3 Days in Montmartre and North Paris

Most visitors give Montmartre half a day: up the steps to the Sacré-Cœur, a portrait on the Place du Tertre and back down. Spend three days on and around the hill and it becomes a different place, a village with its own vineyard, cemetery, windmills, cabaret and market streets, where Picasso, Renoir, Van Gogh, Dalí and Édith Piaf lived and worked. This route is for travelers who want to know it that well, and for anyone who has already seen the center and wants a different Paris.

Day 1 is the top of the hill: the Bateau-Lavoir where Picasso painted, the Dalí museum, the Sacré-Cœur and the Place du Tertre, followed by an evening at the Lapin Agile, the oldest cabaret in Paris. Day 2 goes down the slopes: the Montmartre cemetery, the Musée de la Vie romantique in New Athens and a night at the Moulin Rouge. Day 3 crosses the city limits to the flea market of Saint-Ouen, the largest antiques market in the world, and comes back through the food shops of the rue des Martyrs.

The arrival day is for a first walk up the hill at sunset. The three days start the next morning and can go in any order, with one condition: the flea market is open from Saturday to Monday, so Day 3 must fall on one of those days.

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This route at a glance

Tickets to book before you fly

Three bookings; the hill itself, its churches and its cemetery are free. Prices start at the figures shown, per person.

Arrival evening: the hill at sunset

If you are staying in Montmartre, the first evening needs no plan. Walk up through the Place des Abbesses to the steps of the Sacré-Cœur, sit down with everyone else and watch the city turn gold, then pink, then into a carpet of lights.

Come down by the rue de l'Abreuvoir and the rue des Saules for dinner on the quiet side of the hill, away from the crowds of the Place du Tertre.

• The funicular takes a metro ticket and saves the steps when you are tired.
• The quiet north side of the hill has the best small restaurants.
• Plan a light breakfast tomorrow: Day 1 starts with a walking tour at 9:30.

Day 1: The top of the hill: Picasso, Dalí, the Sacré-Cœur and the Lapin Agile

Start with a walking tour from the Place des Abbesses. A local guide is worth it here, because Montmartre's history hides behind ordinary doors: the Bateau-Lavoir on the Place Émile-Goudeau, the ramshackle studio building where Picasso painted Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, Van Gogh's apartment on the rue Lepic, the two surviving windmills and the story of the artists who lived here when it was a cheap village outside Paris.

After the tour, visit Dalí Paris on the rue Poulbot, a small museum devoted to the sculpture and engravings of Salvador Dalí, who lived in Montmartre in the 1920s. Then walk to the Place du Tertre, where portrait painters have worked since the nineteenth century, and climb the last steps to the Sacré-Cœur, free to visit.

In the evening, book a table at Au Lapin Agile on the rue des Saules, the little pink cabaret where Picasso, Modigliani and Apollinaire drank and where French songs have been sung every night for more than a century. It is intimate, old-fashioned and nothing like the Moulin Rouge; it is the real Montmartre at night.

Stops in order

1. 9:30 · Place des Abbesses: walking tour meeting area
   Place des Abbesses, 75018, Paris
2. 10:00 · Bateau-Lavoir: Picasso's studio building
   13 Place Émile-Goudeau, 75018, Paris
3. 11:30 · Dalí Paris: sculpture and engravings
   11 Rue Poulbot, 75018, Paris
4. 13:00 · Place du Tertre: painters' square, lunch nearby
   Place du Tertre, 75018, Paris
5. 14:30 · Sacré-Cœur: basilica free
   Rue du Chevalier de la Barre, 75018, Paris
6. 21:00 · Au Lapin Agile: the oldest cabaret in Paris
   22 Rue des Saules, 75018, Paris

The numbers for this day

💡 Pro Tip

Walk behind the Sacré-Cœur

The rue du Chevalier-de-la-Barre and the streets behind the basilica are empty compared with the front steps. They give you the dome from below and the quietest views of the hill.

Pro tip by: Alesia Vakula

Travel expert and itinerary planning specialist

If it rains: The walking tour runs in light rain; in a downpour, swap it for Dalí Paris and the Sacré-Cœur, which are indoors.

Day 2: The cemetery, the Musée de la Vie romantique and the Moulin Rouge

The Montmartre cemetery lies in an old quarry below the hill, under a road bridge, and is one of the most atmospheric places in Paris. Among its tombs are those of Degas, Stendhal, Berlioz, Offenbach, the dancer Nijinsky, the singer Dalida and the filmmaker François Truffaut. It is free, quiet and full of cats; take the map at the entrance.

Walk down to the Moulin de la Galette and the rue Lepic for lunch, then to the district of New Athens at the foot of the hill. The Musée de la Vie romantique occupies the house of the painter Ary Scheffer, where George Sand, Chopin and Delacroix met; its permanent collection is free, and its garden tea room is one of the most charming in Paris. It closes on Mondays.

In the evening, walk to the Moulin Rouge on the boulevard de Clichy for the show that made the French cancan famous. Book the earlier show with dinner, or the later one with champagne, and walk back up the hill afterwards; it is the classic Montmartre night.

