Travelling Cheap

Paris is a beautiful city, but it can become intense at times. Regardless of whether we are there as tourists to enjoy a walk along the Seine and check out the buildings and architecture or sip a coffee and have a croissant at a cafe, there are people going to work and running errands around the city centre all day. And when it gets hot the atmosphere can become stifling.

The most beautiful escape, without really leaving Paris, is to take a stroll up to Monmartre. I say stroll, but what used to be a village until 100 years ago, is now one of the main tourist attractions and sits atop a hill 130 meters above Paris. Normally, that is not a very long distance, but the walk up is very steep so you might prefer to take the cable car to the top of the hill.

The hill is crowned with the Sacred Heart Catholic Basilica and draws hundreds of tourists every day, however the area has kept its charm with its treelined steps leading down into countless of little alleys (featured in films such as Amelie and La Vie En Rose). The entire neighbourhood with its old houses and lovely gardens is perched on this steep hillside and looks like a mountain village you would expect to find in rural Greece, although the architecture is unmistakebly French.

When we got to the foot of the hill with my ex, all the noise of Paris seemed to disappear. A short ride on the cable car and we were at the top outside the Cathedral. We made a small donation at the entrance and wandered around inside this magnificent church, taking in the designs and the way the lights shone in through the windows. Everything was hushed, all the tourists spoke as quietly as possible, and even the flashes of the cameras seemed like an affront.

Once outside the flashes restarted and everyone was taking pictures of everyone. Down the steps from the cathedral you can use the coin operated binocculars to look at anything in the whole of Paris. All the sites are available from the top of this hill, although you might want to bring a lot of coins if intend to have a good look. Unfortunately, I had spent mine on the donation box. You can even have your picture drawn, as artists ply their trade at the top of the hill like many famous painters in the area before them. Well, I’m not sure they sketched tourists, but Monmartre was at the heart of a Bohemian community of painters in the 19th and 20th century, the ranks of which included Renoir, Monet, Van Gogh and Picasso.

We decided to walk down the steps, which was much quicker and easier than I thought it would be, and then strolled between the lamp posts and trees, down the steep narrow alleyways and enjoyed a coffee and some lunch at one of the cafes, where a random customer started playing their piano. You can’t arrange romance like that…

You are better off booking a hotel or hostel somewhere near to Monmartre, as staying on the hill itself may offer you a lovely view, but if you intend to do some site seeing it can be exhausting to walk back up at the end of the day. It is a must see location and offers you a view of a Paris as it was.

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