Paris Montmartre Walking Tour: A Self-Guided Climb Through the Artists Quarter

Montmartre sits on the highest hill in Paris, a village of winding lanes, hidden staircases and a great white church, where painters set up their easels and the whole city stretches out below. If you are planning a walking tour in France, this Paris self guided walking tour climbs from the famous cabaret at the foot of the hill up through the charming streets of the old artists quarter to the domes of the Sacre-Coeur and the bustling square where portrait painters still work. It is a gentle uphill wander through the most romantic and bohemian corner of Paris, every turn offering a staircase, a cafe or a sudden view.

Before you set off, prepare for a climb. This walk is only about four kilometers, but Montmartre is a genuine hill laced with steep streets and long flights of steps, so wear comfortable shoes and take the ascents at an easy pace. There are plenty of cafes and viewpoints to pause at along the way. Late afternoon is a lovely time to start, so you reach the top for the golden light and the sunset over the city, though the square gets busy, so a quieter morning has its own charm. If you are following by audio, keep your eyes up for the pretty details and the passing views, watch your footing on the steps, and pause whenever a lane or a terrace tempts you to linger.

Moulin Rouge

You begin at the foot of the hill in front of the Moulin Rouge, the most famous cabaret in the world, instantly recognizable by the red windmill perched on its roof, its sails turning slowly above the boulevard. This lively, slightly gaudy neighborhood at the base of Montmartre is where the can-can was born and where artists like Toulouse-Lautrec found their subjects among the dancers and the nightlife over a century ago. Stand across the busy boulevard to take in the red facade and the spinning sails, glowing with lights as the day fades. The area around still hums with the energy of theaters, shops and crowds. This is the racy, cabaret Paris of legend. When you have taken it in, turn away from the boulevard and begin to climb, following the streets as they rise off the flat and wind upward into the quieter, prettier lanes of the hill, heading for a leafy square around a metro entrance.

Place des Abbesses

Place des Abbesses is one of the most charming squares in Montmartre, a leafy triangle shaded by trees and centered on one of the last original glass-and-iron metro entrances in Paris, an elegant green art nouveau canopy curling like a plant. Around the square, cafe terraces spill onto the pavement, a carousel sometimes turns nearby, and the whole scene feels like the Paris of postcards and films. This is the heart of the village, a place to sit with a coffee and watch the neighborhood go by. Just off the square stands a red brick church, an early example of building in reinforced concrete dressed in brick, worth a glance for its unusual style. The square has a relaxed, local charm despite the visitors. When you are ready, leave by a small street and look for a little garden tucked just off the square, where one wall is covered in a famous work of art.

Wall of Love

The Wall of Love, tucked into a small garden just off the square, is a beloved and romantic spot, a wall of dark blue enameled tiles on which the words I love you are written more than three hundred times, in hundreds of languages from all over the world. Step into the little garden and find your own language among the many, a game that delights every visitor. Scattered across the tiles are small fragments of red, which the artists said represent the pieces of a broken heart made whole again by love. Couples pose for photographs here, and the mood is sweet and unhurried. It is a small thing, but a lovely one, and very Montmartre in its gentle romance. Take your moment at the wall. Then return to the streets and continue climbing, working your way up and around the hill toward a curving street famous as the setting of a beloved film about the neighborhood.

Rue Lepic

Rue Lepic is one of the most characterful streets in Montmartre, a curving, climbing road that begins as a lively market street at the bottom, crowded with grocers, bakeries and cafes, before winding up the hill past elegant houses. Walk up its lower stretch and soak in the everyday bustle, the smell of bread and flowers, the striped awnings and the trays of fruit and vegetables set out on the pavement. This street became famous around the world as the neighborhood of a whimsical film about a shy Parisian waitress, and fans still seek out the cafe where she worked. Higher up, the street twists and quietens, lined with the shuttered facades and window boxes of a residential Montmartre. A couple of old windmills survive on the heights above, relics of when the hill was covered in them. Follow the street as it climbs and curves, then cut across toward a green slope on the northern side of the hill, where an unexpected sight appears, a working vineyard.

