Underground & cool · Bouldering gym · € · 18e · Montmartre & Pigalle
Arkose Montmartre
A bouldering gym below Montmartre with ropeless walls graded for first-timers as well as regulars, plus a bar and yard for when your forearms give out.
Booking through this link may earn par.is a commission. Same price as anywhere.
No experience needed for the discovery session, and the off-peak day pass is the cheaper way in.
Getting there
- Blanche2370 m · 7 min walk
- Abbesses12440 m · 8 min walk
- Place de Clichy213510 m · 9 min walk
Around the corner
Moulin Rouge · 310 m away
Moulin Rouge is a cabaret in Paris, on the Boulevard de Clichy, at the Place Blanche, the intersection and end of the Rue Blanche.
Wikipedia ↗Walks that pass nearby
- Montmartre Heightsstop 1 of 6 · 310 m
Moulin Rouge
The 1889 cabaret where the can-can went global. The original windmill burned down in 1915; the current one is a 1925 reconstruction. Still doing two shows a night.
The exterior is the photo — the show inside is expensive and a touch tourist-trap. Walk east along Boulevard de Clichy to escape the area's neon, then cut up Rue Houdon to begin the climb.
- Painters' Viewsstop 6 of 7 · 310 m
Toulouse-Lautrec at Moulin Rouge
Toulouse-Lautrec painted his Moulin Rouge series 1892–1895, capturing dancers like La Goulue and Jane Avril. The paintings are in museums worldwide; the lithograph posters he made for the cabaret are in the BNF. The cabaret itself has rebuilt twice but kept its windmill silhouette.
Stand on Boulevard de Clichy in front of the Moulin Rouge for the iconic-poster angle. Inside, the show is descended from the cabaret of his time but is now firmly tourist; the exterior is the painting's content.
- Cinemas That Survivedstop 3 of 6 · 360 m
Studio 28
10 Rue Tholozé, opened 1928 — the first ciné d'art-et-d'essai ("art-and-experiment cinema") in the world. Buñuel and Cocteau both consulted on the décor; the bar has Cocteau-designed light fittings and chairs. Premiered Buñuel and Dalí's L'Âge d'Or in 1930 to a riot.
The bar (open before films) is the secret — Cocteau's painted murals and original 1928 lamp shades. Have a drink in the courtyard garden behind, then sit in the velvet-seated single auditorium. Programming leans art-house and repertory; sometimes the film is in original-version English with French subtitles.
- Belle Époque Parisstop 6 of 6 · 460 m
Métro Abbesses entrance
Hector Guimard's 1900 cast-iron entrance. One of only two édicules with the original glass canopy still in place — the rest of his entrances had their roofs removed for being "too modern." The deepest station in the métro at 36 m.
Tap your ticket and ride the spiral staircase down rather than the lift — the walls are painted with murals on the way. Coming back up, take the lift; that's 174 steps the hard way. The other surviving original Guimard édicule is at Porte Dauphine.
Within a few minutes' walk
- Studio 28Historic cinema with garden bar€ · 4 minOpened in 1928 as the first cinema built for the avant-garde — Buñuel's L'Âge d'Or provoked a riot here in 1930. Chandeliers designed by Cocteau hang in the 170-seat hall, and a back garden runs as a bar.
- Cimetière de MontmartreCemetery€ · 4 minSunk into a former gypsum quarry below the streets, with the iron Pont Caulaincourt carried straight over the graves. Zola, Degas, Stendhal and Berlioz lie here; Dalida's flowered bust draws a daily crowd. Quieter and more wooded than Père-Lachaise, and full of cats.
- Hôtel Bonséjour MontmartreBudget hotel€ · 5 minA plain, well-kept budget house on the cobbled rue Burq below Abbesses, several of its rooms opening onto small iron balconies over the street. No frills, strong value, a quiet address inside a busy quarter.
- Caulaincourt MontmartreBoutique hostel€ · 7 minSet by the Lamarck-Caulaincourt steps on the quiet north flank of the butte, with a terrace that looks out over Montmartre's staircases rather than its crowds. French breakfast included.
- Maison SouquetBelle Époque hotel€€€ · 7 minA former maison close near the Moulin Rouge, redone by Jacques Garcia in full Belle Époque dress: rooms named for courtesans, a winter garden, a private pool you book by the hour. Theatrical and deliberately sealed off from the street.
- Hôtel Joke AstotelDesign hotel€€ · 10 minPlayful, colourful modern design behind a Haussmann façade at the foot of Place Blanche, three minutes from the Moulin Rouge — mirror and light play by architect Philippe Maidenberg.
Where to stay near Arkose Montmartre
- Terrass'' HôtelRooftop-bar hotel€€€ · 1 minA Montmartre hotel whose seventh-floor bar, Le Terrass'', lays out the Eiffel Tower and most of the southern skyline. The rooms below are comfortable rather than remarkable; the roof is the reason to come.
- Hôtel des Arts MontmartreMontmartre boutique€€ · 3 minA family-run boutique on rue Tholozé, the street that climbs to the Moulin de la Galette, a few minutes below Sacré-Cœur. No grand view; the reward is the address and the upkeep at a fair price.
- Hôtel Particulier MontmartreGarden-mansion hotel€€€ · 4 minA private mansion on Avenue Junot with five suites, each handed to a different artist, set around one of the largest private gardens in Paris. No panorama; the feeling is of having slipped behind Montmartre's walls.
Booking through this link may earn par.is a commission. Same price as anywhere.
The district · 18e
Montmartre & Pigalle — The butteSacré-Cœur and the artists' square up top; the back-streets of Abbesses and Lamarck below; Pigalle's neon and the Saint-Ouen flea market at the edge. Steep, photogenic, and busiest where the tour groups cluster.
Best for: View-chasers and night-owls who'll climb for it; pick the quieter north side.
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