Art and Snails in Montmarte

Place du Tertre (CNB 2014)

Montmartre, a district in the 18th arrondissement is in the north of Paris and gets its name from the 130 m. butte (hill) here. Apart from the famous Basilica de Sacre Cour, Montmarte is known for being a night-club district. Historically, this area developed into a centre of decadent entertainment at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. Cabarets like the Moulin Rouge and Le Chat Noir were popular even as the Basilica was being built then between 1875-1914. At the end of the 19th century Montmarte became the principal artistic centre of Paris and names such as Jongkind, Pissarro, Matisse, Renoir, Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec, Dali, Modigliani, Manet, Monet, Mondrian, Picasso and van Gogh have been associated with it. Although the bohemian activity in Montmarte is no longer, till today, artists still set up their easels every day amidst display racks, tables and umbrellas of Place du Tertre, just below the Basilica.

The day we were in Montmarte, it was raining. After visiting the Basilica, we'd ridden on Le petit train de Montmarte which took us on a 40 min. guided tour of the area - the 'Butte Montmarte'. We saw among others, the small vineyard in the Rue Saint-Vincent, Musee de Montmarte, Espace Dali, Cimetiere de Montmarte and the cabarets Le Lapin Agile and (in the red-light district of Pigalle) Moulin Rouge.

A cheese shop in Montmarte (CNB 2014)

For lunch, we chose Au Cadet de Gascogne, with a good view of the Place du Tertre. While waiting for our escargot and salmon dishes, we watched the artists and the tourists in the rain. One or two of the artists made a sale then but mostly the tourist would stop by, look and leave. Maybe the artists made more sales in the summer.

Buttered parsley escargot (CNB 2014)

I had to use the washroom which was upstairs, and as I reached the top my nose told me that a chat must be here somewhere. True enough, there was one, though not le chat noir, it was brown. And the chef seemed to be its owner. I found out later that a new 'cat cafe' in the chic Marais district of Paris, Cafe des Chats, has long queues because Parisians want to dine with felines and get 'purr therapy'.

On our walk downhill later, we passed by the Moulin de la Galette, a restaurant near the old windmill. This windmill is also rouge. Walking along the cobble stone streets, we came across many interesting food shops here, mainly 'artisanal'. Fromagerie (cheese shop), creperie, bisquiterie, boulangerie (bakery), chocolaterie, etc. We stopped by the Bisquiterie de Montmarte and found the most delicious macarons for so much less than one would pay at Laduree.

Macarons on display at BdM (CNB 2014)

Montmarte certainly has much to offer. On my last visit in 1975, I only remember posing in front of the Basilica and the Moulin Rouge, and looking at the artists at work in Place du Tertre. We certainly did much more on this revisit.