"We're fine in Montmartre without anyone, eh! The owner of the Deli's café-restaurant, next to the Sacré-Coeur, smiles yellow but understands our enthusiasm. He too savored with savvy the beauty of the deserted places, these cobbled alleys with the signboards of dolls houses out of a romantic comedy. But on the terrace, this Thursday morning, the chairs are empty. All. No American to order a croissant or a buttered toast with coffee, "so french". "I have never seen this corner so calm in my life," smiles a resident.
How beautiful Montmartre is without the crowds. Without the noise. The Sacred Heart really invites you to meditate. We even smile with all these crosses, one seat out of two to enforce the distance when there are five of us in the basilica. Including three masked friends from Essonne, nursing students who take a trip from Juvisy (Essonne): “We got up early. We love playing tourists in Paris. Afterwards, we will go to the Champs-Elysées. We always start with Montmartre. Usually it’s already crowded at that time. Me, it is even the first time that I enter inside the Sacred Heart. Before, with the tail, I didn't have the patience, ”smiles Manon.
"It's now or never"
In the pedestrian streets which lead to the Place du Tertre, Raphaël, a marketing consultant and resident of the Goutte d'Or, takes his brother, who lives in the provinces, around the capital: “We make vacationers. Yesterday we went to the Palais de Tokyo, there was not a cat. It's now or never, ”says the young man.
Few people know the Montmartre museum and its Renoir gardens, at the end of the district, reopened since May 30. Its water lily pond, swing and tables where you can hang out as much as you want on the edge of the lawn among thickets of trees as in the countryside. "Some telework here," smiles the ticket manager. The tearoom café serves drinks and salads while waiting for the heat to return to the kitchen.
We go up to the workshop of Suzanne Valadon, painter and figure of Montmartre at the end of the XIXth century, with the impression of having rented a cachet second home. At the exhibition Freundlich, a great abstract painter, a Parisian student who "searches for open museums". There are a dozen in the capital, including quite a few with gardens like here. We go back down the slopes under the Sacré-Cœur, people are lounging slowly, and two street vendors are waiting with their bottles of water: “No tourists! »They leave us annoyed.
"I want the Eiffel Tower afterwards!"
And if it was the moment or never of the first times, for Parisians and Ile-de-France? Like Manon, neither did we ever set foot inside the Sacred Heart. No more than at the Arc de Triomphe, reopened on Monday, where we went up - but why had we never had the idea? Because of the world, surely - admire the view much more beautiful than a postcard on the city of lights.
On the stairs, Aboubacar, a law student in Dijon, says that the Parisian aunt who hosts him, too, has never set foot here. The young man chains the monuments this Thursday: "I'm going to Versailles just after. I am just waiting to know what time I will be finished here to reserve my ticket on my phone, because you have to indicate a time slot. "
At the top, Aya, a very small child, leaps with joy: "I want the Eiffel Tower afterwards!" Her mother calms her a little, the iron lady will not open until June 25. "As the crèche is closed, we make one monument a week," explains the mother. We meet another with her little girl: “We are taking advantage of it. It's so rare. There are no tourists, well, not yet… ”.
"We never knew that"
Romain, a Parisian expatriate in Montreal, has just arrived on vacation to see his parents. “This period is the opportunity to show my children Paris without the tourists. And to awaken my memories, like this fantastic view of La Défense where I did my student internships, ”marvels this professor in sommellerie, who makes wine with his brother on the side of Mantes-la-Jolie (Yvelines ). " Look ! », He suddenly shouts to his offspring. The Patrouille de France passes over Mont Valérien with blue white red smoke to salute the memory of General de Gaulle on June 18.
Newsletter - The essentials of the news
Every morning, the news seen by Le ParisienI'm registering
Your email address is collected by Le Parisien to allow you to receive our news and commercial offers. Find out more
Call of June 18: the Patrouille de France and the RAF Red Arrows fly over Paris
Paris is magical. “Even we have never known that, abounds an employee. There are no groups. Usually, inside and on the stairs, the noise rings out loud in the ears. And that the avenues starting from the Star are green seen from here. Take to the heights, enjoy the gardens. Like that of the Petit Palais, at the other end of the Champs-Elysées.
The museum reopened on Tuesday, and its lush 1900 garden is popular for lunches. Well, for the tea room restaurant, you actually have to wait until June 23, but an exhibition of drawings and the permanent collections are already welcoming the public. And even without a pie or tea, around the three basins paved with mosaics, the chairs are out in this exotic garden. Sitting and resting in front of palm and banana trees is priceless. It's even free, literally. If you only visit the permanent rooms and enjoy the garden, nothing to pay, nothing to reserve. Live on walks and fresh water.