Paris_ City Guide (Lonely Planet, 7th Edition) - Lonely Planet [103]
6 Moulin Radet About 100m to the east, at the corner of rue Girardon, is the Moulin Radet. Confusingly, it’s now a restaurant called Le Moulin de la Galette.
7 Passe-Muraille statue Crossing through place Marcel Aymé, you’ll see a curious statue of a man emerging from a stone wall. It’s by the late actor Jean Marais and portrays Dutilleul, the hero of Marcel Aymé’s short story Le Passe-Muraille (The Walker through Walls), who awakes one fine morning to discover he can do just what he’s shown doing here.
8 Cimetière St-Vincent Turn left (north) into rue Girardon, cross through leafy square St-Buisson (Holy Bush) and past the charmingly named Allée des Brouillards (Fog Path) and descend the stairs from place Dalida into rue St-Vincent; on the other side of the wall is Cimetière St-Vincent, final resting place of the great and the good, including Maurice Utrillo (1883–1955), the so-called Painter of Montmartre.
9 Au Lapin Agile Just over rue des Saules is the celebrated cabaret Au Lapin Agile, whose name seems to suggest a nimble rabbit but actually comes from Le Lapin à Gill, a mural of a rabbit jumping out of a cooking pot by caricaturist André Gill, which can still be seen on the western exterior wall. Among the cabaret’s regulars was the poet Guillaume Apollinaire, the great proponent of cubism and futurism, who was killed in combat in 1918.
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WALK FACTS
Start Metro Blanche
End Metro Abbesses
Distance 2.5km
Time Two hours
Fuel stops Il Duca, La Maison Rose
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10 Close du Montmartre Turn right (south) onto rue des Saules. Just opposite is the Close du Montmartre, a small vineyard dating from 1933, whose 2000 vines produce an average of 850 bottles of wine each October. They’re auctioned off for charity in the 18e.
11 Musée de Montmartre You can buy sample bottles of the hooch at the Musée de Montmartre, which is on rue Cortot at No 12–14, the first street on the left after the vineyard. The museum is housed in Montmartre’s oldest building, a manor house built in the 17th century, and one-time home to painters Renoir, Utrillo and Raoul Dufy.
12 Eric Satie’s house The celebrated composer lived from 1892 to 1898 in the house at 6 rue Cortot.
13 Water tower At the end of rue Cortot turn right (south) onto rue du Mont Cenis (the attractive water tower just opposite dates from the early 20th century), left onto (tiny) rue de Chevalier de la Barre and then right onto rue du Cardinal Guibert.
14 Église St-Pierre de Montmartre This will lead you past the back of Église St-Pierre de Montmartre. It was built on the site of a Roman temple to Mercury and did time as a ‘Temple of Reason’ under the Revolution and as a clothing factory during the Commune.
15 Basilique du Sacré Cœur The entrance to the Basilique du Sacré Cœur and the stunning vista over Paris from the steps and the place du Parvis du Sacré Cœur are just a few paces to the south.
16 Place du Tertre From the basilica follow rue Azaïs west, past the upper station of the funicular station, and then rue St-Eleuthère north into place du Tertre – arguably the most touristy place in all of Paris but buzzy and still fun.
17 Dalí Espace Montmartre Just off the southwestern side of the square is rue Poulbot, leading to the Dalí Espace Montmartre – surprisingly the only ‘art’ museum on the Butte.
18 Bateau Lavoir From place du Calvaire take the steps – actually rue du Calvaire – into rue Gabrielle, turning right (west) to reach place Émile Goudeau. At No 11bis is the so-called Bateau Lavoir, where Kees Van Dongen, Max Jacob, Amedeo Modigliani and Pablo Picasso, who painted his seminal Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907) here, once lived in great poverty, in an old piano factory later used as a laundry that Jacob dubbed the ‘Laundry Boat’ because of the way it swayed in