Montmartre is one of the most famous and visited neighborhoods in Paris. It has some extremely beautiful plazas and marvelous architectural masterpieces. This tour comprises a few of the most popular places to be visited in Montmartre.
1) Le Bateau-Lavoir
Le Bateau-Lavoir is a name which French painter Max Jacob coined for an area at the top of the steps leading to No. 13 Rue Ravigan, in Montmartre, Paris. The area is famous in art history because around the start of the 20th century a group of outstanding artists lived and rented artistic studios there. First artists started to settle at the Bateau-Lavoir. The small square later was named after French singer Émile Goudeau. Maxime Maufra (1863–1918) was the first noted artist to take up residence in Bateau-Lavoir, around 1890. Kees van Dongen and Pablo Picasso took up residence between 1900 and 1904. After 1904 more artists and writers moved in. It was in this milieu that Picasso first discussed Cubism. While in Bateau-Lavoir he painted one of his most noted works, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon.
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2) Place du Calvaire
Place du Calvaire is where you can come to get a panoramic view of Paris. It is the place where the famous artist Maurice Neumont once lived. His house is right next to the little square.
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3) L'Espace Dalí
Near to the famous Place du Tertre in Montmartre, the Espace Dali presents the unique permanent exhibition in France entirely devoted to the master of surrealism, Salvador Dali and more particularly to his sculptures and engravings. The museum has more than 300 original artworks which feature the phantasmagorical world of one of the major twentieth century artists. In reality, this is the France biggest collection of Dalinian sculptures, which represent a significant aspect of the artistic creation of Dali. The collection reveals three dimensional realizations of the most famous surrealistic images of the artist. Salvador Dali has illustrated the main literature, mythology, History and religion topics. Through this significant work, he expresses his own vision of the poetic and literary universal topics.
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4) Place du Tertre
The Place du Tertre is a square in Paris' XVIIIe arrondissement. With its many artists setting up their easels each day for the tourists, the Place du Tertre is a reminder of the time when Montmartre was the mecca of modern art. At the beginning of the 20th century, many penniless painters including Picasso and Utrillo were living there. Prominent in the square is a cafe, Au Clairon des Chasseurs, which is famous for its reasonably priced local cuisine, and as a bonus, its constant live music which is in the style of Django Reinhardt and the Hot Club of France. L'Espace Salvador Dalí, a museum principally dedicated to the sculpture and drawings of Salvador Dalí, can be found a few steps from Place du Tertre.
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5) Sacre Coeur Basilica
The Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Paris, commonly known as Sacré-Cœur Basilica is a Roman Catholic church and minor basilica, dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, in Paris, France. The inspiration for the Basilica originated in the wake of the division in French society that arose in the decades following French Revolution, between devout Catholics and legitimist royalists on one side, and democrats, secularists, socialists and radicals on the other. Architect Paul Abadie designed the basilica. With delays in assembling the property, the foundation stone was finally laid 16 June 1875. The overall style of the structure shows a free interpretation of Romano-Byzantine features, an unusual architectural vocabulary at the time, which was a conscious reaction against the neo-Baroque excesses of the Opéra Garnier, which was cited in the competition. Many design elements of the basilica symbolise nationalist themes.
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6) Church of Saint Peter of Montmartre
The Church of Saint Peter of Montmartre is the lesser known of the two main churches on Montmartre in Paris, the other being the 19th-century Sacré-Cœur Basilica. Historically, however, it has the greater claim to fame, since, according to the earliest biography of Saint Ignatius Loyola, the church is the location at which the vows were taken that led to the founding of the Society of Jesus. Saint-Pierre de Montmartre was destroyed during the French Revolution, and upon its apse was erected a tower for the purpose of the Chappe optical semaphore. The church was rebuilt in the 19th century, and today is visited by numerous tourists who tend to notice, among other things, the columns of Roman origin used in the nave.
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7) Musée de Vieux Montmartre
Musée de Vieux Montmartre is a historic museum that chronicles the history of Montmartre from its beginning. It exhibits a collection of old maps of the neighborhood as well as photos and other objects with an important historical value for Paris.
8) Lapin Agile
Lapin Agile is a famous Montmartre cabaret, at 22 Rue des Saules, Paris, France. It was originally called "Cabaret des Assassins". Tradition relates that the cabaret received this name because a band of assassins broke in and killed the owner's son. The cabaret was more than twenty years old when, in 1875, the artist Andre Gill painted the sign that was to suggest its permanent name. It was a picture of a rabbit jumping out of a saucepan, and residents began calling their neighborhood night-club "Le Lapin à Gill", meaning "Gill's rabbit". Over time the name evolved into "Cabaret Au Lapin Agile", or, the Nimble Rabbit Cabaret. At the turn of the twentieth century, the Lapin Agile was a favorite spot for struggling artists and writers, including Picasso, Modigliani, Apollinaire, and Utrillo.
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9) Moulin de la Galette
The Moulin de la Galette is a windmill situated near the top of the district of Montmartre in Paris, France. The area has been depicted by artists such as Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Ramon Casas, Vincent van Gogh, and Pablo Picasso. The windmill has been classified as a monument since 1939. The Moulin de la Galette is made up of two mills: "Blute-fin" and "Radet". The first mentioned name of the mill was "Palace windmill" in 1622. The Debray family acquired the two mills in 1809 for producing flour. But it was also used to pressurize the harvest or grind materials needed for manufacturing. The Parisian people appreciated it as Sunday walking goal. In 1870, the owner Charles-Nicolas Debray, added a guinguette with a dancing room, and called it "Moulin de la Galette" in 1895.
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10) Montmartre Cemetery
Montmartre Cemetery is a famous cemetery located at 37 Avenue Samson, in Paris, France. Cemeteries had been banned from Paris since the shutting down of the Cimetière des Innocents in 1786, as they presented health hazards. Several new cemeteries replaced all the Parisian ones, outside the precincts of the capital, in the early 19th century: Montmartre in the north, Père Lachaise Cemetery in the east, Passy Cemetery in the west and Montparnasse Cemetery in the south. Located west of the Butte, near the beginning of Rue Caulaincourt in Place Clichy, the cemetery in the Montmartre quarter of Paris is built below street level in the hollow of an old quarry with its entrance on Avenue Rachel under Rue Caulaincourt. The cemetery epitomizes the artsy, quixotic, gentle, almost whimsical Paris that every romantic visitor secretly cherishes. A popular tourist destination, it is the final resting place of many famous artists who lived and worked in the Montmartre area.
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11) Moulin Rouge
Moulin Rouge, Red Mill, is a cabaret built in 1889 by Joseph Oller, who also owned the Paris Olympia. Close to Montmartre in the Paris red-light district of Pigalle on Boulevard de Clichy in the 18th arrondissement, it is marked by the red windmill on its roof. Today the Moulin Rouge is a tourist destination, offering musical dance entertainment for visitors from around the world. Much of the romance of turn-of-the-century France is still present in the club's decor. The main feature of an evening at the Moulin Rouge is the performance. The venue has become internationally famous as the home of the traditional French can-can, which is still performed there today. The Moulin Rouge lost much of its former reputation as a 'high-class brothel' and it soon became fashionable for French society to visit and see the spectacular cabarets, which have included a can-can ever since.
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