Hotel Near Gare du Nord in Paris

Here are the main milestones that make it up:

• Relais Montmartre
• Café des Deux Moulins
• Wall of the I love you
• The stairs of Montmartre and the Funicular
• Place du Tertre
• Dali Museum
• Pink House
• House of Dalida
• Mill of the cake
• Cemetery of Montmartre

See the route in google maps : click here

Two one-minute videos to get a quick look at this course:

 

 

We leave of course from the Relais Montmartre, preferably early, because you will have the pleasure to see Montmartre awake. 



The walk can start with a coffee, at the Café des Deux Moulins, which we had tested for you in a previous article (read our article).




In the café des Deux Moulins, a very pleasant Saturday morning atmosphere.


Less than 200 meters from the Relais Montmartre, you can also choose to have an espresso at the counter of this café.


The croissants of our partner "Alexine" are really excellent. Would you like to try them?


In the Rue Lepic, 200 meters from the Relais Montmartre. Colors and freshness that recall the movie Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulin.




You can also choose one of the beautiful terraces of the many cafés that line the rue des Abbesses. We are always less than 500 meters from the Relais Montmartre.


Built between 1894 and 1904, the church of St jean de Montmartre occupies a central point of the place des Abbesses. It is both original and charming.
​

Place des Abbesses. A village atmosphere.


The Wall of Je t'aime, place des Abbesses, is composed of 612 glazed lava tiles where Je t'aime is written in 250 languages and dialects.


Going up to the hill, rue Barsac


The stairs of the rue Chappe


The Funicular and the steps where many joggers are very brave


The Montmartre Basilica, perched at 130 meters high, is one of the highest points of Paris.




The cafés and restaurants of the Place du Tertre


Many portraitists offer their services


Place du Tertre


Rue Poulbot, near the Dali Museum


The Dali Museum gathers 300 works and deserves a detour if you like this painter, major figure of the surrealist movement


La Maison rose


Dalida Square with the statue of the famous singer


The restaurant "le Moulin de la Galette" which we wrote about in our article on Vincent Van Gogh
Read our article "On the steps of Vincent Van Gogh in Montmartre"


The Cemetery of Montmartre is a particularly peaceful place that deserves a visit.


The tomb of Emile Zola. François Truffaut, Hector Berlioz, Alexandre Dumas, Michael Lonsdale and many others are buried in the Montmartre cemetery.

You can then reach the hotel by the Boulevard de Clichy, passing by the Cité Veron. Have a good meal!



 

Le Film culte

Vous souvenez-vous de la jeune Amelie dans le Fabuleux Destin D’Amélie Poulin ? Cette jeune femme à l’imagination débordante qu’incarne Audrey Tautou est serveuse dans ce café typiquement parisien.



Voir la bande-annonce du Film :
 

Le café existe bien ! Il s’appelle le Café des Deux Moulins, comme dans le film. Jean-Pierre Jeunet, le réalisateur, le fréquentait avant de sélectionner ce lieu de tournage. C’est dans ce café qu’Amélie et Nino Quincampoix ( Mathieu Kassovitz) ont le seul échange en personne du film.

On a testé le Café des Deux Moulins pour vous

On vous recommande plutôt la première salle qui est plus typique.

C’est simple et bon. Deux œufs avec une mayonnaise faite maison et un verre de rosé : Une ambiance de bistrot parisien.



On a ensuite commandé un filet de bar, qui est dans les suggestions de plats du jour. C’est légèrement trop cuit mais le poisson est frais et l’accompagnement est très correct pour le prix.



La mention spéciale est pour la Pana cotta et coulis de fruits rouges, qui est vraiment délicieuse. J’y reviendrai rien que pour cela !



En résumé, une entrée, un plat, un dessert et un quart de rosé de qualités correctes pour un tarif économique dans une ambiance « Vintage ».

Le saviez-vous ?

