On the second weekend of October, Montmartre celebrates the harvest of the Clos Montmartre, the only commercial vineyard in Paris. Five days of parades, concerts and tastings draw close to half a million people onto a hill whose streets are sometimes three metres wide.
A hill never built for crowds
The streets at the top of Montmartre — Rue Lepic, Rue des Saules, Place du Tertre — are narrow, steep and often cobbled. During the festival much of the area goes pedestrian.
The funicular and the Abbesses and Lamarck stations are saturated, and parking in the 18th disappears for the weekend.
The right drop-off point
The question is not whether you can drive up to Montmartre, but how far up you can go. Depending on the hour and the programme, the workable point is Place des Abbesses, Boulevard de Clichy or Rue Caulaincourt.
The chauffeur drops you as high as possible and comes back to the same place, which spares the walk down the steps at the end of the evening.
What we organise in October
Many of our clients come as a family or host visitors over these five days, with lunch on the Butte and dinner elsewhere in Paris.
The van keeps the group together, and the chauffeur stays directly reachable if you decide to come down early.
The rest of the year
Montmartre is a difficult district to reach by car all year round, and the same drop-off points work outside the festival.
The car stays at your disposal between the Sacré-Cœur, the Musée de Montmartre and the restaurants at the foot of the hill.
To organise your journeys during the festival, give us the dates, the time and the number of passengers: you receive a firm price before confirming. See also our private driver in Paris 18e page.
Photo: ErasmusOfParis / Wikimedia Commons — CC BY-SA 2.0
