If you’ve ever had a travel conversation with me, I’ve talked about Rolinka, the cutest little Dutch girl (OK, woman) you’d ever want to meet. Rolinka was our assistant tour guide on the 2000 Rick Steves’ Best of Europe tour and our lead tour guide on the 2002 Best of Village Europe tour. Along with her boyfriend, Rene (our bus driver), we spent many fabulous times experiencing Europe, learning about the culture, having new experiences, and laughing a lot! In 2003 when I visited Paris, we met for a quick drink in the Tuileries Garden while her Dutch tourist group scattered themselves around the area for free time. Imagine my surprise when I emailed her in December to see if her plans included any more Dutch groups visiting Paris—she replied immediately, “I LIVE in Paris now!!” (By the way, NO day is a good hair day for me in Paris!)So today I set out for Montmartre, a part of Paris that used to be its own village (didn't become a part of Paris until 1860); and now because of its height about sea level, it is often referred to as the balcony of Paris. (Rolinka met me at the entrance of the Lamarck Metro station, where the tracks are 112 steps below ground. There's an elevator, of course, but I took the stairs--of course.) I hadn’t been here since my first trip in 1993 so I was anxious to be reintroduced. Montmartre is one of the city’s more historic centers—primarily known for the white-domed Basilica of the Sacre-Coeur on its summit. It is also here that Saint Denis, a Christian martyr, was beheaded; there’s a statue of him holding his head in a quiet park off the beaten path.
Montmartre (literally, the mountain of the martyr) has a very bohemian history: it was at one time the home of famous painters and writers like Renoir (he painted his best-known work here, Bal du Moulin de la Galette, featuring the windmill shown below), Utrillo, Picasso, Modigliani, Rousseau, Gertrude Stein, Vincent van Gogh, and Toulouse-Lautrec, among others. Since it was outside the city limits, free of Paris’ wine taxes, and no doubt also due to the fact that the local nuns made wine, the butte quickly became a popular entertainment and drinking area. Anything was acceptable—you’ve heard of the Moulin Rouge and Le Chat Noir cabarets, I’m sure.
After fixing me a delicious lunch (thank you, Rolinka!) and catching up on our lives, Rolinka took me for a little walking tour through the back streets of Montmartre—like she said: once a tour guide, always a tour guide. We encountered some rain and wind (reason for the lower-quality pictures) but we enjoyed the stroll through some very quiet, green, and peaceful streets--saw some beautiful, big homes, a surprise in Paris.
We snooped in a couple of delightful shops; we strolled by the grocery store where Amelie shopped in the movie of the same name; we marveled at two old windmills. (Supposedly [despite what everyone tells the tourist], the windmill shown here above the restaurant is not the real one; the original one is hidden further behind the restaurant and I didn't even notice it. Duh...) We also walked by the only remaining vineyard, Clos Montmartre (below), where wine has been produced since the 12th century. Today it’s off-limits to tourists except for during October’s annual grape-harvest fest. The grapes are harvested and the wine produced in the arrondissement’s Mairie (town hall offices) and then the bottles are auctioned off for charity. The wine is said to be v-e-r-y bad but nobody cares—after all, it’s Montmartre!!
PS - I will be returning to Montmartre before I leave. I know Suz wants to come here to wander and visit the basilica. At that time, I'll have more stories and pictures. (You can see the towers of Sacre-Coeur blending in with the cloudy sky above the vineyard in this picture.)