Jean Pierre Jeunet dit en parlant du film tourné à Montmartre : "Nous avons débarrassé les rues de toutes les voitures, nettoyé les graffitis sur les murs, remplacé les affiches par d'autres plus colorées, etc. Disons que j'ai essayé d'exercer le plus de contrôle possible sur la qualité esthétique de la ville".
Amélie Poulin a été le premier film étalonné en numérique. « A l’époque, avant le numérique, on ne pouvait pas faire n’importe quoi au niveau des couleurs. Tout d’un coup, c’était porte ouverte pour faire tout ce qu’on voulait../..Aujourd’hui ça parait presque trop. Je calmerais les couleurs. C’est presqu’agressif. A l’époque on pouvait tellement se permettre tout qu’on s’en est pas privé. On est allé très loin dans la colorimétrie » dit Jean Pierre Jeunet.
Il y a trois mois, Jean Pierre Jeunet, tourne un court métrage très drôle qu’il intitule "La véritable histoire d'Amélie Poulain". Le texte est toujours lu par André Dussollier. A voir absolument.

 

Café des Deux Moulins
Voir la carte : https://cafedesdeuxmoulins.fr/fr/services
15 Rue Lepic, 75018 Paris
Ouvert tous les jours de 7h00 à 2h00 sauf samedi et dimanche de 9h00 à 2h00
https://cafedesdeuxmoulins.fr/fr
 

10 rue Constance, l’académie

It is 20 meters from the Relais Montmartre that we begin our journey.
Vincent van Gogh was self-taught and it was only at the age of 27 that he decided to become a painter. He attended the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels and took classes with his cousin, the painter Anton Mauve in The Hague, but he did not draw in an academic way. He will be despised for this.
Shortly after his arrival in Paris, Vincent attended the studio of Fernand Cormon, located at 10 rue de Constance. Vincent was already 33 years old and looked old to all the young students of Fernand Cormon who did not fail to make fun of him.
It was at 10 rue Constance that Van Gogh met Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Louis Anquetin, John Peter Russel and especially Émile Bernard, of whom he became a close friend.


Van Goh by John Peter Russel, 1886 - Emile Berard by Toulouse Lautrec the same year


​Fernand Cormon's studio, 10 rue Constance, was probably located on the 4th floor.

54 rue Lepic, or the improvised workshop

Theo Van Gogh's apartment was located on the third floor and was probably a two-room apartment. On the first floor of the building was the gallery of Alphonse Portier (1841-1902), a former color dealer and patron of the Impressionists, who exhibited Corot (1796-1875) and Cézanne (1839-1906).

83 rue Lepic, the mills that move Van Gogh

The "Moulin de la Galette" is made up of two windmills: the Blute-fin mill to the west and the Radet mill to the east, both acquired by the Debray family, millers in 1809. Between these two mills, a public ball was opened in 1834, which took the name of "Moulin de la Galette" because the Debray family distributed galettes there.
Vincent Van Goh painted many times the mills of Montmartre and the gardens that it dominates.

Le moulin de la Galette in 1886


Le Moulin de la Galette V. van Gogh – 1887


Le moulin de la galette, today


Maquis de Montmartre - 1890

The Radet mill overlooks the hill of Montmartre where there was an area called Maquis de Montmartre, consisting of allotments and a quarry.


Montmartre, quarry, mills - V. van Gogh 1886
 

18 rue Saint Rustique, where we drink absinthe

The Montmartre bars and cabarets frequented by Vincent are numerous. Fragile, tormented, Vincent drinks. He was known to drink excessively, combined with a poor diet. Bars and cabarets are not, except in exceptional cases, the subject of his paintings.


The guiguette in Montmartre - Wooden billiards - V. van Gogh 1886


Wooden billiards around 1921 - Roger Violet


Billards en bois is now called La bonne Franquette

62 Bd de Clichy, he pays with paintings

Le Tambourin, located at 62 boulevard de Clichy, was a cabaret restaurant that Vincent van Gogh used to frequent. He rubbed shoulders with Emile Bernard and Paul Gaugin, among others. He paid for the meals he consumed in paintings. The owner of the place was none other than Agostina Segatori who had posed for Édouard Manet.


