Paris - Basilique du Sacré Coeur - 18e

 Plate XCIII – Basilica Sacre Couer de Montmartre …

If asked to name the top three icons of Parisian landmarks, Sacré Coeur must surely take its rightful place alongside Eiffel’s tower and the Napoleonic Arc de Triomphe. Dominating the Butte Montmartre and completely overshadowing the neighbouring stone church of St Pierre, often claimed to be the oldest church in Paris, is arguably the newest significant church of the city. To some, it may seem unusual to describe Sacré Coeur as new, for such is it’s dominance of every familiar view of Paris’ northern skyline that the visitor can be forgiven for thinking it has always been there. The truth is it was constructed between the laying of the foundation stone in 1875 and its final consecration in 1919. The stone used in construction of the Basilica is a lime travertine from the Seine-et-Marne region of France, and its perpetual gleaming whiteness is thanks to the stone’s property of continually exuding a form of calcite. Almost Oriental in appearance the architectural style of Sacré Coeur is best described as Romanesque Byzantine, and is mainly ascribed to architect Paul Abadie, whose design was (once again) the winner of an open public architectural competition. The impressive tall tower at the rear of the church contains a 19 ton cast bell named Savoyard, one of the largest in the world. The beautiful gardens surrounding the church are today a popular retreat for both residents and visitors, and access into the church is via an imposing grand staircase leading to the front portico featuring three entrance arches. 

Paris - Place du Tertre - 18e

Plate XCI – Place du Tertre …

I confess I had no idea what a tertre was, or why one should have its own Place. So I looked it up. Well, a tertre is hillock, a heap or a mound. Now Montmartre is more correctly named Butte Montmartre and so I looked up precisely what my old school dictionary has to say about about a butte. You guessed then? A butte too is defined as a mound, knoll or hillock (or the butts behind a target on a shooting range). That’s it then - no more mystery - this simply is the square of the hillock or the Butte Montmartre. It certainly is the centre of life in this district, lying a few short streets away from the Basilica of Sacre Coeur and within shouting distance of the Lapin Agile. Surrounded by relaxed colourful and delightfully lively eateries (or drinkeries depending on your choice of refreshment) it is here that the artists of the area set up their easels daily to paint your portrait or their beloved city sights, and to sell their wares. It is here that you may have your profile cut out by a silhouette-caricaturist if you stand stationery for more than a few seconds. The art work varies from good quality works in oil (and priced accordingly) to the churned out commercial stuff that looks like a million mass-printed table place mats that have already familiarised you with the city scenes in the souvenir shops in the city centre. I never did work out how negotiable the artists’ prices are, but I do suspect that the one who implied I’d grossly insulted him (and his entire ancestry) by trying to negotiate his asking price down, was simply using that as his negotiation strategy to see who blinked first. If so it cost him the sale, and as you will have seen I have more ‘paintings’ of the city today than I’d ever imagined possible!! If the Basilica is the Sacre Coeur de Paris, the Place du Tertre is unquestionably the Coeur de Montmartre. No visit to Paris is complete until I’ve had  ‘des verres de rouge’ here. A votre santé!

When you have finished at the Place du Tetre be sure to visit the nearby l’Espace Salvador Dali, a museum mostly dedicated mainly to the work of the Spanish surrealist.

Paris - Montmartre - 18e

Plate LXXXIX – Montmartre …

To the north of Paris is a hill known as the Butte Montmartre. Some 130 metres above the city and crested by the brilliantly off white basilica of Sacré Coeur it beckons the city’s visitors to come and explore the myriad winding streets and alleys that make up the district to which it lends its name. The name itself derives from a translation of ‘the mountain of the martyr’, referring to St. Denis, former bishop and patron saint of the city, decapitated here in around 250 AD. Originally outside the city limits, it owes its early public popularity to its former tax free status - and reputedly also to the wine made by the local nuns. (It remains a popular drinking area to this day, and having personally enjoyed a robust burgundy or two in it’s precincts I can highly recommend it). Long known also as a place of worship, the church of St Pierre (now dwarfed by the new basilica) is reputedly the oldest of God’s houses in the city. I had, on the day of my visit, been told of the sudden death of a dear friend back home, and it was in the silent still darkness of St Pierre’s that I lit my first ever votive candle. Despite being neither Catholic nor deeply religious it seemed the proper thing to do, and it somehow did make me feel spiritually closer to a bereaved distant family. St. Pierre’s is reputedly where the Jesuit order was founded.

Best known as the home of artists and musicians, Montmartre was inhabited by this community from the early nineteenth century right through to the middle of the twentieth. Famous names associated with the area, too exhaustive to list completely, include Baker, Brissaud, Bruant, Degas, Derain, Matisse, Modigliani, Piaf, Picasso, Pissaro, Renoir, Satie, Toulouse-Lautrec, van Gogh and Utrillo. Many mourn the passing of those bohemian years, so poignantly expressed in Charles Aznavour’s lyrics to La Bohème, but the often gritty reality of life in Montmartre was so brilliantly captured in the film La Môme, with Marion Cotillard in her Oscar winning portrayal of Edith Piaf. A more sanitised depiction of the area was seen in the movie Amélie.  Now designated an historical district, building development is restricted, and the character of the streets will be well preserved. Still populated by a diverse range of individuals including restaurateurs, accordionists, pick-pockets, painters, sketchers, silhouette artists, con artists and hookers, and with a vast number of restaurants and cabarets including the Moulins – Rouge, and de la Galette - and the Lapin Agile, a stroll along the steep sloping alleys cannot fail to bring back some feeling of the decadence of a past life in the city’s north.