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Montmartre, celebrated and secret

The hilltop where the art of our time was born
View from Montmartre's heights

 

Sordid but relatively free from police control, this hilltop on the city's fringe became as important for art as Athens or Florence.

 

We show places that paintings made famous, evoke the atmosphere through images and literature and explore a village that tourists rarely see.

 

 

  • We show the famous sites in a way that avoids the crowd of tourists, which concentrates

    within a very small parameter 

 

 

These and other stairs often appear in movies...
as does this church.

     

     

    • We visit the sites that art made famous, and show the best-known works
    Toulouse-Lautrec, "Le Moulin de la Galette"

     

     

    The Moulin de la Galette toward 1900
    The site now

     

     

    • Why did artists settle here?

         

        This portrayal of a wild cancan shows the dance when it began around 1840, on the city's poverty-stricken fringes, which included Montmartre.

        Artists came also for  wine that was untaxed outside the city limits and for the "galettes" made from the windmills' wheat. They settled there because rents were low, because winds blew away pollution and because galleries had sprung up near the Opéra, a half-hours' stroll away.

         

        We evoke the atmosphere of this mythical place for the creation of art (in about 1870-1910) through works of the time.

         

         

        • Pigalle, to avoid... or to include
        Cancan, "The mysteries of Paris" by Eugène Sue, 1843

        The untaxed wine just mentioned explains why cabarets grew up here (the Moulin Rouge is just up the boulevard). That's the reason too for the sex shops... and for celebrated theaters, for stores that sell musical equipment... and for a surprise.

         

             

             

            • Residents allow us "privileged entries"...

             

             

             

            Renoir, Derain and other artists lived here; artists live here still.

            Renoir and Derain lived in this poetic place. Toulouse-Lautrec's studio was across the street, and Van Gogh lived with his brother Théo two blocks up the hill. 

             

             

              • Montmartre is still a village where people know each other

               

               

              Countess and resident

              Residents have introduced us to little-known places. They give views that are personal and informed.

               

              And there's a make-over artist, a sculptor-cum-jeweller, stores for vintage and young, imaginative clothes and accessories, a wineshop owner who chooses his wines and knows his producers personally. 

               

              We'll suggest favorite restaurants (after having lived in Montmartre), tell you where residents go for live music or to a pocket-sized theater at the end of a tiny street.
              Lise Badach, high-school French teacher, amateur performer, resident and insider guide

                 

                 

                • We illustrate the walk with photos of works of art or of places that have disappeared,

                    including those that appear on this page

                     

                     

                    • Costs: Please CLICK

                    ° For specialists' and residents' fees,  please ask us.


                    Credits : Windmill 1900 / bakery advertisement ; Countess (resident) / Julien Debure ; teacher (resident) / friend ; other photos / Claude Abron

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