Montmartre

Montmartre's over-tourism, which has made the Butte the second most visited site in Paris, and the image that visitors have of it today, be they foreigners, provincials or Parisians, have gradually blurred its exceptional historical past.

The emergence of Christianity, the consequences of the capital's administrative evolution, the Siege of Paris and the Commune, the development of balls and cabarets, and above all the extraordinary artistic profusion that made the Butte the cradle of modern art, cannot be summed up in a few souvenir stores and tourist attractions. It's time to put Montmartre back at the heart of its history...

Jean-Marc Tarrit is an honorary lecturer at the University of Paris 1, Panthéon-Sorbonne. A Montmartre native for three generations, he was successively president of the Société d'Histoire et d'Archéologie "Le Vieux Montmartre", of the Musée de Montmartre and of the République de Montmartre. He is the author of numerous articles and books, including Dictionnaire Montmartre (Éditions Atlande).