In the streets of Montmartre, again
Today I fancied a trip in Montmartre, probably from all the talk back when I published those pics, and I hadn't been there for a while. So as I was feeling a bit better (wasn't too good in the morning), I decided to go for it.
I then went out of my place, down the metro on line 7, then line 2... only, what I hadn't planned was the rain.
Weather in France in March is pretty like this : for days, you'll alternate between 10 mins or rain and 10 mins of nice weather, basically. Well today it was more like rain, rain and rain. Except that I hadn't planned that, obviously. When I got there, it was raining cats and dogs.
I still took eleven shoots which I'm posting here for you to enjoy. I apologize about the bad weather... And I tried some light correction but it didn't improve anything at all, so I left them like that in the end.
I conceived this as a roadtrip, so here goes :
(To see the pictures full-size, right-click on them and select "View Image". (Ctrl+Clic for Mac users)
If you go up from the bottom of the hill near that famous place called Pigalle, you climb on the streets and you reach this point.
Paris - Montmartre (18e)
(7 mars 2006)
Nice view, eh ? The picture flattens it a bit, but it really looks like it's damn high... and you've just been climbing half the hill already, woah. The heavy sky is a pity because when the sun shines it's really beautiful. Ah... sorry for the tourist's group, I didn't take it out, but it just shows how popular the place is, as there was a fair number of tourists around. Way less than usual, of course.
For the movie freaks here, the grassy area up the hill are featured in the movie Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain :)
Now, let's go to the left, to reach the Thread's station. Actually the name is Funiculaire but it's nicknamed the Thread, it's a reference from Lyon though. It's a sort of small cabin that goes up the hill, a bit like in ski stations, you know. Only it doesn't hang from a thread anymore, but uses a railway, yet it remains pulled by a thick thread, so I guess we can keep the nickname. However I didn't have a sufficient angle to take a picture, but I might try that again when the weather allows it.
We went up the Thread, and this is what you can see :
Paris - Montmartre (18e)
(7 mars 2006)
You have a view of Paris (the same I posted on the previous post) and the Thread station. To the right, not on the picture, is a tourist shop and a fancy night club (I mean fancy) with a plain view on the city. Limousines aren't rare at night in this area *chuckles*.
Up one level via the stairs I was on when I took the last shoot. The fact is that there are three levels on this hill, not counting the "ground" floor. The first is the top of the thread station, and the street you can see ; the next one is the street just above it, and then the level with the Sacré Coeur itself. So we're on the second level, and we go left to the Sacré Coeur, so we won't go at it. Instead, we take left again to that fancy place called Place du Tertre. It's pretty famous for the portraitists. It was nearly empty today... I couldn't get a pic either, the place is too small. Going straight in front of us, meaning westwards now, here is the view :
Paris - Rue Norvins (18e)
(7 mars 2006)
That's the same street I posted a view from except that in the previous post it was eastwards. This one is westwards.
We're going to reach the point where I took that picture on the other post, but a narrow street opens to the South, next to a famous small restaurant called La Pétaudière (there are a lot of famous restaurants here - not that they're really famous but they're featured in a lot of french songs). We can see a bit of the restaurant here.
Paris - Rue Poulbot (18e)
(7 mars 2006)
If you look at the picture from last time, you can see a "Wrong way" sign (for our fellow americans, that's a round red sign with a white dash on it). The street starts there to the right.
Introducing another famous restaurant :
Paris - Saint-Rustique (18e)
(7 mars 2006)
Again it's a small but cosy place. Also, the french saying Diner à la bonne franquette means "having a simple dinner, between friends, just nice and cool". So you get the picture. It's also known for the singing they have in there. Music, and singing *nods*.
That restaurant is located just behind the Consulat, the swiss restaurant featured on that other picture.
Back to the street we climbed up, parallel to the Sacré Coeur. Southwards is the way we came from. Northwards... well, this is it :
Paris - Rue du Mont-Cenis (18e)
(7 mars 2006)
Stairs down (surprise). Woah, we're high, aren't we ?
That tower is midway from the place that gives access to Place du Tertre and the street I just showed you. It's a water tower, one of the very few we still have in Paris (if not the only).
Paris - Angle Cortot-Mont-Cenis (18e)
(7 mars 2006)
Opposite the water tower starts another street, if you followed me it's parallel to Rue Norvins. It's a pretty nice street with real nice houses, in which I'd love to live.
Paris - Rue Cortot (18e)
(7 mars 2006)
Oldies but goodies, eh ?
Screw me, the next pic is failed. It's blurry.
Paris - Angle Saules-Cortot (18e)
(7 mars 2006)
It's a beautiful Montmartre-styled house at the angle of Rue Cortot and Rue des Saules (that one that goes from Rue Norvins to here. It's also the top of the Rue de l'Abreuvoir which you could see in a picture in the previous post).
My problem was that at the moment, a bus was arriving from Rue Cortot - the street that we had just gone down - and another one was arriving from Rue des Saules, which was to my right. I had to take the picture quickly because we were supposed to stop one of the buses to take it. Which we didn't in the end.
We went back up Rue des Saules to rue Norvins and took left to the Tertre again. We got back to the Thread station. Only this time instead of taking the Thread, we decided to go down the stairs parallel to it.
Paris - Montmartre (18e)
(7 mars 2006)
We can see a bit of Paris again, and a Thread going up. Below is the Thread Station on a place called Place Saint-Pierre (just like in Rome, I swear.)
Last but not least, this is what I had behind me when I took the previous picture :
Paris - Rue Foyatier (18e)
(7 mars 2006)
Stairs and stairs and stairs. Now you see the whole point of the Thread.
Overall it was a cool trip in spite of the rain. Can't wait till the sun shines back on our good old city !