Agostina Segatori – V. Van Gogh 1887


The Tambourin became the Cabaret des Quat'z'arts. Here in 1900


62 boulevard de Clichy, the address of the late Le Tambourin

25 Victor Massé Street: The unannounced arrival

Let's go back in time. We are in March 1886. Vincent arrives from Antwerp. It is at the 25th of this street, then called Laval street, that Vincent invites himself at his brother's house without having warned him. The apartment is small. It is located in the backyard on the second floor on the left.


Theo van Gogh's small apartment was located in a backyard building at 25 Victor Massé Street

Au 9 rue Chaptal, l’art est une marchandise

Vincent Van Goh's father and uncle sent Vincent to Paris in May 1875, to the head office of Goupil & Cie, located at 9 rue Chaptal. Goupil & Cie was then one of the most important art dealers in the world. Vincent was shocked to see art treated as a mere commodity and expressed his displeasure to some of his clients, which led to his dismissal on April 1, 1876. Vincent returned to the Netherlands but his brother got a stable job in 1880 at Goupil & Cie before becoming manager of its branch on Boulevard de Montmartre. It was thanks to this position that he was able to support his brother but also, later, Paul Gauguin, making Vincent believe that the money was sent by his father.


Galerie Goupil, rue Chaptal - Le Monde Illustré 1860


The Goupil & Cie headquarters building, 9 rue Chaptal was also the address where the composer Iannis Xenakis lived


Gallery Goupil & Cie - Boulevard de Montmartre, directed by Theo

14 rue Clauzel, at Father Tanguy's

Vincent Van Gogh met one of the most colorful characters of the Parisian artistic milieu of the 1880s - 1890s. Affectionately called Father Tanguy by the painters, Julien François Tanguy ran a color store at 14 rue Clauzel and often accepted paintings in exchange for his goods. Van Gogh painted 3 portraits of Father Tanguy, including this one which the merchant never wanted to part with. One can see that the use of frank colors was clear.
We can see in the background the "Japonaiserie" which Vincent Van Gogh was passionate about. The Ukiyo-e style is a Japanese artistic movement of the Edo period (1603-1868) which inspired Vincent Van Gogh, especially by the use of its colors. He made numerous studies of it.


Père Tanguy - V. van Gogh 1887


The Bridge in the Rain 1887 by V. van Gogh and Rain on the Ohami Bridge in Atake- Hiroshige 1857

Epilogue

Vincent leaves Paris in February for Arles. He wanted to go to Provence for the colors he wanted to find. He then went to Auvers sur Oise where his psychiatric health became more and more unstable. He sold only one painting in his lifetime, La Vigne Rouge, for 400 francs (about 1900 euros) to Anna Boch, herself a painter, in February 1890. The painting is so overwhelming that it is both narrative and poetic.
Vincent Van Gogh shot himself in the chest on July 28, 1890 in Auvers sur Oise. His brother Theo died six months later. They lie next to each other in Auvers sur Oise.
 
Voir le parcours in Google Maps
All the paintings of the Parisian period: http://www.vggallery.com/painting/by_period/paris.htm
Learn more about Vincent Van Gogh: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_van_Gogh

 

Bouillons were once comparable to what Fast foods are today: popular and economical restaurants, except that their menus were filled with dishes taken from the great classics of traditional French cuisine, which some would call bistro cuisine.
This address was created by the Moussié brothers, respectable and well-known actors on the Parisian scene (Café Jannette, Brasserie Barbès, Hôtel Providence). It serves up to 1800 covers a day at unbeatable prices.
You have to arrive early. During the week, the queue is quite fast, whatever the time in winter. But in the summer, on weekends, you have to arrive at the very beginning of the service.

