Montmartre
From Paris Hotels Reviews
Montmartre
In spite of being one of the city’s chief tourist attractions, Montmartre retains something of the quiet, almost secretive, air of its rural origins. Incorporated into the city only in the mid – nineteenth century, its population was swollen by the poor communities displaced by Haussmann’s rebuilding programme. Its heyday was from the last years of the century to World War I, when its rustic charms and low rents attracted crowds of artists. Since then, the quartier’s physical appearance has changed little, thanks largely to the warren of plaster – of-Paris quarries the perforate its bowels and render the ground too unstable for new building. Tiny square still give way to sudden vistas south over the rooftops of central Paris, and the occasional studio window is a tangible reminder of Montmartre’s illustrious artistic past.
In the second half of the twentieth – century, the Butte, along with Pigalle at its foot, slumped into a sleazy half – life of porn shows and semi – genteel poverty, but both neighborhoods have undergone a radical makeover in recent years. The boom in property prices has brought wholesale gentrification of formerly crumbling apartment block, fashionable nightspots have driven out the sex shows, and moneyed bobos have replaced artists, transvestites and prostitutes. The heart of the action is around Abbesses métro, extending right down to Pigalle, with rue des Martyrs as the chief artery of cool, local regulations are currently being adjusted to allow Sunday trading, as part of the creation of a "tourist zone" that it’s hoped will rival the Marais. If it’s successful, expect crowds of fashionable Sunday brunches and browsers – Parisians as much as tourists – and don’t visit on a dead Monday. Non-local cars are already banned from the Butte all day on Sunday (8am – 6.30pm).
Most visitors make straight for the landmark church of Sacré – Coeur via the steps or funicular railway (covered by ordinary métro tickets) immediately below. But for a less touristy approach, head up via place des Abbesses, currently one of the liveliest areas in the city, full of trendy clothes shops (see box on p.386) and bijou cafés and restaurants.
