The highest hill of Paris is known as Montmartre, where the Sacre-Couer basicilla is. There, you can look down the streets of Paris and enjoy walking around the narrow streets where artists perch and display their art.
One of the things we wanted to bring back from Paris was an original artwork. When we walked along the Seine river, there were plenty of beautiful black and white paintings of Paris that I fell in love with. I thought they were original. Apparently, far from it, haha. Even though they’re all hand-painted, you can find those kinds of painting anywhere in the city. So our objective was to find something that truly was unique, yet still captured the city in an amazing light.
To get there, you’ll want to take the metro’s Line 2 and get off on Anvers Station. You’ll see the hill from there.
We wandered the touristy part and, since Joseph wasn’t up to the challenge of climbing the 270 steps from the bottom of the hill to the basilica, so we just took the Metro Tram that leads you right up there. How handy!
We didn’t feel it was necessary to go inside the basilica so we just opted to go straight to the artists alley. To get there, go to the left side of the basilica and one street over, you’ll find a narrow street full of little shops. Just keep going through and you’ll eventually find it!
We went there around 4pm and the artists were starting to pack up, so I definitely suggest getting there earlier rather than later.
You’ll find artists of all talent level, which is so awesome. There were several we would want to display in our place, but transporting it home on a plane was the tough part. In the end, we found this watercolor of the Eiffel Tower immersed in an amazing sunset.
Nearby Montmartre is also where you will find the famous Moulin Rouge, and we were so excited to go! We got there super last minute and ended up getting super close seats, which we thought would be horrible. But it was amazing! We were literally right next to the stage – so much so that we could feel the feathers of dancers’ costumes whipping as they walked on by. Ah, what a night.
With such a close distance between the two, it’s easy to make a day of going to Montmartre and Moulin Rouge.