Montmartre

Life in the 18th Arrondissement

We chose this area for a number of reasons, not the least of which was availability due to the Rugby World Cup and price. As well, we wanted to move out of the familiar fifth and immerse ourselves in an area lesser known to us. Frankly some of the negative comments which appear about the Montmartre area were troublesome and the coup de grace was when I read that there were no good restaurants in the 18e .
Armed with a TimeOut Paris , the new English version of Pudlo, and a subscription to Zagats, we decided to amend our Paris approach and attack this thing head on. We booked no restaurants in advance. I made whimpering noises to Sandra about the fact that we would make up for near starvation in the 18e by some special meals later in the Dordogne. Anselm even tried to soothe me last week but I could see the look of disbelief in his eye.
To really bring out the sweats, the mini Paris GTG group decided to eat lunch in the Montmartre area and let me choose the locale! - More about that after the fact on Thursday.
We arrived on a Sunday and went for our orientation walk about 6 pm. The weather was warm and there were people everywhere - mainly families. Moms and dads with school aged children roamed rue Damremont and Caulaincourt, sat at the numerous cafes and restaurants, and lined up at shops selling “emporters” - those wonderful take-out places that dot Paris.
The areas to the west of rue des Saules seem to be residential while those to the east, including Sacre Coeur and Place du Tertre are very, very touristy. To the east of Sacre Coeur things change again. South of Ordener (maybe even farther) down to Clichy is residential. Boulevard de Clichy, around place Blanche and along to place Pigalle is different, but not threatening or scary.
We have walked many of the usual parts of Paris and what stands out to us that this (and probably all the residential areas) is where the people live. That probably sounds trite and redundant but we were unprepared for the change in types of businesses from the typical hotel areas. There are lots of Laundromats, book stores, many cafes, real estate agencies, boulangers (more than you could imagine), green grocers, emporteurs, tabacs, florists, children’s shoe stores, hardware type stores, grocery stores, specialty food shops (fish, cheese, meat, wine). You can’t walk two minutes without hitting another cafe or bakery.
What we don’t find are internet cafes, few hotels, souvenir stores, gift stores, huge restaurants. The cafes are scaled down versions of what we had seen before - several are wine bars.
Our first morning we sat drinking our coffee and eating our tartine, watching the mothers and fathers walk their children to school. A few minutes later they joined us in the cafe and the other cafes nearby. It made sense when we realized that today was Monday - probably a day off for many who work in stores and shops and such.
Tuesday morning we spent a couple of hours visiting Bruliere de Montmartre - a shop where they roast coffees that they sell to the public as well as to hotels and restaurants, Chez Virginie - a cheese shop with some wonderful specialy offerings as well as all the French usuals, and Arnaud Delmontel Boulanger - winner of the best baguette in Paris and supplier to the President for the year. All three of these were within five minutes of our apartment on Damremont. (It was only later that I realized that we had covered all the food groups - coffee, cheese and bread and pastries.)
Lots of jeans but few of the scruffy ones that the kids wear at home. I guess you would say designer jeans and usually fitted. Few of the classic white runners but some coloured ones and throwbacks (PF Flyer types). The shoes tend to be more important than at home. Again we are impressed by how the French seem to take up less space than we do. Yet every baguette being carried home seems to be missing a little chunk from one end.
If you want to visit the sites, other than Sacre Coeur, Place du Tertre and the cemetery, you will find it more inconvenient than the single-digit arrondisements. If living among the Parisians, partaking of daily life, walking and talking appeal to you as the perfect Paris visit, you might enjoy it as much as we are.
I am sure others will have a different take on things and opinions will vary.

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