Halle St-Pierre

From Paris Hotels Reviews

Halle St-Pierre

To the south and east of the Sacré-Coeur, the slopes of the Butte drop steeply downs towards boulevard Barbés and the Gotte d’Or quarter. Directly below are the gardens of square Willette, milling with tourists. To avoid the crowds, make instead for the quiet gardens to the north of the Sacré-Coeur, the Parc de la Turlure, or head down the steeply stepped rue Utrillo, turning right at the pleasant café, L’Eté en Pente Douce (see p.342), which has outdoor tables in the corner of rue Paul Albert. From here, more steps lead down along the edge of the gardens to rue Ronsard, where you can see the (sealed) entrances to quarries where the original plaster of Paris was extracted.

The circular Halle St-Pierre (daily 10am – 6pm; €7; ⓦwww.hallesaintpierre.org; M° Anvers), at the bottom of rue Ronsard, was once a market building but is now exhibition space dedicated to Art Brut, or works by artists – often autodidacts – the mainstreams galleries won’t touch. The biannual exhibitions encompass anything from naïve paintings to sci – fi sculptures. The diet is usually visionary and alternative, often fascinating and sometimes indigestible; a recent exhibitor was H.R. Giger, the artist behind the film Alien, for example. On the ground floor is a selection of works by young, semi – professional artists that changes every fortnight. The Halle is energetically run by a charitable association, with evening concerts (mostly classical, mostly on Thursday s), kids’ workshops, book readings and a café with good cakes and teas.