A hill that rises and looks out over this beautiful city.
A hill of ups and downs, with tall green trees bent by fierce winds and the weight of the years.
A hill with small hidden squares and narrow, winding streets and charming architecture,
A hill that gained eternal life thanks to the artists and the art that chose to settle here, to create, to live, and to die here.
The Walking Route Through Montmartre
Instead of a map: beneath the heading of each stop is its address, and every address is a link. Click it, and the spot will open right away in Google Maps.
Walking route: 5 km
Metro: Lamarck Caulaincourt (green, line 12)
Climbing the stairs out of the metro station gives you a hint, though not a discouraging one, of what’s waiting for us today in the neighborhood.
Japan and France
As usual, I start at the patisserie of a certain Boris Lume.
Small, beautiful, and old-fashioned.
Gorgeous.
The ceilings are hand-painted by a master, and the colorful tiles on the walls catch the eye.
As usual, I stand in front of a beautiful display of colorful showcase pastries, decorated and crafted by hand. The decision takes a while, and in the end we settle on a green matcha tart and a lemon tart, which will always be one of my favorites.
It turns out Lume lived and worked in Japan, and that’s where he draws his inspiration.
The matcha tart is gorgeous, delicate, and perfect.
It’s topped with flambéed raspberry, and the combination of pale, delicate cream and tart, bold raspberry creates wonderful harmony in the mouth. My bites get smaller and smaller: I want to hold onto this pleasure before it’s gone.
The lemon tart is also beautiful and wonderfully delicious, modestly garnished with fresh mint leaves. The cream has just the right amount of tartness, and the crust is crisp and caramelized, crumbling in the mouth.
There’s no better way to start the day.
Address: Boris Lume, 48 rue Caulaincourt. Metro Lamarck-Caulaincourt
This Chocolate Is Wonderful
Right across the street from Boris Lume is another well-known chocolatier and pâtissier in the city.
And it’s huge.
Pastries, ice creams, candies, cookies, chocolate sculptures in every flavor, shape, and color, wild chocolate desserts like the chocolate bag we ask him to wrap up for us (I don’t know when we’ll eat it, but I’m not leaving here without it). Or the candies he makes, coated in a thin, bittersweet layer of chocolate in flavors like basil, orange, or forest berries, which he calls pop art.
And how can you resist his gilded cigars and chocolates?
Please, wrap this up, and this, and this.
And this……
Everything ends up in my backpack, which has learned a thing or two about sweet tours in the sweetest city in the world.
Address: Arnaud Larher, 53 rue Caulaincourt
Villa Léandre and Marcel
We cross back to the other side of the street, walk a few more meters, and on our right find a staircase, the kind we’ll meet several more of today. We climb it, and it leads us to one of the sweetest streets in the neighborhood.
Panting and out of breath, we reach the top.
Here, on the right, is the beautiful and upscale villa Léandre.
This street is small and short, lined with gorgeous private houses in the style of English cottages, and some say that from their windows, the owners enjoy the most beautiful view in the city.
Right at the entrance to the street, on the right, is a beautiful, elegant modern café.
A coffee break here is a must, mostly because of how beautiful the street and the café are.
It’s calm and green here, with almost no tourist traffic at all, and when there is, it’s very sparse.
Most tourists prefer to focus on the Sacré-Cœur or the Place du Tertre, which we’ll also get to today.
For now, we enjoy this green quiet and wander the small, hidden streets dotted with lovely little squares.
And thank you, god of coffee, coffee shops, and the pleasant breeze that caresses us.
Address: villa Léandre
Address: Marcel, 1 villa Léandre
Place Dalida
Leaving Marcel, we turn and wind along the street to the left until we reach another beautiful, shaded square: place Dalida. Her statue stands in the middle of this small square. Dalida was a beloved singer and actress, her home is not far from here, and she is buried in Montmartre’s green cemetery.
Across from the square, another street winds away, and from it you can already glimpse the Sacré-Cœur.
On the left is the staircase that’s the close companion of the one we climbed to get here.
And on the right of the square is the way toward the historic and beautiful rue Lepic.
We choose to turn right toward rue Lepic, and after 200 meters, we stop.
If you’d like to read more about Dalida, I invite you to read Dr. Orna Liberman’s wonderful piece, Dalida Forever.
Address: place Dalida
The Man Who Walks Through Walls
We stopped to see the man who walks through walls.
It’s a charming, intriguing metal sculpture peeking out of the wall, a tribute to the novel by Marcel Aymé, who lived and worked here for most of his life.
Address: 4 place Marcel-Aymé
We continue along the street and arrive at rue Lepic.
La Moulin de la Galette
This is the last flour mill left on the hill, now turned into a restaurant, standing at the heart of the charming rue Lepic, which winds its way up (and down) while keeping its character and its beautiful, original buildings. It’s historic, and artists like Van Gogh, who spent a short time here, once lived along it.
Walking down this gorgeous street, you’ll spot small blue plaques simply marking the names of the artists who once lived here.
Le Moulin de la Galette, 83 rue Lepic
Place Du Tertre
Place du Tertre used to be full of painters, artists, and scattered easels, where artists worked on sketching the profiles or faces of tourists.
Today the square itself is mostly packed with restaurants and crowds of tourists.
The artists themselves have moved to a small corner of the square, and for a few dozen euros, you can still get a drawn or painted portrait of yourself.
On our left is the Dalí museum.
I’m a huge fan of Dalí, but today I’m planning on a different museum, one I’ve never been to before.
