Paris has many special treasures. Chief among them is the sidewalk café, which is designed to provide people-watching as much as having a drink or a meal. It is a part of public life on the street that the French highly value. Cafés serve drinks before the noon meal and throughout the afternoon until evening meal, which usually begins around 7 p.m.
Latin Quarter -- Left Bank (Le Rive Gauche)
The Latin Quarter of Paris is an area in the 5th and the 6th arrondissements of Paris situated on the Left Bank of the Seine. Known for student life, a lively atmosphere, and multiple bistros, the Latin Quarter is the home to a number of higher education establishments.
In the twelfth century, the philosopher Pierre Abélard helped create the neighborhood when, due to his controversial teaching, he was pressured into relocating from the prestigious Île de la Cité
to a less conspicuous residence. As he and his followers populated the
Left Bank, it became famous for the prevalence of scholarly Latin spoken there.
The Left Bank of the Seine generally refers to the Paris of artists, writers, and philosophers, including Colette, Sylvia Beach, Anaïs Nin, Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, Edith Wharton,Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Jean-Paul Sartre, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, James Baldwin and many others. The phrase implies a sense of bohemianism, counterculture, and creativity.
Sylvia Beach, an American, founded the first Shakespeare and Company in 1919 at 12 rue de l’Odéon. The shop was half bookstore and half
lending library, and it attracted the great expat writers of the
time—Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Eliot, Pound—and some of the century’s
most compelling female voices: Djuna Barnes, Gertrude Stein, Janet
Flanner, Kay Boyle, and Mina Loy. The bookstore was also frequented by celebrated French authors, such as André Gide, Paul Valéry, and Jules Romains.
It served as the writers’ home away from home, postal address,
and—when they were desperate—a loan service. Beach also helped usher in
modern literature and published her friend James Joyce’s Ulysses in 1922 when no one else dared. French author André Chamson said that Beach “did more to link
England, the United States, Ireland, and France than four great
ambassadors combined.”
Beach’s bookstore was open until 1941, when the Germans occupied Paris.
One day that December, a Nazi officer entered her store and demanded
Beach’s last copy of Finnegans Wake. Beach declined to sell him
the book. The officer said he would return in the afternoon to
confiscate all of Beach’s goods and to close her bookstore. After he
left, Beach immediately moved all the shop’s books and belongings to an
upstairs apartment. In the end, she would spend six months in an
internment camp in Vittel, and her bookshop would never reopen. Beach passed away in 1962 in Paris. (This was such a compelling story that I copied it from its website. Click here for the source)
American ex-serviceman George Whitman opened the bookstore in 1951 and named it after Sylvia Beach's bookstore in 1964. His daughter, Sylvia Beach Whitman and her partner, David Delannet, now run the store. She took over management of the store in 2011 after helping her father do it since 2003.
Around the corner from Shakespeare and Company is Odette's with its specialty cream puffs that come in different flavors. They go well with a delicious cup of coffee. Our guide, Chantal, put us on to this amazing shop. Thanks!!
Michel de Montaigne (1533-92) was one of the most significant philosophers of the French Renaissance. He is known for popularizing the essay as a literary genre and for merging casual anecdotes and autobiography with intellectual insight.
The Thermes de Clunyare the ruins of the Gallo-Roman thermal baths constructed in the 3rd century. The baths are the most spectacular examples of the ancient architecture preserved in the city. The grounds and medieval garden of the Musee de Cluny are open daily from around 9 am to 5:30 pm. Admittance is free.
Pantheon
The Panthéon
stands in the Latin Quarter. It was built by Louis XV between 1758 and
1790 as a church dedicated to Saint Genevieve,
Paris' patron saint. However, in 1791 during the French Revolution, the
National Constituent Assembly voted to transform it into a mausoleum
for the remains of distinguished French citizens. Included are Voltaire,
Victor Hugo, Rousseau, Émile Zola, Léon Gambetta, Jean Jaurès, Jean
Moulin, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Louis Braille, Pierre Curie, Alexandre
Dumas, Aimé Césaire, Simone Weil, and African-American Josephine Baker.
Click here
to see the ceremony for singer and dancer Josephine
Baker's induction into the Pantheon for her service as an Allied spy
during World War II.
Lycée Henri-IV
Emmanuel Macron, president of France, fell in love with his literature and theatre teacher, Brigitte Auzière. He was 15 and a gifted, straight-A student at the Lycée la Providence, a Jesuit-run school in Amiens. She was 41. His parents were alarmed at the possible scandal of this relationship, so they sent him for his last year to the prestigious Lycée Henri-IV (right) in Paris.
Brigitte married banker André-Louis Auzière in 1974 and had three children. They divorced in 2006, and she married Macron in 2007. He was 29 and she was 54. Macron became president of France in 2016 and was re-elected in 2022. He refers to Brigitte as his "First Lady", although the government does not have a formal title for this designation.
