Underground & cool · Local museum & artist studio · €€ · 18e · Montmartre & Pigalle
Musée de Montmartre — Jardins Renoir
The oldest house on the Butte, where Renoir painted the 'Bal du Moulin de la Galette' in the garden and where Valadon and Utrillo later kept a studio-apartment, now restored. The terraced Renoir gardens look straight down onto the Clos Montmartre vineyard.
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Summer Wednesdays it stays open to 22:00; the garden benches above the vines are the one place on the Butte without a crowd.
Getting there
- Lamarck Caulaincourt12260 m · 5 min walk
- Abbesses12400 m · 7 min walk
- Anvers2600 m · 11 min walk
Walks that pass nearby
- Painters' Viewsstop 7 of 7 · 80 m
Renoir at Bal du moulin de la Galette
Renoir's 1876 painting of a Sunday-afternoon dance at the open-air ballroom of the Moulin de la Galette — dappled light, blue-and-white checked tablecloths, dancers, cake. The site, on Rue Cortot, is now part of the Musée de Montmartre; the actual ballroom courtyard survives.
Buy a museum ticket — it includes the Jardins Renoir (the gardens behind the museum, where the ballroom's courtyard was). Renoir lived in this exact building 1876–1877 while painting the work. The original is at the Musée d'Orsay.
- Montmartre Heightsstop 5 of 6 · 130 m
Place du Tertre
The artists' square. Once where Picasso, Modigliani, and Utrillo actually lived; now mostly portrait painters and tourists, but still the geographic heart of Montmartre village.
Walk through quickly — the painters will pitch you aggressively. Just east of the square is Saint-Pierre-de-Montmartre (1147), the oldest church in Paris after Saint-Germain-des-Prés, and almost always empty. Worth a five-minute stop before the basilica.
- Paris Verticalstop 4 of 6 · 210 m
Sacré-Cœur dome
Dome at the top of the basilica, 213 m above sea level — the highest publicly accessible point in central Paris after the Eiffel and Montparnasse towers. 300 narrow spiral steps; no lift.
Entrance is on the left side of the basilica facade — separate ticket, paid in cash at the bottom of the stairs. Avoid Sundays (mass crowds the parvis). The dome closes earlier than the basilica; check the day's schedule.
- Golden Hour Parisstop 5 of 6 · 210 m
Sacré-Cœur parvis
The forecourt below the basilica at Montmartre's summit. 30 km of city to the south at 130 m altitude. Sunset from west to north over the rooftops of the 18th and 9th arrondissements; the city lights begin coming on while the sky is still pink.
Sit on the long stone wall at the front of the parvis. Pickpockets and bracelet-scammers are active here — keep bags in front of you. Best in winter when the sun sets to the south-west and lights up Montparnasse Tower in the distance.
Within a few minutes' walk
- Soul KitchenVegetarian café€ · 4 minA small café-canteen below the Montmartre steps, run by a trio of cooks who rewrite the menu every morning around organic, local produce. Lunch is a fixed plate, always with a vegetarian and a gluten-free option, finished with homemade cakes.
- Hôtel Bonséjour MontmartreBudget hotel€ · 7 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.
- L'Été en Pente DouceFrench bistro€€ · 7 minA former bakery at the foot of the Utrillo stairs on the quiet north flank of the Butte, still baking in the old bread oven and serving home-cooking that earns a local crowd: veal blanquette, quiche lorraine, a proper niçoise. The terrace catches both shade and sun.
- Hôtel Particulier MontmartreGarden-mansion hotel€€€ · 7 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.
- Studio 28Historic cinema with garden bar€ · 8 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.
- Le Relais GasconSouthwest French / salads€ · 8 minThe Abbesses address that made its name on one thing: the giant salad, an outsized bowl finished with a layer of garlic-fried potatoes. The rare Montmartre plate that fills you for twelve euros.
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.
Everything we've verified in the 18e →How we verified this
Confirmed currently operating as of June 2026,cross-checked against 1 source:
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