The Montmatre section of Paris is on a steep hillside. This area is famous for the Sacre Coeur, its artist community (Picasso and Van Gogh lived there at the beginning of the 20th century) with its narrow streets, and relatively inexpensive goods. At one time in its history, Montmatre was outside of the walls of Paris and thus not subject to its taxes. Because of this its commerce grew (analogous to NH vs. MA). It is still a great place to find good buys.

Sacre Coeur (photos 1, 2) is a beautiful white church which looks very imposing setting on top of the hill. The church stays naturally white because it was built with a special white stone that is self cleaning in the rain. The huge white building of the basilica was erected between 1876 and 1910 as atonement for the Commune's crime of having started the Parisian insurrection in 1870. The church has a bell tower (photo 3) that can be climbed for an even better view. The bell in the tower weights 18 tons!

Proceeding away from the church along a narrow road, we came to the Place du Tertre Square (photo 1) where the artists had lots of pictures displayed. This has been a commerce and entertainment site since the Middle Ages. On the way to the square I was approached by 3 different artists who wanted to do my portrait. Close by there is the Radet windmill (photo 2), the only one remaining from hundreds of years ago when there were lots of windmills which were used to press grapes and grind grain. This became a popular dance hall, one of the liveliest in Paris. The mill is now a private residence.

Another famous building in Montmarte is the Bateau Lavoir (the original burned down in 1970), which has been used by many different artists The “Bateau Lavoir" was the name given to wooden studios in which now well-known artists such as Picasso and Van Gogh used to live. The picture through the window is Picasso's the Desmoiselles D'aurgnon.