Montmartre: A different Paris

Travel | August 18, 2010 | Share

When traveling to Paris, the capital city of France, people see the Eiffel Tower and take a cruise down the Seine. When I went to Paris I did all that. I saw the Notre Dame cathedral, I even saw the Louvre but one of the exquisite places I visited was Montmartre.Â Derived its name from the hill that it is situated on; Montmartre is like a little town on its own.

The day I went to this beautiful place was fortunately a very pleasant one. It was cloudy with a nice breeze blowing. I traveled the 130 meters by car but there are also steps leading upwards.Â When I first stepped out of the car I felt like I had entered into one of the paintings that I had seen of medieval streets of Paris. The cobbled road and the little cafÃ©s were adorable. I first gazed around at everything completely mesmerized.

We were lucky to have come to Montmartre on the day when there was a fete in the city. . There were stalls of different kinds of cheese and wines. There were also stalls of brownies, cookies and chocolates. It was one yummy walk since everyone was giving out free samples!Â Going ahead, the thin lane opened up to a wide panorama of the main city of Paris. It was one of the most breathtaking views that I have ever seen. The whole of Paris was white and the cool air was blowing in my hair. There was also a man who was singing songs with his Spanish guitar. There were people scattered here and there, listening to him.Â There was also a basilica there known as the Basilica of the SacrÃ© CÅ“ur. It is an old church which is completely white.
Going the other way, I saw a line of painters doing every sort of painting possible, water painting, oil painting, knife painting and even caricatures. I bought a few paintings of Parisian scenes to gift to my friends back home. There was another man here who was dressed as a mime. He was playing a very strange musical instrument which had to be played just by turning its handle. He was singing French songs along with it. It added a nice background score to the whole atmosphere.

I sat down in a small restaurant to have my lunch and while savoring my herbed chicken with jacket potatoes I looked at the street. There people were walking their dogs of every shape and size. Some were tourists; mostly there were artists who were sitting here and there busy with their drawing pads. I learnt that famous artists like Pablo Picasso, Van Gogh and Claude Monet had also lived here in Montmartre as it inspired them to create better artwork.

Montmartre was like a place frozen in time. Even the people living and working there were very old fashioned in their dressing and manner. There were beautiful flowers everywhere and one of the main attractions was the small train that is used to take the tourists on a tour of the place. I sat in it and thoroughly enjoyed a whole day in the picturesque Montmartre.

Ridhu Bhatia