This drawing on a Montmartre wall that I passed last week is so appropriate and indicative of the history of this once remote part of Paris. (Suz and I visited here again today and she took this picture.) The heyday occurred during the last half of the 19th century until World War I, after Haussmann tore down housing which forced the displaced inhabitants to the edges of the city. The low rents, Montmartre’s rustic charms, and tax-free booze also attracted crowds of artists. Although it retains a traditional community of workers and artists with their little ateliers (workshops) today, a more prosperous and chic class of Bohemians is moving in. But in its day, Montmartre saw its share of struggling painters and artists who sought inspiration while leaning on each other for support. 
Since medieval times, the place du Tertre has been the town square and the heart of Montmartre. It is located just a block or two from Sacre-Coeur. More like a tourist trap now, it reminds people of the artists who used to set up their easels on top of the butte to paint. Around the area, you can still find the homes where painters Dali, Renoir, Van Gogh, Utrillo, and Toulouse-Lautrec, among others, lived during this period. 
Poets, writers, and singers were here, too. Edith Piaf, a teenager singing for centimes in the streets of Paris, was discovered by a nightclub owner and performed in a building here which is now a gallery. Her stage name was “The Little Sparrow” and her most famous song was La Vie en Rose (The Rosy Life). Her mother a café singer and her father a street acrobat, she was left with her grandmother who ran a brothel before finally joining her father at age 14 performing in the streets. Her love life was tortured and she became addicted to alcohol and pain killers. She was one of France’s most loved singers and after dying from cancer, was buried along with her infant daughter from a teenage pregnancy in Pere-Lachaise cemetery. We visited her on Sunday.
Another famous Montmartrois was Dalida, a singer who lived here between 1962 and until her death in 1987 by an overdose of sleeping pills. Born of Italian parents in Cairo, she adopted Paris after arriving here to pursue a motion picture career. However,
she was more famous and successful as a singer and toured the globe, also singing at a sold-out performance at New York City’s Carnegie Hall. Dalida sold more than 150 million albums worldwide, won numerous awards, and scored more than 70 gold records.Her life, however, was filled with more drama and tragedy than a three-act play. Dalida’s ex-husband’s life (after two months of marriage) ended in suicide when she left him for the painter, Jean Sobieski (he later fathered American actress Leelee Sobieski). In the late sixties, her new lover (an Italian singer) committed suicide while she attempted it as well. She recovered to live with still another guy and then he committed suicide!
I guess all that tragedy led to her popularity in France. Dalida has her own place in Montmartre with a life-size bust (and “bust” can be taken both ways here…); she was honored on a French postage stamp in 2001; and she, too, is buried in Pere-Lachaise cemetery where a life-sized statue of her stands outside her tomb.
One French actress that hasn't yet had time for such a colored past is Audrey Tautou who played the title role in the movie, "Amelie" (and also starred with Tom Hanks in "The DaVinci Code"). Suz and I found the restaurant and epicerie (grocery store) featured in the movie today while we went up and down the hills (Suz took both of these photos).
You can still wander the streets of Montmartre as these artists did before you. The quartier’s physical appearance has changed little because of the plaster-of-Paris quarries that still render the ground too unstable for new building. And when you’re paying attention, you run across 
things like this building directory for a very private and elite group of inhabitants. Notice the names on the buzzers—all artists. Not their real names, of course, so any callers must know their aliases. But a very interesting touch, wouldn’t you say?
You can still wander the streets of Montmartre as these artists did before you. The quartier’s physical appearance has changed little because of the plaster-of-Paris quarries that still render the ground too unstable for new building. And when you’re paying attention, you run across 
things like this building directory for a very private and elite group of inhabitants. Notice the names on the buzzers—all artists. Not their real names, of course, so any callers must know their aliases. But a very interesting touch, wouldn’t you say?
