Life is a Cabaret in Montmartre

Within minutes of stepping off the metro in Montmartre I was whipped into a frenzy of people, surrounded by sounds of accordions and bag pipes and sipping on warm red wine or 'vin chaud'...I was in love. Yesterday I roamed the streets of Pigalle, passing such places as the Moulin Rouge, in search of the old Bohemian Paris that inspired such notable artists as Renoir, Picasso and Van Gogh. Pigalle had proved entertaining but failed to give me glimpses of that old Paris that artists painted and writers dedicated sonnets to, but in Montmartre where the Sacre-Coeur crowns the hilltop district and music and art are behind every corner I have decided that life is a cabaret.

Every city seems to have their own attempted version of Montmartre--a place where being artsy is considered chic and being Bohemian is more about clothing choices than principles. In Chicago this area would be Wicker Park, where there are plenty of (what they call here in Paris) 'bobos' or bourgeois Bohemians attempting to live the oxymoron of being artistic and penniless but in style and wealthy. In New York I guess their Montmartre adaptation would be SoHo. In reality the real Montmartre is authentic and shows glimmers of the artistic pulse that once fueled the inspiration of its talented inhabitants.

It's hard to explain but the authenticity of Montmartre lies in the beautiful buildings, charming ivy covered cafes, easel stands set up in Place du Tertre and in the white washed walls of the Sacre-Coeur; showing that in Montmartre the Bohemian lifestyle wasn't about clothing choices but was about leading an unconventional life and expressing ideals of love and beauty through artistic expression....consider me sold.

After getting off the Metro I wandered the streets that took me up and down hill till I came across the Place du Tertre, a small square where Picasso and other artists once set up their easels and captured the beauty of Montmartre and its hilltop views of Paris. Today Place du Tertre still has easels and artists but I doubt that our generation's Van Gogh is hidden amongst them; today's painters seem to be more tourist orientated than Bohemian principled but never the less their art is beautiful and to think of the tradition they carry on and their predecessors is amazing. My climb up from the playful wine and music of where I got off the Metro to the thoughtful art of Place du Tertre ended with the severe, impressive beauty of the Sacre-Coeur Basilica. I am lucky enough to be given ample time to discover Paris, which affords me the luxury of being able to do more than run from monument to monument and snap a Facebook worthy picture; and so far Montmartre is one of my favorite places.