The decoration, very inspired by the Bistrot style of the Belle Époque period, is quite neat. There is a room on the first floor that is a little more intimate, opening onto an enclosed terrace that will be very popular in summer.
The room is not very noisy considering the affluence.

You will find in the menu all the well-rehearsed standards at particularly good prices: The inevitable egg mayonnaise (2€50), the leek vinaigrette (3€40), the bone marrow (4€20), the 6 snails with parsley butter (7€00)... then the sausage with knife, mashed potatoes (9€60), the brandade of cod with olive oil and almonds (9€90), the beef bourguignon with smoked bacon and coquillettes (11€20), the fried steak with roquefort sauce (11€80)...
See the Menu:
https://bouillonlesite.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/BouillonPigalle_UK.pdf
We started with an onion soup, served hot but nicely gratinated and quite respectable, even though there was only one grilled crouton, the others did not seem to have been.
 

We went on with a Basque blood sausage purée. This recipe is based on offal and pork blood, onions and Espelette peppers. Even if its presentation would gain to be more engaging, the taste and the texture are quite convincing. The purée, which we would like to be richer in butter, is crushed.
 

We finish with a great classic of the bistro cuisine: A profiterole which did not seduce us with the blandness and the excess of its vanilla ice cream, a very flat and not very crunchy cabbage.
This meal is washed down with a quarter of a very correct Côte du Rhône at a price that is just impossible: 3€60
The service is courteous and efficient even if the delivery of the dishes suffers a little in delay.
 

A bill that reminds us of the amounts we used to pay in the 20th century.
In short, at the price we say, it's a bargain to be had.
 

From 03 to 31 January 2022, for any reservation of a stay from our website, the Relais Montmartre hotel provides you a Navigo Easy card to facilitate your access to the Parisian metros and trams. 
For more information, please contact us or refer to the reception.

The Place des Abbesses 

The street of the Chevalier-de-la-Barre and the church of the Sacré-Cœur

The Moulin Rouge and Moulin Rouge Machine

Guided tour in collaboration with Paris Zig-Zag : 

Dear Customer(s) in front of the evolution of Covid-19 the recommendations of the WHO and the decree of the French State.

The hotel is temporarily closed.
We will be happy to welcome you from Wednesday 25 August 2021.
If you need to modify or cancel a reservation, please contact the hotel by email:
"contact@relaismontmartre.fr"
Or by phone : + 33 1 70 64 25 25

We wish you all to keep yourselves in good shape and will be pleased to welcome you back soon in our hotel.

Looking forward to welcoming .
 
Best regards.
Take care and see you soon

You may have noticed them, they hide and make all the charm of the district around the Relais Montmartre. These little children's heads with caps, big eyes and a mischievous look are on postcard, tag or poster displays.

But who are they?

The name Poulbot comes from its creator: Francisque Poulbot. Drawer who lived for many years on the Butte Montmartre (you know, this famous hill that makes you appreciate your comfortable room even more after a long walk), F. Poulbot illustrates posters. By observing the life of the streets of Montmartre, he created this character known to all French people.

Despite their large (often blue) eyes and beautiful smile, the Poulbots hide behind this expression the misery of yesteryear.
Heirs of Gavroche in Victor Hugo's Les Misérables, they represent a whole generation of children from Montmartre at a time when it was still only a village outside Paris, where children sometimes had to steal to eat.

Over the years, Poulbot has become the face of the association "les dispenssaires des petits poulbots" which has become an icon representing the Parisian titi, the post-war period and currently the "real Paris".



To find out a little more about the Poulbots, don't hesitate to talk to the many booksellers in the area. We also recommend two places:

Poulbot Street:  

Before being attached to Paris, this street was part of the village of Montmartre. Currently part of the capital, these 70 metres long will allow you to feel the very essence of Montmartre.

Information : Rue Poulbot - 700 mètres from the Relais Montmartre via la rue Lepic - 10-15 minutes walk.
 

