Montmartre - the quartier
Montmartre is a beautiful and vibrant village within Paris city and a perfect location for your holiday. It has been made
famous in many films and works of art with its staircases up the hill, its windmills, its winding cobbled streets, its pretty
cafés, its cabarets, its artists’ studios and its authentic village life. Click for a map of Montmartre and its main
attractions.
Montmartre is also home to the only city-centre vineyard in Paris!
If you’re here during September, check out the dates for the vendanges – grape-
picking – and go along! It’s a tiny vineyard so the grapes are picked in one day.
All are welcome and there’s usually a tasting of the previous year’s wine.
The Montmartre Wine Festival (Fête des Vendanges de Montmartre) is held
over the first weekend in October, where the local wine, Le Clos Montmartre, flows
freely! (All the profits from sales go to local charities.)
Montmartre cemetery is down the road from the apartment and is a fascinating
place to explore.
It's the final resting place for, among others: painter and sculptor Edgar Degas,
composer Hector Berlioz, film-maker François Truffaut, actor Sacha Guitry,
physicist Jean-Bernard Foucault, Russian ballet dancer Nijinski, cabaret dancer La
Goulue (Louise Weber – often painted by Toulouse Lautrec), Margaret Kelly (Miss
Bluebell of the Lido) and writer Stendhal (Henri Beyle). Ask at the gate lodge for a
free map with some of the most famous graves marked for you.
Your Paris vacation home is just a two-minute walk from
the Place du Tertre and the Sacré Coeur Basilica
(which you can see from the balcony).
The apartment is situated on the quieter end of the rue
Lepic. So while you’re just minutes from all the sights of
Montmartre, you’re away from the noise of the crowds.
All rights reserved. All text and pictures Copyright © 2007 Elaine Cobbe No reproduction of any kind without written permission
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It’s also an area of Paris that has attracted film-makers for decades: remember
François Truffaut’s chase scenes on the famous steps?
Scenes from Oscar-winning La Môme (La Vie en Rose in English) about the life of
Edith Piaf, were shot right outside the front door of the apartment building – for the
space of a week, the area was populated by actors in 1940s' costumes driving
gorgeous old Pontiacs!
While Montmartre is a major draw for tourists, it is also home to thousands of Parisians,
many of whom have been Montmartrois for generations. The quartier is home to the
famous Sacré Coeur Basilica, the Place du Tertre artists’
square, the Moulin Rouge and the café made famous in
the recent film Amélie.
This quartier is where painters such as Picasso, Van Gogh, Renoir, Modigliani
and Degas lived and worked.
Montmartre is renowned for its café life – and by café, we don’t mean just coffee.
A café is also a bar – and a great place to sit and sip un express or a glass of wine
and watch the world go by. People-watching is a national sport in France – it’s not
just encouraged, it’s practically mandatory!