At eight in the morning, Montmartre belongs to the people who live there. A baker rolling up her shutters. A man walking his dog up the steps. The smell of coffee drifting from a café that has only just opened. The painters' easels on the Place du Tertre haven't appeared yet, and the white domes of the Sacré-Cœur glow pale above the city.
This is the best time to see why so many artists lived here.
A painter's walk
1. Start at Abbesses. Come out of the metro under Hector Guimard's glass canopy, one of the few left in Paris, and walk up the quiet streets towards the hill. 2. Place Émile-Goudeau and the Bateau-Lavoir. Here stood the ramshackle building of studios where Picasso lived and worked in the early 1900s, and where Les Demoiselles d'Avignon was painted. The original burned in 1970 and was rebuilt, but the little square still feels like a stage set. 3. Rue Cortot and the Musée de Montmartre. In the oldest house on the hill, Renoir had a studio, and later Suzanne Valadon and her son Maurice Utrillo lived and painted here. Valadon, a model turned painter, is one of the great figures of Montmartre. Check opening times, and go back later if it's still closed. 4. The Clos Montmartre vineyard. A small working vineyard on the slope of rue des Saules, a surprising patch of countryside in the middle of Paris. 5. The Sacré-Cœur steps. Sit for ten minutes and watch the city wake up below you. Count the grey roofs, the chimneys, the sunlight moving across them.
How to walk it slowly
Don't try to see everything. Stop often. Look up at windows and doorways. Notice the light on the stone. Imagine the street as Renoir or Valadon saw it, with horse carts instead of scooters. Bring a small notebook and sketch one doorway, however clumsily.
Then have breakfast
Find a café with a window table and order a croissant. Write three lines about what you saw. That's your souvenir.
More walks like this
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Remember to take as much time as you need, and meet me at the next one.
Love, Evi