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Offered languages
- English
Most Montmartre tours rush you past the highlights with 20 strangers. We cap every departure at 8 guests and go deeper — the hidden studios where Picasso launched Cubism, the vineyard planted to save the hill, Van Gogh's apartment with no plaque. An expert local guide who actually knows these streets, and a proper wine and cheese apéro to close. This is Montmartre as it deserves to be seen: intimate, unhurried, and full of stories the guidebooks leave out.
What's Included
Meeting and pickup
Exit of Métro Abbesses (Line 12) - Place des Abbesses, next to the carrousel at the exit, your guide will be holding an Orange 'Paris Unscripted' sign.
The tour concludes with a seated wine and cheese apéro at a local Montmartre bar, where your guide will wrap up the experience over a glass of French wine.
Itinerary
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1
Meet at the exit of Métro Abbesses (Line 12), beside the carousel - your guide holds a yellow Paris Unscripted sign. One of only two original Art Nouveau Guimard glass canopy entrances surviving in Paris. Abbesses is the deepest station in the Paris Métro — 36 metres underground. Montmartre only became part of Paris in 1860, reluctantly. The hill still feels like it belongs to a different city.
5 minutes • Admission ticket free -
2Le Mur des Je t'aime
40 square metres of hand-painted ceramic tiles - 'I love you' in 312 languages, created in 2000 by Frédéric Baron and Claire Kito. The red fragments scattered across the tiles represent the pieces of a broken heart — love exists in every language but pain is universal. A brief, beautiful opener before the history deepens.
10 minutes • Admission ticket free -
3Le Bateau-Lavoir
The most important building in 20th-century art history that nobody knows. Picasso painted Les Demoiselles d'Avignon here in 1907 - the painting that launched Cubism and changed everything. Also resident at various points: Modigliani, Juan Gris, Max Jacob, Gertrude Stein's circle. Burned down in 1970 and rebuilt — the original floor plan is traced in the pavement outside. Picasso arrived in Montmartre in 1904 with nothing. He left in 1912 already famous.
15 minutes • Admission ticket free -
4Vigne du Clos Montmartre
The Lapin Agile cabaret has been on this site since 1860 - Picasso, Utrillo, Verlaine and Apollinaire all drank here. It still runs shows of old French chansons, the same repertoire it had in 1900. The Clos Montmartre is the last active vineyard in Paris - 1,850 Pinot Noir and Gamay vines on a steep slope, producing around 1,000 bottles a year. In 1933, when the city threatened to demolish the hill to build apartments, the local mayor planted a vineyard - because agricultural land couldn't be expropriated. The wine is deliberately terrible. That was never the point.
15 minutes • Admission ticket free -
5La Petite Maison Rose de Montmartre (Since 1920)
The little pink house that launched a thousand postcards. Built in the early 1900s and immortalised by Maurice Utrillo, who painted it repeatedly from the street outside. Tucked at the corner of Rue de l'Abreuvoir and Rue Lepic, it sits in one of the quietest and most beautiful corners of the hill — the kind of spot that makes visitors feel they've found something secret, even though millions have stood in exactly the same spot.
10 minutes • Admission ticket free -
6Van Gogh's House
Van Gogh lived at 54 Rue Lepic with his brother Theo from 1886 to 1888 - the period he discovered Impressionism and completely transformed his palette from dark browns to the vivid yellows and blues of his mature work. There is no official plaque. Paris has never marked this building. The Moulin de la Galette nearby is one of two surviving windmills of Montmartre, Renoir painted it in 1876 in Bal du Moulin de la Galette, now hanging in the Musée d'Orsay. Van Gogh painted over 200 works in 21 months on this street. He left for Arles in 1888 and never returned.
10 minutes • Admission ticket free -
7Sacre-ceour Basilica
The basilica was commissioned in 1875 as a national act of penance after France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian War and the Paris Commune. The Paris Commune of 1871 - the first workers' government in history - began here on Montmartre, when the National Guard refused to hand over their cannons. The Commune lasted 72 days. When it fell, up to 30,000 Parisians were executed in the streets. The basilica built as an apology for their defeat stands directly above their graves. The white travertine stone bleaches itself with rain - it never gets dirty. Inside, an eternal adoration vigil has been maintained every hour of every day since 1885.
20 minutes • Admission ticket free -
8Place Du Tertre
Place du Tertre was the village square of old Montmartre - today full of portrait painters selling to tourists, but Utrillo painted it dozens of times when it was empty and silent, and Pissarro sketched here. The Montmartre Museum on Rue Cortot is one block away - Renoir's studio is preserved inside. We descend via Rue Norvins, the oldest paved street in Montmartre, lined with ivy-covered walls and the last authentic village architecture. Best photos of the tour.
15 minutes • Admission ticket free -
9
End the day the Parisian way - seated with a glass of French wine, a selection of cheese and charcuterie, and the stories of Montmartre still fresh in your mind. Your guide will bring the neighbourhood's history to life one final time as you raise a glass to the hill that inspired the world
40 minutes • Admission ticket free
Additional info
- Service animals allowed
- Public transportation options are available nearby
- Not recommended for travelers with spinal injuries
- Travelers should have at least a moderate level of physical fitness
Tags
Cancellation Policy
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
Cancellation Policy
- For a full refund, you must cancel at least 24 hours before the experience’s start time.
- If you cancel less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time, the amount you paid will not be refunded.
- Any changes made less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time will not be accepted.
- This experience requires a minimum number of travelers. If it’s canceled because the minimum isn’t met, you’ll be offered a different date/experience or a full refund.
You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.
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