The white basilica on the city's highest hill, and around it the village of painters, vines and steep stairways. At 8am it still feels like one.
Montmartre was a separate village of windmills and vineyards until 1860. Renoir, Picasso and Van Gogh lived and painted here when the rents were cheap.
Sacré-Cœur, begun in 1875 and finished in the 1910s, crowns the hill in white travertine. The basilica is free; the dome costs €8, paid in cash, and is about 290 steps up for the highest view in Paris after the Eiffel Tower.
Just behind, Place du Tertre fills with easels and diners by late morning; at 8am it is quiet. Beyond it the lanes drop to the Clos Montmartre, a working vineyard on rue des Saules, harvested each October at the Fête des Vendanges.
Below the vines, pink-walled rue de l'Abreuvoir and the old cabaret Lapin Agile are the postcard corners. On the basilica steps, men with string bracelets and clipboard petitions work the crowds: both are scams.
About two hours, mostly downhill after the top.
Come up at Abbesses under Guimard's glass canopy and climb the stepped streets.
See the golden mosaic inside, then climb the dome for the view over Paris.
Coffee before the easels and the crowds arrive.
Look down over the Clos Montmartre vines, with the Lapin Agile on the corner below.
Wander down past La Maison Rose and the Moulin de la Galette to rue Lepic.
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Métro Abbesses (line 12) or Anvers (line 2). The funicular from the foot of the gardens takes a standard Métro ticket.
Entry is round the side of the basilica; bring cash for the €8 ticket.
Keep your hands in your pockets on the steps; bracelet sellers and petitioners target anyone who stops.
Paris practical notes →Photographs from Wikimedia Commons and Pexels under their licences.
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