Montmartre and music

Yesterday I visited Montmartre, which was originally its own separate village and is now basically a suburb of Paris. Montmartre is located on and around the highest point in the city, butte Montmartre. We climbed and climbed and climbed along a gently curving, seemingly endless stairway—and that was just getting out of the subway station. We took a nifty funicular to the very top of the hill. The basilica of Sacre Coeur is there (a bulbous white 19th-century church, beautiful inside but somehow not very inspiring after all the much older cathedrals), and wonderful views of the city. The area right around the church is touristy, and also full of those who prey on tourists, but away from there, the place reminded me a bit of San Francisco: steep streets good for slow strolling and lined with charming buildings.

There's also a famous vineyard; evidently grapes have been grown here and wine has been made for a very long time, and the vineyard still yields a small harvest every year.

When I moved to the midwest years ago, people told me that if you don't like the weather, stick around 15 minutes and it will change. That was almost literally true of Paris yesterday. There were periods of blue skies and a few billowing clouds, periods of overcast, and brief but relatively heavy showers, and the weather cycled back and forth between these different states with surprising rapidity. We ate lunch when and where we did to escape from a downpour (which ended shortly after we sat down and was succeeded by blue skies and sunshine until shortly before we left). The rain came and went like that the rest of the afternoon.

Montmartre is known for many things, including its importance as a home for the arts (a number of 19th and early 20th century writers and artists lived or worked here) and also the home to the rather naughty neighborhood of Pigalle. We didn't get into that part of it; after lunch at a pleasant, relatively quiet restaurant, we headed south and west on a musical pilgrimage through the city.

The biggest music site was the Opera Garnier, a gorgeous 19-century opera house. Opulent is the only word for it. Here is the grand staircase.

And here is an incredible foyer.

We got a glimpse of the main auditorium, although we had been told it was closed because people were rehearsing in there. The ceiling has murals by Chagall. Someday I have to get back here and hear an opera in this place. 

Lesser musical sites included Berlioz Square, where the statue of the composer shows him as quite the young romantic.

We also visited two of the buildings where Chopin lived (one where he lived with George Sand, and one where he died). The final stop of the day was Saint-Eustache church, where the composer Rameau is buried. (Richelieu and Madame Pompadour were baptized there, Louis XIV made his first communion there, and Mozart's mother's funeral was there.) It's a beautiful late-Gothic building, and we happened upon the end of an organ recital, so we got to hear some magnificent music. (Organ music is wonderful in those resonant old stone spaces.) Outside in a courtyard, a group sang gospel music. At least, they did until it started raining again, and it was time to go home.