Montmartre is
a hill north of Paris. It is famous as the place where art thrived and was home
to famous artists like Vincent Van Gogh. The bohemian atmosphere exists even
till date with plenty of night clubs, a sex museum and sex shops. Moulin Rouge
the famous cabaret still attracts hordes of spectators.
We started our walk from Starbucks cafe which is bang opposite the Moulin Rouge.
The Clos
Montmartre Vineyard which is just past the Maison Rose restaurant on the way
down the hill is
closed with the exception of the wine festival on the first
Saturday in October. It's hard to imagine, but the
vineyard actually still
produces a few hundred bottles of wine which are auctioned off during the
festival! This vineyard has an
interesting history. These vines were originally planted in the 1930s to curb
rampant property development.
Many
artists had studios or worked around the community of Montmartre such as
Salvador Dalí, Amedeo Modigliani, Claude Monet, Piet Mondrian, Pablo Picasso
and Vincent van Gogh.
The Lapin
Agile was a favourite spot for struggling artists and writers, including
Picasso, Modigliani, Apollinaire, and Utrillo. It was more than twenty years
old when, in 1875, the artist Andre Gill painted the sign that was to suggest
its permanent name. It was a picture of a rabbit jumping out of a saucepan, and
residents began calling their neighborhood night-club "Le Lapin à
Gill", meaning "Gill's rabbit".
On top of
the hill is the beautiful Basilica of the Sacré Cœur. It is built of travertine
stone quarried in Château-Landon (Seine-et-Marne), France. This stone
constantly exudes calcite, which ensures that the basilica remains white even
with weathering and pollution.
There is plenty more to experience and Montmartre is as exotic as it was bohemian - a must visit!