travel tuesday // montmartre

grab a warm cup of tea (or a pumpkin spice latte!) + get ready for a whole lot o' beauty 

as I reminisce on our amazing day atop Paris' hill, Montmartre, for todays Travel Tuesday!

A little history lesson before the photos start rollin' in:

Montmartre literally means "mountain of martyrs" and named after the Bishop of Paris, Saint Denis, who was decapitated here around 250 AD. Legend has it that Saint Denis was sentenced to death during the Decian persecution of Christians in 250 AD. Along the long walk to his execution, his guard got tired from walking up the steep hill and decided to behead Saint Denis on that very hill, which later became Mont (mountain) martre (martyr). The crazy part, however, is that apparently, Saint Denis picked his head up (ahem, quite literally) and carried it 6 kilometers, preaching along the way to the original spot, then died. This later became the samll village of Saint Denis outside of Paris. Statues of him carrying his head is in many areas of Paris, including Notre Dame, so if you see them, you'll know the background story!

Since Montmartre was outside the city limits during the prohibition on alcohol + free of Paris taxes {+ since the local nuns made wine}, the hill quickly became a popular drinking + adult entertainment area at the end of the 19th + early 20th centuries, most notably, Moulin Rouge and Le Chat Noir.  Now, this is all found at the base of Montmartre, aka Lower Montmartre, whereas Upper Montmartre is a village-like commune.

Have you seen the adorably quirky movie, Amelie? This is Amelie's cafe she worked at! Many scenes in the movie were shot in Montmartre, so it was fun finding the spots

Here is our rather handsome French tourguide from the Discover Walks. His accent and nerdy spectacles were dreamy, I gotta admit! Oh la la! 

Place Marcel Aymé is home to the now famous sculpture by Jean Marais. It depicts "The Man Who Could Walk Through Walls" penned by Marcel Aymé in 1943. The story is a bit scandalous, but the artwork was fun. Apparently, rubbing the man's left thumb gives you good luck, which led to the left thumb being a lot more discolored than the rest of the hand from being rubbed so often! 

La Maison Rose (the Pink House) is a charming little restaurant that has made its rounds in the Pinterest world + it was so cool to cross this off my Pinterest bucket list!

Vineyard in the Rue Saint-Vincent in Montmartre

 

And without further ado, here is Basilica Sacré Cœur!

 

  . . . and here is the view from the top! The Eiffel Tower was hidden behind all the trees.

I was trying to find this spot, but I think any view of Sacre Couer is a good view!

Rue Foyatier is one of the most famous streets in Paris because it consists of flights of stairs leading to  Basilica Sacré Cœur. We found it by accident while exploring (don't you just love when that happens?). And when I looked at my Pinterest board, I realized I pinned this months ago! So cool to stumble upon it!

 

After our guided tour, we just explored the adorable upper Montmartre, which is just so adorable. I kept forgetting that I was still in Paris. I felt like we were several hours away in a quant little village. The Lower Montmartre area is the sketchy side with many adult entertainment, including Le Moulin Rouge and similar (albeit, more risqué) cabarets along with adult shops and the like. That was definitely not why we wanted to see Montmartre (and is the main reason I did not visit Montmartre during last year's visit), but Upper Montmartre? Well, this is just dreamy!!

  

And here is another Pinterest pin come true: the adorable restuarant, Le Poulbot!

How lovely is this? Painters on the sidewalks. This is Place du Tertre, known for artists who paint tourists for pleasure . . . well, and money.

 

 and some guys where just having a little bit of fun!

Well, we eventually made our way back up to Sacré Cœur for round two!

 

We walked down the many steps from Sacré Cœur + over to the I Love You Wall, where LOVE is written in 273 different languages. Another check-off my Pinterest bucket list!

This was honestly my favorite day in Paris! There was so much to see and it was just so great to get out of the busyness of Paris and explore a quieter village-like corner of Paris.