The Sorbonne was founded in 1253, one of the first universities in the Western world. Later renamed University of Paris, it is still commonly known as "the Sorbonne".
The 55,000-student university offers studies in literature,
medicine, science, engineering, technology and management, and fosters a global approach to teaching and research, promoting access to
knowledge for all, according to its website.
OTHER SPECIAL TREASURES
This was the home of Gaston Leroux (1868-1927), the author of Phantom of the Opera. He was a journalist and a detective fiction writer on a par with Arthur Conan Doyle. Phantom was made into a movie in 1925 with Lon Chaney and a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber in 1986.
The Lido was the most prestigious cabaret in Paris. Located on the Champs Élysée, it opened in 1946. Many celebrities had performed on its stage including Edith Piaf, Marlene Dietrich, Josephine Baker, Laurel and Hardy, Dalida, Shirley MacLaine, Elton John and many others. It closed its doors on July 30, 2022.
These green boxes of the Seine River offer books, newspapers, and magazines to passers-by.
Mayor Anne Hidalgo is an environmentalist. One of her initiatives was to offer rental bicycles in order to reduce traffic and CO2 emissions. The light blue bikes are available all over the city She is a socialist who was elected in 2014 as the first woman mayor of Paris. She ran an unsuccessful campaign for president of France in 2022.
FILMS
"Midnight in Paris"
Woody Allen loves France and France loves Woody Allen. He has made several films here. One of the most famous is "Midnight in Paris", which is about a screenwriter who confronts his relationship with his materialistic fiancée and their divergent goals. These shortcomings become increasingly exaggerated as he travels back in time each night at midnight. The car that takes him to the past meets him at this Gothic/Renaissance styled church, Saint-Étienne-du-Mont.
The church contains the remains of St. Geneviève, patron saint of Paris. St. Geneviève converted King Clovis to Christianity in the 5th century. She also saved Paris from an attack by Attila the Hun and his army of 700,000.
"Emily in Paris"
The Netflix series, "Emily in Paris", takes place in this square, which includes her residence, the restaurant where her would-be boyfriend works, and the boulangerie. The plot is about a young woman from New York who comes to Paris to work in a marketing firm. While young American women are excited about the series, young French women are reviled by it because of its stereotypes and the arrogance of an American telling French professionals what to do. Click here to see their objections.
AND FINALLY,
The Love Locks of Paris are padlocks that people buy, put their names on, and attach them to a particular place that they love. These locks are on the fences at Montmartre.
Almost
everything you see and feel in Montmartre today you would have seen and felt in the latter 19th century. This was the Belle Epoque (1871-80), a time of optimism; regional peace; economic prosperity; colonial
expansion; and technical, scientific, and cultural innovation--a stark contrast to the horrors of the Napoleonic Wars (1803-15) and before the devastation of World War I (1914-18). During this in-between time, Paris flourished in every way.
Montmartre, in particular, became a cultural jewel as it attracted Bohemian
artists to its engaging ambience and
cheap rents. Impressionist painters like Van Gogh, Monet, Renoir,
Toulouse Lautrec lived here, and they hung out on the Place du Tertre, an open-air
gallery that still hosts artists today. Montmartre exudes the same "joie de vivre" with its sidewalk cafés, cobble-stoned lanes, tree-shaded
terraces.
Montmartre had always been a separate village since ancient times located on a butte overlooking Paris until it was incorporated into the city in 1860. Today, it
remains a unique part of Paris that retains its 19th century character
without much modernization.
Sacré Cœur
One of Montmartre's spectacular landmarks is the Sacré Cœur, which was built 1875-1914. The disastrous Franco-Prussian War prompted the Bishop of Nantes, Felix Fournier, to claim that the defeat was due to France's "moral decline" since
the Revolution. He proposed that a church be built on the butte overlooking the city and dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Christ.
Even though it is considered one of today's architectural treasures, the Neo-Byzantine-Romanesque basilica's entire history has been shrouded in controversy. Some people didn't like its purpose of atoning for the country's "sins". Some people didn't like the design. Others didn't like that it was in the place where the Paris Commune originated. (The Paris Commune was a left-wing Marxist-oriented group of workers who overthrew the government for its failures to protect the city during the Prussian siege. Although the workers ruled from March 18 to May 28, 1871, the French army retook the city and slaughtered
tens of thousands in the process.) Leftist journalists and politicians still criticize the government for these acts today, and a bomb went off in the basilica in 1976.
The extraordinary white surface of Sacré Cœur is travertine limestone, which is mined nearby Paris. What makes it white is the secretion of a substance in the stone that hardens in the sun. And when it rains, the building literally washes itself.
