Montmartre Self-Guided Audio Walk: Sacré-Cœur, Windmills, Vineyard and Place du Tertre
1 hour and 15 minutes
About this experience
Montmartre was a working hill before it was a painters' village: quarried for plaster, lined with windmills, planted with vines. Then came cheap studios, cabarets and a white basilica seen from all over Paris. Start under a Guimard metro entrance at Abbesses that was moved here from the city center, then climb past the rebuilt front of the Bateau-Lavoir, where Picasso lived, to the Moulin de la Galette, whose dance Renoir painted. Follow the ridge past the man in the wall, the Lapin Agile and its copied rabbit sign, the vineyard planted in 1933 and the Pink House, to Renoir's house, Place du Tertre and its licensed painters, a church consecrated in 1147 and the Sacré-Cœur, whose stone grows whiter in the rain. End at the foot of the hill, looking back up. Eleven stops, about 1.5 km and 75 minutes, at your own pace, in English. A steep climb with many steps. Entry to the basilica dome and the Musée de Montmartre is not included.
- Experience type
- Day tour or activity
- Duration
- 1 hour and 15 minutes
- Guide
- English
- Audio guide
- English
- Categories
- Walking tour · Cultural and theme tours · City tours
What's included
Self-guided audio tour in English: 11 stops, 1.5 km, 75 minutes Stops at a Guimard metro entrance, Bateau-Lavoir, Moulin de la Galette GPS map and walking directions in your phone browser, no app needed Lifetime access: start any day, at any hour, and replay it
What's not included
A live guide: you set the pace and the pauses A fixed start time: begin whenever you arrive Museum and monument tickets, all optional extras Tip or gratuity Food and drinks Entry or admission fee
Please note
To start the tour, enter the ticket code from your confirmation on the Roamer redemption page linked there. Do this before you set off, while you still have signal. The tour then opens in your phone browser, with no app to download. Bring a charged phone and earphones. Mobile data helps; if you have none, open the tour on wifi before you set off. Best time: A weekday morning, starting at about 9am to 10am, before the Place du Tertre and the basilica terrace fill up; the Musée de Montmartre opens at 10am and the Sacré-Cœur dome at 10.15am. Weekend afternoons are the most crowded. The Fête des Vendanges (7 to 11 October 2026) fills the lanes around the vineyard; outside those dates the upper streets are quieter. Trees screen some views while in leaf; from late autumn the basilica shows best from the foot of the hill. Getting to the start: Metro line 12 to Abbesses; the station's exit comes up beside stop 1. The platforms are very deep, so take the lift. Pigalle (lines 2 and 12) and Blanche (line 2) are about ten minutes' walk uphill. The walk ends near Anvers (line 2). Checked 7 October 2026. The funicular beside the Rue Foyatier stairs is part of the metro network: a metro ticket rides it (a ticket already validated on the metro cannot be reused), and it is the step-free way up or down the hill. It runs from about 6am to about 12.45am but is sometimes stopped for maintenance. Checked 7 October 2026. Bus 40, the Montmartrobus, crosses the top of the hill (stops Saules-Cortot and Mont-Cenis-Cortot) and is the step-free way to the upper village. Checked 7 October 2026. Sacré-Cœur (stop 10): the basilica is free, open every day 6.30am to 10.30pm. The dome is 8 euros for adults and 5 euros for children, tickets on site only, open 10.15am to 5.30pm (last entry 5pm), nearly 300 steps and no lift. Modest dress and silence are asked; no photos in the nave. The great organ is under restoration until the end of May 2027. Checked 7 October 2026 at sacre-coeur-montmartre.com. Musée de Montmartre (stop 8): open every day 10am to 6pm; museum and gardens 16 euros during an exhibition, gardens only 6 euros, free under 10. The Demarne Garden and the Café Renoir are closed on Saturday 10 October 2026. Checked 7 October 2026 at museedemontmartre.fr. Saint-Pierre de Montmartre (stop 9): free; self-guided visits outside services; a guided visit in English every Friday at 3.30pm from September to June. Shoulders and knees covered, caps off. Checked 7 October 2026. The Lapin Agile (stop 6) holds its shows on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 9pm to 1am, in French. La Maison Rose (stop 7) is open Wednesday to Sunday for lunch, afternoon drinks and dinner, with reservations only through its website. Checked 7 October 2026. The Fête des Vendanges de Montmartre runs from 7 to 11 October 2026. On Saturday 10 October the harvest ceremony is held at the vineyard from 9.45am and a parade leaves at 11.45am: expect barriers, stalls and closures on Rue Saint-Vincent and Rue des Saules (stops 6 and 7), and follow any signed diversions. From Friday 9 October 9.30am to Sunday 11 October 10pm the basilica can be entered only by its east pavilion. Checked 7 October 2026. This is a steep walk with steps and no step-free route on the climb: about ten steps into Place Émile-Goudeau (before stop 2), a flight of more than fifty steps after Place Dalida (stop 5), and more than two hundred steps on Rue Foyatier after the basilica. Use the handrails. The funicular is the step-free way down from the basilica. There are no traffic lights on this walk. Rue des Abbesses, Rue Ravignan, the Rue Lepic corner, Rue Norvins, Rue de l'Abreuvoir and Rue Cortot carry cars and delivery vans, often with no real pavement: keep to the side and look both ways at every crossing. Cobbles and steps are slippery when wet. Place du Tertre, Place Dalida, the Maison Rose corner, the basilica terrace and the steps below it are crowded: watch your bags, decline portrait sellers politely, and walk on past anyone offering bracelets. The Wall of I Love Yous in the Square Jehan-Rictus (stop 1) is closed for safety; the garden itself is open 8am to 6.30pm on weekdays and 9am to 6.30pm at weekends in October. Checked 7 October 2026. The Clos Montmartre vineyard (stop 6) is not open to the public except on guided visits; the Bateau-Lavoir (stop 2) is working artists' studios. See both from the street. Part of the Square Louise-Michel, the garden on the slope beside the Rue Foyatier stairs, is closed to the public for safety; stay on the stairs. Checked 7 October 2026. Do not sightsee inside Saint-Jean, Saint-Pierre or the Sacré-Cœur during a service. Public transportation nearby
Itinerary
- 1Day 0
Place des Abbesses: The Entrance That Moved
Place des Abbesses, at the Guimard metro entrance, 75018 Paris, Paris
A Guimard entrance moved here. Designed in 1900 for the Hôtel de Ville station and rebuilt here in the 1970s, beside Saint-Jean, a church of reinforced brick and cement.
