Belle Époque Montmartre

Montmartre was a village outside Paris until the city swallowed it in 1860, and being outside meant wine escaped the city tax. Cheap drink brought cabarets, cheap rent brought painters, and for about thirty years the hill held more talent per square metre than anywhere in Europe. Picasso worked in a draughty wooden building his friends called the laundry boat. Renoir painted in a garden that is now a museum. The cabarets down the slope invented the modern night out, and the posters made for them turned advertising into art. Above it all the white basilica went up slowly as an act of national penance after the defeat of 1870, and was not consecrated until after the First World War. This walk starts at the top and comes down the way the money did.

Practical. Under three kilometres but genuinely steep, with long flights of stairs; the funicular (a standard Métro ticket) saves the worst climb to Sacré-Cœur, though it closes now and then for maintenance. The basilica is free and open daily from 6:30 to 22:30; the dome costs €8, tickets on site only, and it is 280 narrow steps with no lift. Place du Tertre is packed from mid-morning until evening and the portrait sellers are persistent, so come early if you want to see the square rather than the crowd. The Bateau-Lavoir burned down in 1970 and only the facade is original; the studios are private. The Musée de Montmartre opens daily 10:00–19:00 (last entry 18:15), until 22:00 on Wednesdays in July and August; €15, free under ten. Le Chat Noir is long gone, the site marked by a plaque. The Moulin Rouge is a working show venue, not a museum, so there is nothing to visit by day.