That Traveling Couple

As a tourist (and Paris locals or more experience Paris travelers feel free to correct me) Montmartre seemed like the kind of place that was ever so slightly off the main tourist path. It was not a place I’d ever heard anyone talk about after visiting Paris, not a place I’d heard of in books, movies, or tales of adventure. Nonetheless, looking back, visiting the district of Montmartre might just have been the most memorable part of our visit to the French capital.

Montmartre is a district in the North of Paris known for it’s theatres, entertainment, and general arty-ness. It spans a few subway stops on the blue metro line, approximately from Barbes Rouchechouart to Blanche (right near the Moulin Rouge). But whether you’re into art and theatre or not, Montmartre will wow you, if for no other reason that it’s geography.

Basically, Montmartre is a city on a hill; a hill so big that from the top, it offers the best aerial view of the entire city of Paris you could possibly get.

Getting off the Metro at Anvers you begin your ascent up the Mont, your destination (if you take this route, which I recommend you do) is the Sacre Coeur Basilica, a grand old church perched on top of the hill. This picture alone is a sight to behold, that of an ancient gothic cathedral hoisted into the sky by a capable mountain, shamelessly flaunting it’s beauty and prestige for all to see.

Your climb takes you through the streets of the city, through open air markets, tourist gift shops, and plentiful crepe stands as you gradually move closer to the peak.

What you can’t forget to do on your journey to the top is stop and look backwards. As you make your way higher and higher, incy by inch, the sprawling city shows more and more of itself to you.

It’s a district where you feel like you want to take your time, relatively quiet for its level of activity. If you do choose to linger, you’ll find no shortages of spots to do so at, whether it be a quiet cafe, a bar, or a local restaurant. Whatever you do, you’ll want to have plenty of energy for the final leg of your ascent.

Getting past more of the buildings, you’ll come to a point where you’re making your way up steps, through what would be, if the ground were flat, something like the churches courtyard. The Sacre Coeur will be looming with grandiose before you, waiting to share with you the view that it enjoys each and every day. The street performers on the church’s steps are a spectacle indeed, but what comes next is a memory for a lifetime.

Reaching the top and looking backward is breathtaking. Now at the top of the hill looking over the entire city, you proceed to pick out the different objects you recognize in the Parisian skyline. You take the obligatory photos, and you take a seat and a rest on one of the church steps, just in case the view is too much to take standing up.

What happens next depends on who you are. Maybe you lament the way the light hits certain buildings in the scene; Maybe you imagine all the historical figures of France who have surely stood in the same spot and felt the same feelings of awe any number of decades before you; Or maybe you continue to muse at the other tourists, mulling around in random fashion equally unsure of how to properly appreciate the beauty confronting them.

Whoever you are you’ll face the conflict of wondering at what point to trade one memorable scene for another… the view from the cathedral’s steps, to the view inside the cathedral.

The Basilica is a smaller church than the Notre Dame cathedral, and if you’re not an afficionado of gothic architecture or one who appreciates a good cathedral for religious reasons, you might be tempted to skip going inside the Sacre Coeur Basilica. I advise you don’t.

Actually parts of the inside of the Basilica, Elysia and I judged to be more spectacular than that of Notre Dame. For example there’s an enormous single mural painted on the inside of the cathedral’s main dome which in it’s own right is worth the visit.

Even when you’re finished at the cathedral, your time at Montmartre is not up. Next you can make your way back down the hill on whichever route you choose. Here you can wander aimlessly through side streets, cobblestone paths, and countless points at which you can appreciate an historical building in the foreground, and between structures, an aerial view out to the city in the background.

When you retire from the day you’ll feel like you experienced something special, and uniquely Parisian… because you did.

Montmartre is a place to go on your Paris trip where you don’t need to spend any money if you don’t want, where you can spend as long or as little time as you like, and where there’s something to experience that will be pleasing regardless of your age or interests.

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