Stops in order

1. 10:00 · Montmartre Cemetery: free, map at the entrance
   20 Avenue Rachel, 75018, Paris
2. 12:00 · Moulin de la Galette: lunch on the rue Lepic
   83 Rue Lepic, 75018, Paris
3. 14:30 · Musée de la Vie romantique: free permanent collection, garden tea room
   16 Rue Chaptal, 75009, Paris
4. 17:00 · Pigalle: South Pigalle's bars before the show
   Place Pigalle, 75009, Paris
5. 21:00 · Moulin Rouge: cabaret show
   82 Boulevard de Clichy, 75018, Paris

The numbers for this day

💡 Pro Tip

Have tea in the Vie romantique garden at 16:00

The tea room fills at lunch and empties in the late afternoon. A cup of tea among the roses before the cabaret is the most peaceful hour of the day.

Pro tip by: Alesia Vakula

Travel expert and itinerary planning specialist

If it rains: The museum and the cabaret are indoors; the cemetery is best on a dry day, so swap Day 2 and Day 3 if needed.

Day 3: The Saint-Ouen flea market and the rue des Martyrs

The Marché aux Puces de Saint-Ouen, just across the city limits, is the largest antiques market in the world, with more than a dozen separate markets and over a thousand dealers selling everything from Louis XV chairs to vintage posters and 1970s lamps. It is open from Saturday to Monday. Start at the Marché Vernaison, the oldest, a maze of tiny stalls, and the Marché Paul Bert Serpette for design and furniture. Ignore the stalls of cheap clothing near the metro.

Have lunch at one of the market bistros, where live jazz manouche, the gypsy jazz of Django Reinhardt, is often played on weekend afternoons. Back in Montmartre, the Halle Saint-Pierre at the foot of the Sacré-Cœur shows outsider and naive art in a nineteenth-century market hall.

End the trip on the rue des Martyrs, the food street that runs down from Pigalle to the church of Notre-Dame-de-Lorette, lined with bakeries, pastry shops, cheesemongers and wine bars. Buy something for the evening and finish with a drink in South Pigalle.

Stops in order

1. 10:00 · Marché aux Puces de Saint-Ouen: Saturday to Monday; start at Vernaison
   Rue des Rosiers, 93400 Saint-Ouen
2. 15:00 · Halle Saint-Pierre: outsider and naive art
   2 Rue Ronsard, 75018, Paris
3. 17:00 · Rue des Martyrs: food street down to the 9th
   Rue des Martyrs, 75009, Paris
4. 19:00 · Pigalle: wine bars and cocktail bars
   Place Pigalle, 75009, Paris

The numbers for this day

💡 Pro Tip

Bargain politely at the flea market

Prices at Saint-Ouen are a starting point. Ask "c'est votre meilleur prix?" with a smile; dealers expect it, and paying in cash often brings the price down.

Pro tip by: Alesia Vakula

Travel expert and itinerary planning specialist

If it rains: Most of the flea market's main markets are covered; the Halle Saint-Pierre is indoors.

Departure morning: a last croissant on the hill

Montmartre has some of the best bakeries in Paris, and a last breakfast on the rue des Abbesses or the rue Lepic is the right goodbye. The Gare du Nord, for the Eurostar and the RER to Charles de Gaulle, is a short ride down the hill.

If you bought something large at the flea market, most dealers arrange shipping abroad; ask before you pay.

• Line 2 from Anvers or Barbès reaches the Gare du Nord in a few stops.
• Keep flea-market receipts for customs if you ship items home.
• Allow plenty of time for an international flight.

Which day goes where

The three days can run in any order. Use this table to keep every sight off its closing day.

Who lived in Montmartre: a short guide

Montmartre was the home of more famous artists than any other neighborhood in Paris. The table lists those whose traces you will pass on this route.

💡 Pro Tip

Stay on the north side of the hill

Hotels around Lamarck-Caulaincourt and the rue Caulaincourt are quieter than those near Pigalle and the Sacré-Cœur steps, and the metro is just as close.

Pro tip by: Alesia Vakula

Travel expert and itinerary planning specialist

Montmartre: what to avoid

• The bracelet sellers at the foot of the Sacré-Cœur steps; keep walking and do not let anyone tie anything on your wrist.
• Restaurants on the Place du Tertre, which are the most expensive and least good on the hill.
• The Barbès side of the hill late at night, where pickpockets are active around the station.
• The tourist train, which covers in thirty minutes what you can walk better in two hours.

More 3-day routes

• Romantic 3 days in Paris: Montmartre for two, plus the Marais and the Seine.
• Impressionist Paris: Renoir and Van Gogh's Montmartre with the museums.
• Paris after dark: cabarets, jazz and late nights.
• Wine, cheese and markets: the vineyard and the wine bars of Pigalle.
• Hidden Paris: more off-the-beaten-path corners.
• One week in Paris: add the center to three days on the hill.
• All the 3-day routes, by theme