To help you keep track of our trip, here is a map :
(The map is taken from Viamichelin and they hold the copyright of it.)
I then went out of my place, down the metro on line 7, then line 2... only, what I hadn't planned was the rain.
Weather in France in March is pretty like this : for days, you'll alternate between 10 mins or rain and 10 mins of nice weather, basically. Well today it was more like rain, rain and rain. Except that I hadn't planned that, obviously. When I got there, it was raining cats and dogs.
I still took eleven shoots which I'm posting here for you to enjoy. I apologize about the bad weather... And I tried some light correction but it didn't improve anything at all, so I left them like that in the end.
I conceived this as a roadtrip, so here goes :
(To see the pictures full-size, right-click on them and select "View Image". (Ctrl+Clic for Mac users)
If you go up from the bottom of the hill near that famous place called Pigalle, you climb on the streets and you reach this point.
Paris - Montmartre (18e)
(7 mars 2006)
Nice view, eh ? The picture flattens it a bit, but it really looks like it's damn high... and you've just been climbing half the hill already, woah. The heavy sky is a pity because when the sun shines it's really beautiful. Ah... sorry for the tourist's group, I didn't take it out, but it just shows how popular the place is, as there was a fair number of tourists around. Way less than usual, of course.
For the movie freaks here, the grassy area up the hill are featured in the movie Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain :)
Now, let's go to the left, to reach the Thread's station. Actually the name is Funiculaire but it's nicknamed the Thread, it's a reference from Lyon though. It's a sort of small cabin that goes up the hill, a bit like in ski stations, you know. Only it doesn't hang from a thread anymore, but uses a railway, yet it remains pulled by a thick thread, so I guess we can keep the nickname. However I didn't have a sufficient angle to take a picture, but I might try that again when the weather allows it.
We went up the Thread, and this is what you can see :
Paris - Montmartre (18e)
(7 mars 2006)
You have a view of Paris (the same I posted on the previous post) and the Thread station. To the right, not on the picture, is a tourist shop and a fancy night club (I mean fancy) with a plain view on the city. Limousines aren't rare at night in this area *chuckles*.
Up one level via the stairs I was on when I took the last shoot. The fact is that there are three levels on this hill, not counting the "ground" floor. The first is the top of the thread station, and the street you can see ; the next one is the street just above it, and then the level with the Sacré Coeur itself. So we're on the second level, and we go left to the Sacré Coeur, so we won't go at it. Instead, we take left again to that fancy place called Place du Tertre. It's pretty famous for the portraitists. It was nearly empty today... I couldn't get a pic either, the place is too small. Going straight in front of us, meaning westwards now, here is the view :
Paris - Rue Norvins (18e)
(7 mars 2006)
That's the same street I posted a view from except that in the previous post it was eastwards. This one is westwards.
We're going to reach the point where I took that picture on the other post, but a narrow street opens to the South, next to a famous small restaurant called La Pétaudière (there are a lot of famous restaurants here - not that they're really famous but they're featured in a lot of french songs). We can see a bit of the restaurant here.
Paris - Rue Poulbot (18e)
(7 mars 2006)
If you look at the picture from last time, you can see a "Wrong way" sign (for our fellow americans, that's a round red sign with a white dash on it). The street starts there to the right.
Introducing another famous restaurant :
Paris - Saint-Rustique (18e)
(7 mars 2006)
Again it's a small but cosy place. Also, the french saying Diner à la bonne franquette means "having a simple dinner, between friends, just nice and cool". So you get the picture. It's also known for the singing they have in there. Music, and singing *nods*.
That restaurant is located just behind the Consulat, the swiss restaurant featured on that other picture.
Back to the street we climbed up, parallel to the Sacré Coeur. Southwards is the way we came from. Northwards... well, this is it :
Paris - Rue du Mont-Cenis (18e)
(7 mars 2006)
Stairs down (surprise). Woah, we're high, aren't we ?
That tower is midway from the place that gives access to Place du Tertre and the street I just showed you. It's a water tower, one of the very few we still have in Paris (if not the only).
Paris - Angle Cortot-Mont-Cenis (18e)
(7 mars 2006)
Opposite the water tower starts another street, if you followed me it's parallel to Rue Norvins. It's a pretty nice street with real nice houses, in which I'd love to live.
Paris - Rue Cortot (18e)
(7 mars 2006)
Oldies but goodies, eh ?
Screw me, the next pic is failed. It's blurry.
Paris - Angle Saules-Cortot (18e)
(7 mars 2006)
It's a beautiful Montmartre-styled house at the angle of Rue Cortot and Rue des Saules (that one that goes from Rue Norvins to here. It's also the top of the Rue de l'Abreuvoir which you could see in a picture in the previous post).
My problem was that at the moment, a bus was arriving from Rue Cortot - the street that we had just gone down - and another one was arriving from Rue des Saules, which was to my right. I had to take the picture quickly because we were supposed to stop one of the buses to take it. Which we didn't in the end.
We went back up Rue des Saules to rue Norvins and took left to the Tertre again. We got back to the Thread station. Only this time instead of taking the Thread, we decided to go down the stairs parallel to it.
Paris - Montmartre (18e)
(7 mars 2006)
We can see a bit of Paris again, and a Thread going up. Below is the Thread Station on a place called Place Saint-Pierre (just like in Rome, I swear.)
Last but not least, this is what I had behind me when I took the previous picture :
Paris - Rue Foyatier (18e)
(7 mars 2006)
Stairs and stairs and stairs. Now you see the whole point of the Thread.
Overall it was a cool trip in spite of the rain. Can't wait till the sun shines back on our good old city !
To help you keep track of our trip, here is a map :
(The map is taken from Viamichelin and they hold the copyright of it.)