Musée de Montmartre

The Musée de Montmartre is set in one of the oldest houses on the Butte, the hill of Montmartre in northern Paris, and its setting is half the reason to visit. The house, known as the Maison du Bel Air, dates from the seventeenth century, when Montmartre was still a village of windmills, vineyards and quarries outside the city. It was once the home of an actor of Molière's troupe, and later it was divided into apartments and studios. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the building became a gathering place for artists. The painter Auguste Renoir rented rooms here in 1876 and painted some of his best-known works, including The Swing and parts of the Ball at the Moulin de la Galette, in the garden, and the garden is today replanted in the manner of those pictures and called the Renoir gardens.

Other famous residents followed. The painter Suzanne Valadon, once a circus acrobat and an artist's model, lived and worked in the building with her son, the painter Maurice Utrillo, and her partner, and their studio and apartment have been restored to give a sense of their lives. Émile Bernard, Raoul Dufy and other artists also lived here. The museum was founded in 1960 and it tells the story of Montmartre, from the village to the bohemian quarter of the Belle Époque, with paintings, posters, photographs and objects. It has a large collection relating to the cabarets that made the hill famous, among them the Moulin Rouge and Le Chat Noir, with their posters by Toulouse-Lautrec and others.

The terraces and the garden offer another attraction. From the garden you can see the Clos Montmartre, a small vineyard planted on the slope in the 1930s, which still produces wine for a local harvest festival each October, and the view across the vines and rooftops gives a glimpse of the village-like quality that Montmartre still retains. The Café Renoir, in the garden, is a pleasant place to rest with a drink or a light meal. The museum organises temporary exhibitions on artists and themes related to Montmartre and the avant-garde.

The Place du Tertre, where artists set up their easels, and the white domes of the Sacré-Cœur basilica are a short walk away, as is the cabaret Lapin Agile. The streets around the museum are among the quietest on the hill, with ivy-covered walls and cobbles.

Check the opening hours, which are long, and note that there is no cloakroom for luggage. A visit takes about an hour and a half. It suits art lovers, history readers and anyone who wants to see the quieter side of Montmartre.