Two famous figures highlighted on the front porch of Sacré Cœur are Louis IX (left) and Joan of Arc (right). People are familiar with the story of Joan's bravery in leading a defeat against the English in order to crown Louis VII as King of France. Louis IX was a crusader in the 7th and 8th crusades. His admirers through the centuries have regarded him as the ideal
Christian ruler given his skill as a knight, his implementation of a justice system, his ability to arbitrate disputes, and his engaging manner with the
public. He also brought the Crown of Thorns from Jerusalem to France, which was held in Notre Dame Cathedral before the 2019 fire. It is now kept in the Louvre.
The campanile, or bell tower, on the north front, houses the 19-ton Savoyarde bell (one of the world's heaviest), cast in 1895 in Annecy. It alludes to the Savoy region's annexation to France in 1860.
The dramatic view of Sacré Cœur approaching it from the street is an experience that represents movement from the secular to the holy. The basilica seems to pop up out of nowhere. The whiteness of its exterior only adds to its mystical quality of this beautiful and unusual building.
From the dome of the Sacré Cœur, it's possible to see 50 miles to the horizon. This particular day was cloudy and rainy, but the overlook of Paris was nevertheless a thrilling sight to see--and a good reason to return there on a clearer day.
What's in a Name?
The name, "Montmartre" comes from two possible sources. The Romans constructed a temple on the site of this convent and dedicated it to Mars, the god of war. Thus, the name:
Mont (high cliff) + Mars
It is also possible, and more probable that the name refers to St. Denis, who was martyred in Paris and buried here, thus:
Mont (high cliff) + martyre
St. Denis -- Patron Saint of Paris Saint
Denis
was beheaded in 250 by the Romans for spreading the new religion of
Christianity. He then carried his head
several miles to where his tomb was eventually located in the Basilica
of Saint Denis on the north side of Paris. The Basilica later became the traditional resting place
for the French kings until the Revolution (1789-99). St. Denis was also the
first Gothic cathedral, a new kind of religious architecture that
emphasized the importance of
light as a symbol of divinity. Designed by Abbot Suger, the king's advisor from 1135 to 1144, the basilica was completed in the 13th century.
The Windmills of Montmartre
At one time the
village of Montmartre had 14 windmills t0 grind grain. As the village
grew, they were all taken down except for the Moulin Blute-Fin and
Moulin
Radet, which date back to 1717. Known together as Le Moulin de la
Gallette, the two windmills provided inspiration for a number of
painters including Renoir and Van Gogh. Renoir's masterpiece, Le Bal du Moulin de la Galette, shows a traditional dance in 1876 at the Moulin de la Galette. The painting hangs in the Orsay Museum.
Today, the historic restaurant (83 Rue Lepic) specializes in
seasonal French cuisine.
Bateau-Lavoir ("Washhouse Boat")
Le Bateau Lavoir is the historic workshop of PabloPicasso who moved here in 1904. The one-time piano factory became the birthplace of Cubism with this painting, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1905).
The house was run-down and had no electricity, heat, or running water, but the rent was cheap and artists found it a good gathering place to share ideas about art and experiment with their creativity. Many artists, writers, actors, and art collectors including Henri Matisse, Georges Braque, Gertrude Stein, Jean Cocteau, and Paul Gauguin also visited, lived, or set up their studios here. In the 1970s a fire destroyed the building, and now only a small
storefront is left of the original. However, its legacy lives on by providing space for 25 artists' studios.
Au Lapin Agile
"Au
Lapin Agile" dates to 1860 after it took its name ("Agile
Rabbit") from a poster painted by André Gill that depicted a rabbit
jumping out of a cooking pot. It was the haunt of avant-garde artists,
poets, writers, actors,
and singers including Toulouse-Lautrec, Claude Debussy,
Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Amedeo Modigliani, Max Jacob, and
Guillaume Apollinaire. Today,
it remains Montmartre's last (and Paris' oldest) cabaret with
performers singing traditional French songs and inviting the audience to
sing along.
Place du Tertre
photo by Paris Office of Tourism
Restaurant terraces and bistros share the street with 140 painters, portraitists, and caricaturists who squeeze into 3 square feet of space to paint and sell their works. The word "bistro" was coined at Chez la Mère Catherine Café in 1814. Russian soldiers would shout 'Bystro', (meaning 'quick') to the waitresses so they could hurriedly down a drink
before joining their ranks.
Dalida
And speaking of singing, Dalida (1933-87) was the singer and actress that still is seen today as having had the greatest impact on French society and culture.
She was born in Egypt to Italian parents who eventually moved to France. She became famous in Europe and traveled internationally singing in nine different languages.
