Northern Side of Butte
From Paris Hotels Reviews
Northern Side of Butte
Rue des Saules tips steeply to the north side of the Butte past the terraces of the tiny Montmartre vineyard, which is lovingly tended by an association of local grandees. The annual harvest in the mid-September yields an extraordinary 1500kg of grapes, producing in the region of 1500 bottles of Clos du Montmartre wine. It’s a pretty rough beverage, yet few wine buffs would be hard-hearted enough to resist having at least a bottle in the cellar. A small festival celebrates the vendange on the first weekend of October. The picturesque house standing opposite the lowest corner of the vineyard is the cabaret club An Lapin Agile (ⓦwww.au-lapin-agile.com) , made famous by the Montmartre artists who drank there in the 1900s – among them Picasso, whose fifty-million-dollar self-portrait as a harlequin is set inside. The “nimble rabbit” is still alive today and still serving up classic French chanson, though changes has made in somewhat less sprightly and given it a distinctly nostalgic mind-set.
To the right, rue Cortot cuts through to the water tower, whose distinctive, white, lighthouse-like form is one of the landmarks of the city’s skyline, together with the Sacré-Coeur.
The elegant old house at 12 rue Cartot is particularly rich in artistic associations, having been home, at various times, to Auguste Renoir, Raoul Dufy, and Suzanne Valdon and her troubled son Maurice Utrillo. It’s now the Musée de Montmartre (Wed – Sun 11am – 6pm; €7; ⓦwww.muséedemontmartre.fr; M° Larmarck-Caulaincourt), whose low-key exhibits attempt to re-create the atmosphere of Montmartre’s heyday via a selection of Toulouse-Lautrec posters, mock-ups of various period rooms – including a bar complete with original zinc, or pewter top- and painted impressions of how the Butte once looked. It’s not terribly gripping, but the museum does offer a magnificent view from the back over the hilly northern reaches of the city and the vineyard, and the shop usually has a few bottles of Montmartre wine.
Berlioz lived with his English wife in the corner house on the steps of rue du Mont-Cenis, from where there’s a breathtaking view northwards along the canyon of the steps, as well as back up towards place du Calvaire. The steps are perfect sepia-romantic Montmartre – a double handrail runs down the centre, with the lampposts between – and the streets below are among the quietest and least touristy in Montmartre.
