Montmartre vs. Paris

The Montmartre neighborhood - especially Place du Tertre and around the Sacré-Coeur - is kind of like a "Paris at the turn of the century" themed amusement park. Like if Disney did Paris. You walk down the crooked, cobblestone streets and see crooked, old, vine-covered buildings and artists sitting outside with their easels painting the same images that Toulouse Lautrec and Picasso used to see when they lived in the neighborhood. The area is intentionally picturesque. It's actually not so bad in the winter, but once spring and good weather hit, so do the cheesy outdoor cafe terraces, craftspeople, and tourist hordes. That being said, Montmartre is charming in its own way and should be a priority for visitors to the city if only to peek into the basilica to ogle the mosaics. But it's not the place to find "authentic" Paris (if there even is such a thing). The Paris that Montmartre reflects is just an image of an era that ended somewhere between Haussmann's remodeling of the city and the German invasion of World War II.

Embarrassingly, I have to admit that when I first visited Paris at the age of 14, Montmartre, especially the Place du Tertre, was everything I had wanted Paris to be (and was disappointed it wasn't). Montmartre was the image I stored in my brain while I zealously idealized Paris and Parisian life throughout high school. And Montmartre (specifically the Montmartre of Amelie) was what I remembered and got excited about when I returned to this city when I was 20. I won't say that trip made me understand Montmartre for what it actually is, but a second visit to this city did make me replace Montmartre as the default "Paris" image in my mind with other pictures (specifically of the Marais). Honestly, it really wasn't until a few weekends ago that I fully realized just how absurd my Parisian ideal had been. You see, pretty much every time I have visited Montmartre since arriving in Paris in August the city has been in its off-season. So I could climb up the little hill to the basilica and goof around in the empty fountain and get lost on the crooked, winding streets while looking for the Dali museum in ignorant peace. I suppose I should have had some clue given that the main street leading up to the Sacré-Coeur is lined with souvenir shops and there are multitudes of shady souvenir-hawking dudes lurking at the bottom of the hill trying to make you buy a string that they tie around your finger (???). But it wasn't until my last visit to the neighborhood that I really understood - Montmartre is an amusement park minus the rides.

I was totally floored by the transformation to which the neighborhood had been subjectted. Literally thousands of people pushed their way past each other to try to get a seat on one of the newly erected covered outdoor cafe terraces on place du Tertre. There were more signs, more craftspeople / artists (and "artists"), more souvenirs, more cheesy accordian music. It was insanity.

I suppose this is why I giggled so much when on that last visit I heard a stereotypically loud, oblivious American girl say to her father while standing in Place du Tertre, "Now THIS is what I always imagined Paris would be like ever since I was a little kid." I laughed at first because, you know, what an inane thing to say! And then I laughed a little more because I used to think the exact same thing. Sorry, sunshine. This picturesque square that you are ogling excitedly through those knock-off Chanel sunglasses that you bought next to the tour Eiffel yesterday? This isn't Paris. It's too one-dimensional.

Paris is complex. It's living and evolving every day. It's wide boulevards and narrow alleys, the hipster bar near Bastille, the Arab-dominated Barbes-Rochechouart market, the awesome boulangerie next to my house (A la flute enchantée), the omnipresence of both H&M and McDonald's, the haute couture ateliers and haute cuisine restaurants. Paris is incredible and frustrating and beautiful and exciting and stressful and all of these different extremes. You can't encapsulate the idea of Paris in a theme park.