---
node: spot_paris_montmartre
type: spot
slug: montmartre
destination: dest_paris
title: "Montmartre"
lead: "Montmartre is the hill in northern Paris crowned by the white basilica of Sacré-Cœur, and the quarter where Picasso, Utrillo and Toulouse-Lautrec worked. It was a village outside the city until 1860."
published: 2026-08-12
updated: 2026-08-12
image_file: spot_paris_montmartre.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Le_sacre_coeur.jpg"
image_author: "Tonchino"
image_license: "CC BY-SA 3.0"
---

## Overview

The hill kept its vineyards, windmills and cheap rents into the nineteenth century, which is why the painters came; two windmills and one working vineyard survive. Sacré-Cœur was built from 1875 as an act of national penance after the Franco-Prussian War, in a travertine that whitens with rain. Behind the basilica the lanes are still village-scaled, and the tourist crush thins within two streets.

## Highlights

Take the funicular up and walk down. The steps in front of Sacré-Cœur are the free view over Paris; the dome climb adds height and the city's second-best panorama. Place du Tertre is where the portrait painters work — crowded and priced accordingly; the Musée de Montmartre in Renoir's old garden is the quiet alternative.