Brassaï, Montmatre Staircase, 1936

Montmartre! 

A Virtual Walk from Place des Abbesses to the Sacré-Coeur gardens

with Chris Boïcos

Home to artists, poets, Bohemians, cut-throats and ladies of the night from the 19th century to the 1920s, Montmartre is one of the most legendary districts of Paris. Yet many of its more intimate corners remain unknown to the tourists who gather in front of the Sacré Coeur and its old village square, the place du Tertre.

Our walk will take us from the heart of residential Montmartre, the place des Abbesses, with its original Guimard Metro entrance, via the unchanged place Ravignan where Picasso and Modigliani used to live, to the wilderness called the “maquis”, the remarkable Modernist house built by Adolf Loos for Dada poet Tristan Tzara, the gardens of the Montmartre museum, where Renoir and Utrillo used to paint, to the steps descending the picturesque gardens laid out in front of the Sacré Coeur by Adolphe Alphand at the end of the 19th century. Historical paintings and photos will complement and enrich our experience of the present-day sites.