Abbesses

From Paris Hotels Reviews

Abbesses

You could almost be persuaded that pretty, tree-shaded Place de Abbesses was a village square – if it weren’t for it’s centerpiece, one of Guimard’s rare, canopied Art Nouveau métro entrances (there are only two others in the city – see the Metro). The métro canopy isn’t in fact an authentic Abbesses sight, as it was transferred from the Hôtel de Ville, complete with its glass porch, tendril – like railings and obscene – looking lanterns – but it looks perfectly at home here in the square.

For shopping and eating, the area around Abbesses is one of the most satisfying in Paris; though note that most places are closed on Mondays. A few peeling, shuttered – up old shops and odd unreconstructed worker’s café survive from the old Montmartre, but these days most have been turned into restaurants or jazzy little boutiques. Still, the unusual number of high-quality, artisan boulangeries is proof that the quarter has held on to its residential roots – you’ll find three on rue des Abbesses alone, and two more in rue Caulaincourt. Some of the best addresses are listed in the Shopping section, but you can let your eye for fashion guide you round rue de Martyrs, rue des Trois Fréres, rue de la Vieuville, rue Houdon and rue Durantin. Heading was from the métro, rue des Abbesses is best for cafés, especially the popular suntrap of Le Sancerre.

On the downhill side of place des Abbesses, the red – brick church of St-Jean de Montmartre is well worth putting your nose inside for its radical construction, dating from the early 1990s. The incredibly slender pillars and broad vaulting were only made possible by the experimental use for reinforced concrete, a material that was, as the church’s architect Anatole de Baudot claimed, both the bones and skin.

East from the place, at the Chapelle des Auxiliatrices in rue Yvonne-Le-Tac, Ignatius Loyola founded the Jesuit movement in 1534. This is also supposed to be the spot where St Denis, the first Bishop of Paris, had his head chopped off by the Romans around 250 AD. He’s said to have carried it until he dropped, on the site of Basilique St-Denis. One block south, rue d’Orsel makes the transition from chichi Montmartre to cheap Barbés, with trendy clothes shops at its top end, near Abbesses, and cheap fabric shops at the bottom. Towards its western end is the picturesque place Charles Dullin, centred on the small Théâtre de l’ Atelier (⊕01. 46. 06. 49. 24, ⓦwww.theatre-atelier.com), where the great mime Jean-Louis Barrault – the inimitable Baptiste in Les Eufants du Paradis – made his debut.