32. A Tour Through Montmartre.
Nothing like local knowledge to enrich my Paris experiences.
Bienvenue to the 32nd article in my Medium publication, Inside Me Inside Paris, a work-in-progress memoir about my 2016 deep-dive into Paris & my journey to find my soul amidst the onslaught of depression…
C’est 2 août 2016.
Sitting by the Seine River. It’s hot and sticky on this first day in August. No breeze. But I can hear the peaceful flow of the water. “Go with the flow,” the Seine tells me.
At work, on a film set, I’m stellar at going with the flow. When shit hits the fan — which happens a lot — I roll with the punches, constantly. In life, it’s harder for me to go with the flow. Not sure why. But I’m getting a lot of practice in Paris.
Louis, who I met at the Franglish event last month, gave me a guided tour of Montmartre today. I’ve written often about Montmartre. I’m here a lot so I’ll talk about it a little bit.
Montmartre is in the 18th Arrondissement; it is on a hill and it surrounds the Basilica de Sacre Coeur. Think of Montmartre basically as a triangle — the three metro stops at the base is Anvers, Pigalle and Blanche and the tip of the triangle is Sacre Coeur. Inside the triangle are hills and winding cobblestone streets and boutique shops and cafès, and is part of the history of many famous artists. So without a map, as has been my modus operandi, Louis gave me a tour beyond the tourists and the pick-pocketers and the vendors selling you a sketch of yourself for outrageous prices. We walked the nooks and crannies of the hill and it rained a fresh rain today and it was nice and refreshing and not the annoying rain that is Los Angeles where people don’t drive well when it’s wet and complain about it though it’s mostly people not from Los Angeles who are doing the driving.
Louis told me stories as he led me to some of the unique parts of Montmartre. If you take it in deeply, you can feel the ghosts of all the old artists who pranced around here.
1️⃣ Dalida: She was a French singer and one of the biggest in the world, with 19 #1 hits in four languages, more than seventy gold records and recorded songs in ten languages. She bought a house in Montmartre. She died by suicide when she was 54, which is so young. I wonder what happened, but I get it, Dalida. I don’t have any gold records or any kind of world-renowned success and I know the desire to disappear, so things must’ve been really sad for you. Anyway, Louis told me to put my hands on her breasts for good luck and far be it for me to not accept any opportunity to gather a bit of bon chance.
2️⃣ Le Passe Muraille: The legend of a ghost in Montmartre named Dutilleul who could walk through walls and was cast away upon the creation of this sculpture. You shake the hand, c’est bon chance — good luck!
3️⃣ Saint Denis: In the square Suzanne Buisson, is the statue of Saint Denis holding his own head. He was sentenced to be crucified on top of the hill but the soldier who escorted him, decapitated Saint Denis, but Saint Denis wanted to die like Jesus. So he picked up his own head and continued walking to the top of the hill. There, he dropped dead, but his head rolled and rolled… to a point north of Paris, where the cathedral of Saint Denis now stands, in the suburb of course, called — Saint Denis.
4️⃣ Lapin Agile: It existed in the 1860’s and in the early 20th Century, became a cabaret and a hang out spot for Picasso, Modigliani, Hemingway, musicians, poets, pimps, eccentrics, bohemians and local anarchists who would incessantly pontificate on the meaning of art.
Every single Parisien who I’ve met has been genuinely gracious with their time and proud of their city, enough to know nuanced history about it and tell me with sincere passion about their version of Paris. I try to do that in Los Angeles. In my head, I see myself as the Ambassador of Los Angeles. Most people who live in Los Angeles, unless from LA, don’t do this. They mostly complain. They bitch and moan. LA is a unique city in the way Paris is and the way Parisiens are passionate about their city, it inspires me to say as the Ambassador of LA: you have to love it for what it is, so if you don’t like it in Los Angeles, why do you live here?
Thank you very much for reading this memoir I’m workshopping. Looking for publishers! I’m a writer/photographer based in Burbank, California. Some of my work is visible on my Instagram.
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