After spending most of the month of April walking two different Camino de Santiago routes in Spain and France (see previous Blog Post), I had to make my way to Paris for my flight home. While in Paris I had time to check out the Funicular at Montmartre and to walk some nearby step-streets. I’m sure that there are many step-streets that I missed, but these are the ones I noticed.
I used Google My Maps to make this simple map of the walk.
I took the Paris Metro to the Abbesses stop and headed east towards the Funicular on Rue des Trois Frères. When I reached Rue de Vieuville, there was a stairway (Point 1 on the Map) to the left going uphill. So I climbed the 83 steps to Rue Berte and hung a right.
83 steps up to Rue Berte.
At the next street, Rue Chappe (Point 2), there were more stairs to the left going uphill and stairs straight ahead going down to the Funicular. I decided to go straight and take the 26 steps down (Point 3) to the Funicular knowing that I could pick up the other stairway later.
The intersection with Rue Chappe.
The stairs going uphill. (I took these stairs later.)
The stairs going down to the Funicular station. (These are the ones I took.)
I took the Funicular (Point 4) to the top of Montmartre (Point 5), again knowing that I would climb the parallel stairway later. From the Funicular stop, it was another 80 stair steps (Point 6) to reach the plaza in front of the famous Basilique du Sacré-Coeur.
The Funicular
Basilique du Sacre-Coeur
Looking out towards Paris from the Church plaza.
Every available space was jammed with “Love Locks”!
Once on the church plaza, I drifted to the east and noticed a stairway going downhill (Point 7). It was 50 steps down to the street just below the church plaza and then another 143 steps across the street (Point 8) down to a plaza-like intersection (Point 9) complete with sidewalk cafes.
These are the stairs off to the east from the Church plaza.
Looking back up the steps at Savre-Coeur.
The steps continued down on the other side of the street.
To this plaza like intersection.
To the right of the sidewalk cafes, there was another 81-step stairway (Point 10) going down to the base of Montmartre.
These steps completed the journey down to the base of Montmartre.
From there I followed the sidewalk along the base of Montmartre back to the Funicular.
There was even some topography along the way back to the Funicular.
This time I climbed the 180 + steps (Point 11) back up to the top Montmartre. While climbing the stairs, a young boy, probably seven or eight, was sliding down the railing in the middle of the stairway. Just when the railing ended at a landing, his pants got stuck at the railing end and he was dangling upside down. Fortunately, I was right there and grabbed him before he did a faceplant and lifted him off the railing.
As you can see, the stairs were right next to the Funicular.
When I reached the top of the stairs, I drifted to the west and found the stairs (Point 12) that I skipped earlier. It was 52 steps down to the first street. If I had wanted, I could have made a left-hand turn to return to the Funicular stairway. Instead, I crossed the street and took 63 steps (Point 13) down to where I first spotted the stairway.
As you drift to the west from Sacre-Coeur, you finally get a clear view of the Eiffel Tower well off in the distance.
You’ll also run into crowded streets as you drift to the west. In walking over 20 miles of Paris streets, I never ran into a place that didn’t have lots of people. So if you like lots of people, late April in Paris is the place to go.
And no matter where you turn in Paris, you’ll find wonderful little design elements.
And these were the steps I took down to continue my walk across Paris.
At the very first street crossing, you’ll get a clear view of the steps along the side of the Funicular.
From there, I continued my walk across Paris. There is no doubt that there are many more stairways around Montmartre, but since I had accomplished what I wanted, it was time to check out something else.