Dalida led a tragic diva's life, however. She was engaged to Luigi Tenco, an Italian singer who committed suicide in 1967. Three of her other lovers including her ex-husband also died tragically. Finally, during the night of May 2-3, 1987, Dalida died from an overdose of barbiturates. She left a note: ‘Life has become unbearable for me…Forgive me’. Her funeral was held at La Madeleine and she was buried at the Cimitière de Montmartre. Below is an example of Dalida's dynamic talent with the famous song, "La Bambino."
Marcel Aymé and The Man Who Walked Through Walls
Marcel Aymé was a French novelist, children's writer, humor writer, screenwriter and playwright. His writings include The Man Who Walked Through Walls (Le Passe-Muraille), one of his most famous short stories, published in 1941.
In this story, a rather inactive, uninteresting man named Dutilleul lived in Montmartre and discovered he could walk through walls. He went to the doctor to seek a cure, but didn't take the prescribed medication he was given. Instead, he used his powers for ill. When he didn't like the new manager at his office, Dutilleul exasperated him with mischief by walking through walls. In fact, the manager went mad and entered an asylum. Dutilleul decided to commit crimes leaving his pseudonym, "The Lone Wolf", scrawled in red chalk at the scene. It gave him infamous public prestige, which delighted him. Then he deliberately let himself be caught and imprisoned. To frustrate his jailers, he walked through the walls and escaped. He fell in love with a married woman whose husband used to lock her in the house while he went out at night. Dutilleul would pass through the house's walls undetected. However, one morning Dutilleul had a headache and accidentally took the pills his doctor had prescribed a year earlier. As the pills took effect, he was trapped in a wall where he remains today.
La Maison Rose (The Pink House)
The house is a famous restaurant in Montmartre and one of the landmarks of the village. Picasso ate here as did Albert Camus, Suzanne Valadon and her son, Maurice Utrillo.
Renault house
As the plaque says, Louis Renault lived here and drove his first gas-powered car on December 24, 1898 to Place du Tertre. He eventually built the first French auto giant.
Ships
Ships are the symbol of Paris, and they are everywhere--on municipal buildings and facilities,
cemeteries and lamp posts.
Vineyard
The Clos Montmartre is a vineyard, and the only remaining part of the Benedictine abbey established in 12th century. It produces 1700 bottles of wine per year and is only open to the public during a fall festival.
Cabaret
The cabaret was invented in Montmartre at the end of the 19th century as an encapsulated of the elation and thrill of the Belle Époque through song and dance. Dancers wore costumes of feathers and stepped to a new dance called
"the can-can". (Scroll down for more photos and text from this ungodly blank space that I can't eliminate.)
Cabaret is a French word
that means "tavern" where shows of music, dance, much action, and fun take place.
The interior decor is dark and softly lit emitting a mysterious,
intimate ambience. The French cabarets spread to other parts of Europe. In post-war Germany, cabaret became a means of political
mockery, with shows centering on satirical comedy and gallows humor. In America, they became the jazz clubs that were synonymous with speakeasies.
Just down the hill from Montmartre is the Moulin Rouge (Red Windmill). Begun in 1889, the Moulin Rouge today offers musical
dance entertainment for visitors from
around the world. The interior decor still retains much of the
romance of Gay'90s France.
Le Chat Noir (The Black Cat) was another famous cabaret of Montmartre. Although it was only open between 1881-1897, the iconic poster by Théophile Steinlen made it legendary. The cabaret initially projected shadow plays against a white screen. It later became one of Paris' early cabarets with affordable drinks and sensual performances.
to our wonderful guides, Anna and Chantal. You made Montmartre memorable not only with its stories but with your very presence that made Paris even more special.
The Latin Quarter of Paris is an area in the 5th and the 6th arrondissements of Paris situated on the Left Bank of the Seine. Known for student life, a lively atmosphere, and multiple bistros, the Latin Quarter is the home to a number of higher education establishments. 
Sylvia Beach, an American, founded the first Shakespeare and Company in 1919 at 12 rue de l’Odéon. The shop was half bookstore and half
lending library, and it attracted the great expat writers of the
time—Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Eliot, Pound—and some of the century’s
most compelling female voices: Djuna Barnes, Gertrude Stein, Janet
Flanner, Kay Boyle, and Mina Loy. The bookstore was also frequented by celebrated French authors, such as André Gide, Paul Valéry, and Jules Romains. 
Around the corner from Shakespeare and Company is Odette's with its specialty cream puffs that come in different flavors. They go well with a delicious cup of coffee. Our guide, Chantal, put us on to this amazing shop. Thanks!!
Mayor Anne Hidalgo is an environmentalist. One of her initiatives was to offer rental bicycles in order to reduce traffic and CO2 emissions. The light blue bikes are available all over the city She is a socialist who was elected in 2014 as the first woman mayor of Paris. She ran an unsuccessful campaign for president of France in 2022. 