Address: place du Tertre
A Street Gallery
On the way to the Montmartre history museum, we pass through a street that’s a street gallery, mostly of bright, playful paintings and ceramic pieces.
A few more meters downhill, and right on our right is the turn toward the museum of the hill’s history.
Address: 1 rue des Saules
The Montmartre History Museum
This is a small, charming museum.
Charming.
The old building overlooks the foot of the hill, open to the view and the expanse of the city, and surrounded mostly by green slopes and a garden that’s green and fairly large relative to the building.
Surprising.
On one of the slopes, they even grow grapevines.
There are no great works by great artists here, but there is the history of this world-famous hill, from the moment it was a bare, rocky outcrop, through the flour mills that once dotted it, and up to our own time.
There are gorgeous, colorful posters of the Folies Bergère and the Moulin Rouge, the two famous can-can clubs in the city, and the journey this dance made from a questionable dance to one that’s considered art.
The garden is also full of statues and benches overlooking the gorgeous view.
Here we open our backpack, and in the box, the chocolate “bag,” filled with chocolate mousse enriched with bits of meringue and hazelnuts, a base of crisp pastry and hazelnuts, and on top of all that beauty, a perfectly roasted hazelnut coated in gold.
Address: Musée de Montmartre, 12-14 rue Cortot
For more information and to buy tickets, click here
The Sacred Heart
We’d already visited this church before, and it’s gorgeous from the outside, and fairly plain by comparison on the inside.
But the big bonus is the stunning view it offers over the whole city.
From a distance, you can see the Eiffel Tower, the Tour Montparnasse, the colorful Centre Pompidou, and the elegant dome of the Panthéon.
Sacré-Cœur, 35 rue du Chevalier-de-la-Barre
The Fabric Market
Coming down the wide staircase below the church, you’ll find rue Saint-Pierre, where I love to wander and buy French textiles or fabric remnants, though the word “remnant” doesn’t do them justice: remnants for upholstering armchairs and chairs, remnants that, at laughably low prices, turn into beautiful tablecloths, curtains, bedding, or laundry bags.
Today I buy one such “remnant” for 10 euros, in a red and white check. A small hem at the edge, and it’ll go from a remnant to a cheerful tablecloth for country-style meals.
Address: 1 place Saint-Pierre
Pastries and the Awakening Abbesses
We were hungry.
We had plans for a meal somewhere else, so we make our in-between snack at a local boulangerie, whose owner has won awards mostly for his baguette, but the savory pastries are delicious too. We bite into the wonderful cheese pastries, wander through the green, charming, and up-and-coming Abbesses neighborhood, and admire the shaded squares and small streets.
Abbesses was, and still is, a working-class neighborhood with no shortage of immigrants.
Something good has been happening here in recent years, as in other neighborhoods like Canal Saint-Martin, Belleville, and Le Sentier: young people and families, tired of insane housing prices, moved to the outer neighborhoods of the city and made their homes there, opening restaurants, cafés, galleries, and design shops. And it’s lovely.
Wandering down the lively, vibrant rue des Abbesses paints a gallery of people, mostly locals, Black and white, immigrants and young families.
A magical place.
Address: Le Grenier à Pain, 38 rue des Abbesses
The Best Ice Cream
A minute before we leave this charming district, we stop at one excellent ice cream shop.
Outstanding.
I dive into the incredible chocolate popsicle, rich with vanilla, bits of tart raspberry, coated in green matcha, roasted pistachios, and rose petals that fill the air with their scent.
Address: 44 rue des Abbesses
We pass by the beautiful and distinctive church, lovely from the outside and plain on the inside (though still interesting), the charming and colorful graffiti that catches the eye, and keep heading down to rue des Martyrs.
Rue des Martyrs
If you love gastronomy.
If food shops, fruits and vegetables, cheeses, patisseries and boulangeries excite you, if you live and breathe the world of cooking, you absolutely have to walk down this street.
This street is dizzying.
It has everything, and everything is arranged beautifully and catches the eye, and it just doesn’t stop.
Pure pleasure.
The street itself starts in the 18th arrondissement, crosses boulevard de Clichy, and winds its way down into the 9th arrondissement.
We’re with it the whole way.
We pass by and stop at two patisseries, one next to the other: one belongs to a guy from Marseille who makes all the French classics with deliberate rustic charm (Pierre Hermé would die if his macarons came out looking like this). His breads are wonderful, wonderful, and at the patisserie next door we bite into a fantastic lemon tart with an unconventional, relaxed, delicate look.
Further along is a patisserie entirely devoted to the most pampered French cookie I know: the madeleine.
They make sweet madeleines, and even savory ones.
Address: Mesdemoiselles Madeleines, 37 rue des Martyrs
Rue Cadet
And the beauty of rue des Martyrs is that it’s very close to another gastronomic street: rue Cadet.
It’s also small and overflowing with wonderful food.
There are restaurants and bars here too, most of them in a “flea market” style.
There’s no formality, just young bars with relaxed music and an atmosphere of freedom in the air.
There’s a shop here that specializes only in foie gras, a fromagerie where I load up on even more cheese (God help me), and even a kosher supermarket.
On this street we end this magical day at a delicious rotisserie, a French classic: roasted chicken, juicy and golden brown, with buttery, creamy potatoes on the side, soft, golden, and French through and through.
What a day this was.
Address: Rôtisserie Stévenot, 7 rue Cadet
Want More Walking Routes in Montmartre?
Did this walking route whet your appetite, and now you want to discover more of Montmartre’s secrets? Head over to the Montmartre page to find more walking routes, recommendations, and useful information to help you plan the perfect trip to Montmartre.
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