18th arrondissement

Highlights: Montmartre · la Butte · les Abbesses · Pigalle · la Goutte d'Or · Château Rouge · Barbès · Clignancourt

Perched on the highest hill in Paris, the 18th arrondissement has always combined two faces: that of a village of steep lanes and century-old vineyards, and that of an artistic crucible that gave birth to modern art. From Montmartre to the Goutte d'Or, by way of Pigalle and the Abbesses, this long-rural territory, incorporated into Paris in 1860, has kept its soul of a country town while becoming one of the most endearing neighbourhoods of the capital.

A winegrowing village on the Butte

Before becoming Parisian, Montmartre was an independent commune, perched on a hill of limestone and gypsum quarried since Antiquity. Its slopes planted with vines and its windmills, among them the famous Moulin de la Galette, drew in the 19th century a resolutely rural landscape, a world away from the bustle of Paris. Plaster quarries, guinguettes and market gardens then made up the daily life of this village.

On 1 January 1860, at the instigation of Baron Haussmann, Paris annexed the neighbouring communes and raised the number of its arrondissements from twelve to twenty. Montmartre, like la Chapelle and the Goutte d'Or, was thus absorbed into the brand-new 18th arrondissement. This administrative attachment was not enough, however, to erase the village identity of the Butte, which lastingly kept its irregular layout, its stairways and its shaded squares.

The Butte, workshop of the world

The late 19th century turned Montmartre into a capital of creation. Drawn by the modest rents and the singular light of the hill, painters and poets settled around the place du Tertre and the Bateau-Lavoir, that former workshop on rue Ravignan where Pablo Picasso painted Les Demoiselles d'Avignon in 1907. Renoir immortalised the Moulin de la Galette, Van Gogh lodged for a time on rue Lepic with his brother Théo, while Toulouse-Lautrec sketched the nights of Pigalle.

At the same time, the construction of the basilique du Sacré-Cœur, decided upon after the war of 1870, spanned the years from 1875 to 1914; consecrated in 1919 after a project delayed by the First World War, it crowns the Butte with its white dome and has become one of the most recognisable landmarks of Paris.

A hill crossed by history

On 18 March 1871, it was on the Butte that everything began: soldiers sent to recover the cannon of the National Guard stored on the hill were disarmed by the people of Montmartre, sparking the insurrection that would give rise to the Paris Commune. This founding episode lastingly anchored Montmartre in the popular and rebellious memory of the capital.

In 1889, the opening of the Moulin Rouge, on the corner of the boulevard de Clichy, invented the modern cabaret and the french cancan, while Pigalle became the haunt of night owls and music-hall performers. A little further south, the Goutte d'Or and the Barbès quarter welcomed, from the late 19th century, a working-class and immigrant population, giving rise to a dense and cosmopolitan social fabric that endures to this day.

The 20th century: memory and transformation

Throughout the 20th century, the 18th transformed itself without renouncing its roots. In 1933, the Clos Montmartre was replanted to preserve the last vineyard of the Butte against property pressure; it is harvested each autumn during a festival that has become a tradition. The marché Saint-Pierre, at the foot of the Sacré-Cœur, established itself as the unmissable destination for fabrics and haberdashery, extending the artisanal vocation of the neighbourhood.

The Goutte d'Or and Château Rouge, marked by successive waves of North African and West African immigration, forged a working-class and lively identity, made of bustling markets and cultural blending. This diversity, long perceived in contrast with touristic Montmartre, today plays a full part in the richness of the arrondissement.

Living in the 18th today

Partly listed as a conservation area, the Butte has managed to preserve its vineyards, its windmills and its cobbled alleyways, while becoming one of the most visited sites in the world. To live in the 18th is to choose a human-scale art of living, between converted artists' studios, low houses and unobstructed views over the rooftops of Paris.

From the Abbesses to the Goutte d'Or, the arrondissement today offers a mosaic of neighbourhoods with complementary faces: the village authenticity of the Butte, the creative energy of Pigalle and the cosmopolitan effervescence of Barbès. A territory that has crossed two centuries of history without ever losing its character, and that continues to write, street after street, one of the most singular stories of Paris.