- 2Day 0
Bateau-Lavoir: Picasso's Studio, Rebuilt
Place Émile-Goudeau, facing the Bateau-Lavoir (no. 13), 75018 Paris, Paris
A rebuilt front from 1978. The wooden Bateau-Lavoir burned in 1970; what stands on Place Émile-Goudeau is a 1978 building with its old front restored.
- 3Day 0
Moulin de la Galette: A Dance Between Two Mills
Rue Lepic at Rue Girardon, by the Moulin de la Galette (no. 83), 75018 Paris, Paris
A hollow windmill above Rue Lepic. The sails above the corner belong to the Radet, an empty shell; the other mill, the Blute-fin, stands in private grounds, and Renoir painted the dance between them.
- 4Day 0
Place Marcel-Aymé: The Man in the Wall
Place Marcel-Aymé, by the Passe-Muraille sculpture, 75018 Paris, Paris
A bronze man in a wall. Across the little square, a figure from Marcel Aymé's story of a Montmartre clerk who could walk through walls.
- 5Day 0
Place Dalida: First Sight of the Dome
Place Dalida, at the bust of Dalida, 75018 Paris, Paris
Where the dome first shows. She lived a short walk away, and along the lane beside the square the white dome of the basilica first shows.
- 6Day 0
Lapin Agile and the Vineyard: Two Survivors
Rue Saint-Vincent at Rue des Saules, by the Lapin Agile (22 Rue des Saules), 75018 Paris, Paris
A cabaret and a 1933 vineyard. The rabbit on the Lapin Agile's wall is a copy of André Gill's sign; the Clos Montmartre vines replaced a waste ground.
- 7Day 0
La Maison Rose: A Coat of Paint
Rue des Saules at Rue de l'Abreuvoir, by La Maison Rose (2 Rue de l'Abreuvoir), 75018 Paris, Paris
A corner house painted pink. Its owners say it was painted pink in 1908, when it opened as a restaurant for the painters of the hill.
- 8Day 0
Rue Cortot: Renoir's House
Rue Cortot, outside the Musée de Montmartre (no. 12), 75018 Paris, Paris
The house where Renoir lived. Now the Musée de Montmartre, with gardens looking over the vineyard, on a narrow cobbled lane.
- 9Day 0
Place du Tertre: The Village and Its Abbey Church
Place du Tertre, by the west door of Saint-Pierre de Montmartre (2 Rue du Mont-Cenis), 75018 Paris, Paris
The old village square and church. Licensed painters fill Place du Tertre, and Saint-Pierre de Montmartre, consecrated in 1147, was the church of the royal abbey.
- 10Day 0
Sacré-Cœur: The Stone That Rain Makes White
Parvis du Sacré-Cœur, in front of the basilica, 75018 Paris, Paris
Limestone that whitens in rain. Built from 1875 and consecrated in 1919, its limestone grows whiter in the rain, and it is free to enter.
- 11Day 0
Foot of the Hill: The Whole Basilica
Place Suzanne-Valadon, at the foot of the Rue Foyatier steps, 75018 Paris, Paris
The whole basilica from below. Below the Rue Foyatier steps and the funicular, the square looks back up at the white domes over the trees.
Meeting point
Place des Abbesses, Paris Place des Abbesses, at the Guimard metro entrance, 75018 Paris, Paris, Île-de-France, FR
Pick up
Pickup is not provided.
Cancellation policy · Montmartre Self-Guided Audio Walk: Sacré-Cœur, Windmills, Vineyard and Place du Tertre
Standard Viator policy
- Cancellation 0–24 hours before departure: 100% cancellation fee.
- Cancellation 24–24000 hours before departure: 0% cancellation fee.
Good to know
Operated by Roamer and sold by AGORA. Your voucher and booking reference arrive by email straight after payment.