Url's Paris Memoirs:
Montmartre

Oh Kiki ,
I love Montmartre, this beautiful, hilly, cobblestoned, section of Paris. There are artists everywhere. Artist out the yingyang (French for lots of artists). Kiki, when you visited this part of Paris, did you have to beat the artists off with a stick? No? Well, you do now.

Some of these artists could make carnival sideshow barkers look like monks who've taken a vow of silence and retreated from society. If you accidently walk toward an artist on the street, your portrait is half finished before you can say "no thanks monsieur." God forbid you should make eye contact.

I asked a local how far it was to the Sacre Coeur Basilica and he said "about 3 portraits and a caricature from here." Oh well, everybody's gotta make a living.

Love,
Url Ratz

The quest continues:
Introduction
The Arc de Triomphe
Montmartre
Cafes
Eiffel Tower
Url's Paris Paintings
Url's Paris Photos

In the Montmartre section of Paris is a great neighborhood centered around Place du Tertre (above). Oh look! It's the Url's Internet Cafe Graphics Control Officer, John Tollett, sitting on the terrasse with his PowerBook G3. He's chatting with Rolf, a Norwegian-born artist. Twenty years ago Rolf was in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, copying a Masterpiece, when a young lady told him he could do well in Montmartre. He's been here ever since. If he believed everything John told him, he'll have a Macintosh and be a web designer by the next time I get to Paris.

John's brother had a French teacher in college who complained after a trip to Paris that there was a noticeable absense of accordian music in the Paris streets, a stereotype she had learned to expect from watching old Hollywood movies. As you can see, we did not suffer this cultural disadvantage. Ya just gotta know where ta go.

I borrowed John's PowerBook and did my own painting of Place du Tertre.

I give Montmartre an "A" for Parisian atmosphere and ambience. It's almost like being there.