Sunday May 30 1999. Turning left at Sacré-Coeur brings you to Montmarte's Artists' Quarter. The name is derived from "Mons Martyrium" - "Martyrs' Mound". The legend is that in 287 CE the Romans lopped the head off St Denis, the first Bishop of Paris, and two priests on the hill where Sacré-Coeur now stands. St Denis simply picked up his head and walked away.
Place du Tertre is the place to look for the artists. They are the ones whose paintings and sketches are aimed firmly at the tourist rather than the serious collector.
The square used to be the site of the Village Hall. Now two artists to every metre vie with each other to sketch, caricature or cut your silhouette. One such profile cutter followed me for 5 minutes convinced I would give in because I was laughing as I shook my head! The chap, above, was doing blue and white tiles in relief, which were very good.
There was a feverish atmosphere of casual creativity - for it would not do here to be too serious about your art. That was left to the men and women around the corner - standing for the most part with their artists materials under their arms, looking in vain for a corner of a building that had not already been sketched or made famous in a painting before.
It was catching - I would have loved to have got out my sketch pad and tried my hand! In the garrets and lofts, bars and dance halls, Cubism and Impressionism were first thought of and committed to canvas.
Silhouette paper cutter at work! They fold a black card in two before cutting and therefore you get both left and right profiles.
I have never had my profile cut from a piece of paper, but I do have one that was done of my Great Uncle Percy by Lewis W. Leach, (according to the back of the card: The Celebrated Portrait Artist). It is recogniseably my Great Uncle and he paid a princely two shillings and sixpence (half a crown - or as we might say these days: 22.5 pence).
It was time to move on and return to the coach. We bought some postcards and coasters and some other bits and pieces to take home.
Miss Franny bought herself a compact with a nighttime picture of the Eiffel Tower and we bought a set of six drinks coasters with paintings of various points of interest in Paris.
We walked down the path next to the funicular railway. It is seen here, drawn by a cable from the top station.
Back on the Boulevard de Rochechouart we stood on the wide island between the left and right carriageways near to a Metro station and mini dodgem cars. The full size dodgems were probably still circling the Arc de Triomphe... There were quite a few beggers in this area - sitting against the sides of the Metro, displaying the stumps of their amputated limbs, whilst a young black boy was running from one passer-by to another begging for money to ride the dodgem cars.
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