Montmartre

Where great artists lived and hack artists visited

JB Cantor
JB Cantor
Sep 1, 2018 · 3 min read

Yesterday my lovely wife and I hiked up to Montmartre, which… oh, god... what goes first?

I) Was at one point the home of each: Van Gogh, Monet, Picasso, and Renoit (shout out to Wikipedia),

II) Resembles Baltimore (said no one ever) (wait! hear me out) (no, please please please don’t start with that),

III) Is the highest (elevation) point in Paris (great views), or

IV) Hosts Sacre-Coeur, the Roman Catholic Basilica, which to label historically significant (as well as breath-taking) would be an understatement.


So as I was saying, I couldn’t help but think of Baltimore…

(because I’m annoying, that’s why)

…in that its most beautiful areas…

…are so, so close to all the seedy stuff.

It’s a striking juxtaposition between the beauty of Sacre-Coeur and the red-light district of Paris. It’s right next door!

(To be fair, still very cool / interesting in its own way.)

Including the ACTUAL Moulin Rouge

In between the century-and-a-half old basilica and the other stuff lies the actual area of Montmartre, a neighborhood often compared (favorably, without consent, by those bereft of education such as myself) with The Village in Manhattan.

It’s a lovely, affordable (ah, now I get the comparison) urban retreat for starving artists to live and work together.

Or totally separate, whatever you’re into.

Andrea’s favorite: La Maison Rose… It means: Cafe Restaurant

Montmartre, for reference, is the neighborhood where Van Gogh… you guessed it… first became a landlord.

That’s right. Van Gogh once had one, single tenant, his fellow artist and close friend Paul Guaguin.

Paul was apparently the guy who actually cut off VVG’s ear, which I find inspiring as a recently-disgruntled tenant. :-)


And bla bla, bla bla, bla bla…

no really, look: Blabla blabla blabla

Sacre-Coeur, the Basilica overlooking Montmartre (and indeed the rest of Paris) was stunning.

And the walk down was equally impressive.

As you head towards the red light district you see things like this:

Yes, this is what FIREHOUSES look like in Paris. This would be a top-ten building for me to have ever done ANYTHING in…

Yep, they have firehouses that look like Wayne Manor.

Or this:

I’m serious. They just sneak this stuff in there. I don’t even think this building (above) had a sign on it. It’s some kind of apartment complex where the architect got bored and made amazing.


Anyway, that’s all for now.

Shout-out to Montmartre, BKap, and Rus.

Rus for this:

“Hey, what do you and Ruslan have in common?” I asked Dre as she brushed her teeth yesterday morning. YOU’RE BOTH BRUSSIAN…. I’ll see myself out.

And Kap for this

… looks like the Skins patent is definitively still pending.


Until next time: good night, good morning, et a demain!

JB Cantor

Written by

JB Cantor

Writing Post-Cards and Thank You's

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Travel, Thank You's, and Thoughts from our Honeymoon

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