and the entertainment district of the Belle Époque ran parallel to the painters, and we trace the relationship between the two.
The village · the artists' streets · the Sacré-Cœur · the cafés and cabarets
Pépin's advice
Come in the morning. Montmartre changes character completely depending on the time of day. Before ten, it is still a neighbourhood. After noon, it becomes a crowd. The tour works best early.
Wear shoes you can walk in. The Butte is steep and the cobblestones are uneven. This is not the place for heels or new shoes.
Add the Musée de Montmartre. It occupies the oldest house on the hill, where Renoir, Utrillo and Suzanne Valadon all had studios, and its gardens look down over the vineyard from the quietest terrace in the quarter. It is small, rarely crowded, and it makes the walk land. Tell us and we will build it into the route.
The climb is optional. The funicular runs alongside the great staircase and takes ninety seconds. Tell us on the day, or in advance if you would rather not think about it, and we simply build the route the other way round. Nobody has ever seen less of Montmartre for having arrived at the top rested.
Consider staying for lunch. There are streets in Montmartre that the tourist traffic never reaches. After the tour, you will know where they are.
Good to know
This is an outdoor walk on a steep hill, with cobblestones in places and few opportunities to sit along the way, so comfortable shoes make all the difference. Any museum you choose to add keeps its own opening days. We will confirm the route and the meeting point with you before the day.
