lived here with his mother, Suzanne Valadon, who was a former acrobat turned artist’s model who then turned out to be a talented painter herself.
Walk to the end of rue Cortot and turn right onto rue des Saules. You will see a small vineyard ahead of you on the right. Vineyards used to cover these hills in the Middle Ages, and this is the last of them. City authorities purchased this 2,000-square-metre (21,500-square-foot) plot in 1933 and planted a number of different varieties of grape, some of which are used in France’s greatest wines, others of which have since all but disappeared from the shops.
Musée de Montmartre
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Continue along rue des Saules and you will come to Le Lapin Agile at No. 22. This intimate club was popular with artists and intellectuals at the beginning of the 20th century. It started out in 1860 as Au rendez-vous des voleurs (The Thieves’ Rendezvous), also known as the Cabaret des assassins (The Assassins’ Cabaret).
Bought by the entrepreneur Aristide Bruaud in 1903, it still retains much of the atmosphere of that time. It takes its rather odd name from the sign that was painted by André Gill in 1880. It shows a rabbit escaping a cooking pot, hence Le Lapin à Gill (Gill’s rabbit) became Le Lapin Agile (the nimble rabbit).
Le Lapin Agile
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Continue along rue des Saules and turn left onto rue Caulaincourt. The entrance to Avenue Junot will be the second on your left. Turn right once you come to the avenue, which veers to the left and continues leftwards until you come out on rue Girardon. Near the beginning of this avenue (up the steps off the Allée des Brouillards) is the Château des Brouillards, a bizarre 18th-century house that was the home of 19th-century symbolist writer Gérard de Nerval. Avenue Junot was laid out in 1910 and includes many painters’ studios. No. 13 has mosaics designed by Francisque Poulbot (who used to live here). He was famous for his pictures of Paris street urchins and is also credited with having invented a type of billiards. No. 15 is the Maison Tristan Tzara, named after the Roumanian Dadaist poet who lived here. The house’s eccentric design, by Austrian architect Adolf Loos, was intended to reflect the poet’s nature. No. 23 bis, the Villa Léandre, is part of a group of fine Art Deco houses.
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