Poulbot Restaurant:

Located in the street of the same name, this restaurant with its very Parisian decoration offers traditional cuisine and traditional beers. The wine list is also quite rich in beautiful finds. Among its must-sees, "the lamb shoulder in a 7-hour way and its juice, apple granules with thyme" or "the swordfish salsa verde and coconut paimpol with chorizo". A restaurant that only offers fresh food (three choices of starters, main courses and desserts) for a plebiscite of its customers from here or elsewhere. A very good address run by twins who have lived in the neighbourhood since the age of four.


Informaiton : Restaurant le Poulbot - 3 rue Poulbot - 850 meters from the relais Montmartre via la rue Lepic - 10-15 minutes walk.

 

This juice bar offers fresh juices made from 100% organic fruit and vegetables every day. In order to preserve all their nutritional values, the juices are pressed slowly by extraction and not by centrifuging.

Just a few meters from the hotel, Vejuice offers five-day "detox" programs to counter stress and fatigue or to take a taste break throughout the day.

To accompany the different juices, healthy salads can complete your order.

Held by a passionate person, do not be hesitates to ask him what you want and let him guide you.

Whether it's the juice of the day, the soup of the season or a break after climbing all the steps to reach Montmartre during your walk, you now know where to get back into shape.

 
  Le Vejuice (1 rue Constance) : 100% organic juice bar
Opening: Tuesday to Sunday from 9:30 am to 6:30 pm
From the hotel: 20 metres to the left leaving the Relais Montmartre

To reach this restaurant, you will have to go up the rue Lepic, almost at the top of Montmartre.
It is located just above the Moulin de Galette (read our article) and Coq Rico (read our article)
The business started in 2013 and is run by Antonin Prion, who is floor manager and had the great idea of being trilingual. He is also the associate of Frédéric Paul Chartier, who works in the kitchen. We will talk about him a bit later.
Past the entrance is a small room with less than 30 seats where intimacy seems to be a priority. We were immediately taken in hand and placed where we wish. Each dish is explained. The service is as attentive and friendly as its is professional.

The rizotto with mascarpone, is mixed with daïkons (Japanese white radish), topped by a bed of gourmet peas, slices of serrano, all brought together with preserved garlic. The dish is well balanced: It is both crunchy with the daikon and melting with mascarpone. The sugar from the garlic confit is well-balanced with the salty Serrano. Another great restaurant for only €12 per dish.
I then chose a very simple dessert from my childhood: French toast. It is served with salted butter caramel. It is crispy on the surface and moist in the middle. Accompanied by salted butter, it is really excellent and although I was full, I just had to finish it. 

Special greetings to the chef Frédéric Paul Chartier, who we had met before at La Balançoire.
He is talented, respects the product, and loves his job as much as his customers. He was trained at the famous Ferrandi school and then joined the brigade of Ducasse's Eiffel Tower brewery.
The adventure won't stop here for him and his partner. Thank you

LA BOITE AUX LETTRES
108, rue Lepic – 75018 Paris
Monday to Saturday from 12:00 pm to 2:30 pm and from 7:00 pm to 11:00 pm
http://www.restaurantlaboiteauxlettres.fr/

We are delighted to be re-opening our doors soon and are impatient to welcome you back. All precautions will be taken in line with sanitary legal obligations in order to ensure maximum safety during your stay, and we invite you to take a look at these rules which are published on our website.

And now for a few surprises!
We have made the most of the imposed closure to decorate the Patio, which is now more luminous and pleasant for a relaxing moment after a hectic Parisian day.

We have also refurbished our 3rd floor with new colors and textiles which we’re impatient for you to discover and hope many of you will come to stay soon.

Despite the difficulties experienced by all over recent months, we have doubled our efforts to ensure that the reopening of Relais Montmartre will be the happiest of reunions and we are delighted to welcome you back again!

And by way of reminder, it is always in your best interests to reserve directly with the hotel: we propose better rates.

Take care and have a pleasant summer.
See you soon!