Montmartre Vineyard

The Montmartre Vineyard is one of the great surprises of the hill, a small working vineyard clinging to a steep slope right in the middle of Paris, a green pocket of vines that has produced wine here for a century, a reminder of when Montmartre was rural countryside outside the city. Stand at the railing above the sloping rows of vines and take in how startling it is, orderly ranks of grapevines with the rooftops of Paris rising just beyond. Each autumn the neighborhood celebrates the grape harvest with a festival, a parade and much merriment, keeping the village tradition alive. Across the street stands a famous old cabaret with a pink and green facade, once the haunt of struggling painters and poets. The corner has a timeless, village feel. Enjoy this rural surprise in the heart of the city. Then turn and make the final climb toward the summit, following the lanes upward to where the great white domes of the basilica rise above the trees.

Sacre-Coeur Basilica

The Sacre-Coeur Basilica crowns the summit of Montmartre, a gleaming white church of pale domes that glows above the city and can be seen from far across Paris, and reaching it on foot makes the arrival feel like a small pilgrimage. The church is built of a stone that whitens with age and rain, so it seems almost luminous. Climb the last steps or the terraced gardens to the front of the basilica, then turn around, because the view is the real reward. From the terrace on the highest point in the city, the whole of Paris spreads out beneath you, a sea of grey rooftops stretching to the horizon, with landmarks rising from the haze. Crowds gather here on the steps at sunset, buskers play, and the mood is joyful. Step inside if you wish, into the hushed, glittering interior with its great golden mosaic overhead. Take your time on the terrace with the view. Then step back from the crowds into the narrow streets just behind, where an old square buzzes with artists.

Place du Tertre

Place du Tertre is the beating artistic heart of old Montmartre, a small square just behind the basilica that has been the gathering place of painters for generations, and it still throngs with easels, portraitists and caricaturists at work. Step into the square and the scene is a swirl of color and activity, artists dabbing at canvases, sketching quick portraits of seated visitors, and displaying their paintings of Parisian streets under the trees. Cafe terraces ring the square, their awnings bright, and the crush of people gives it a festive, carnival air. Once, the great painters of the modern age lived and worked in the studios around here when the neighborhood was poor and cheap. Now it is crowded and touristy, but the tradition of the artists is genuine and alive. Wander among the easels and watch the portraits take shape. Then slip out of a corner of the square and down a short way to a quiet mansion that holds a strange and wonderful collection.

Espace Dali

You finish at the Espace Dali, a small museum tucked into a vaulted space just off the square, devoted to the surreal sculptures and prints of the great Spanish artist who was drawn, like so many others, to Montmartre. Even from the outside, the discreet entrance marks a fitting end to a walk through the quarter of artists, a reminder that this hill has inspired the strange and the beautiful for over a century. Inside, melting clocks, elephants on impossibly long legs and dreamlike bronze figures fill the dim, atmospheric rooms. Whether or not you step in, the spot is a quiet retreat from the crush of the square, a moment of calm and imagination at the top of the hill. Pause here in the winding lanes behind the basilica, having climbed the whole of Montmartre from the cabaret at its foot. Find a step or a quiet corner and let the village settle around you, the artists still at work just up the street.

Why Montmartre Is Best on Foot

Reaching the Dali museum, you have climbed the entire hill of Montmartre, from the red windmill at its base through the charming squares and the surprising vineyard up to the white church and the artists square at the top. Walking it is the only way to feel the village that Paris grew up around, because Montmartre is all about the climb, the hidden staircases, the sudden views between the houses, the way each lane opens onto something lovely. On foot you feel the effort of the ascent and earn the great view over the city, and you notice the small things a bus could never show you, a wall of love, a corner cabaret, a painter mixing his colors. It is a hill that gives itself only to walkers. If you would like company for the next walk, open the Walk With Me map to find other walkers out exploring the city right now.