Destination Weddings in Montmartre

There is a village within the city of Paris, a village that has managed to retain much of its rural, old-world charm even while Paris itself grew up around it. I am speaking of Montmartre, the highest hill in the city of Paris and the home of many of the most famous painters and artisans the world has ever known. Montmartre is like a world unto itself, a gleaming pearl within an oyster, an island of natural Bohemianism in the very midst of one of the world’s most modern cities. Walk its cobbled streets hand in hand with your lover, let your imaginations soar, and who knows where your feet might take you?

As you and your lover climb the steep hill, every step you take seems to take you one step further back in time until you actually enter the village of Montmartre, and suddenly it seems as if time is standing perfectly still. Near the top of the windswept hill are several working windmills, the most famous of which is the Moulin de la Galette, which was inspiration for such artists as Renoir and Vincent Van Gogh. For a while, in the late 1800s, the Moulin de la Galette was converted into a dance hall, but today it is once again a classic and romantic windmill.

At the very top of the hill, gleaming white in the afternoon sun, stands the famous and ancient domed church, the Sacre-Coeur basilica, one of the most beautiful churches in all of France. Walking through its half-lit interior with its ancient paintings and murals it is easy to believe that you actually have stepped back into another, more romantic era.

Montmartre has always been a magnet for artists and painters. Some of the world’s greatest painters, such as Monet, Van Gogh, Picasso and Renoir lived, worked and loved on Montmartre, and occasionally it seems as if their spirits can still be felt walking the cobbled streets and sipping coffee at the outdoor cafes.

Montmartre is still the home of painters and Bohemians, and it is possible to walk the fabled Place du Tertre and find dozens of artists hard at work and the streets lined with canvasses for sale. And who knows? You and your love may discover the next Renoir standing on a street corner offering to paint your portrait for pocket change!

But even if you don’t find a world-famous artist you will never forget the winding, narrow streets with their surprise gardens filled with lush, colorful flowers around every corner, and magnificent ancient homes overhung with hundred-year-old shade tress, and staircases that seem to lead to the moon and the stars. And everywhere there are breathtaking vistas of Paris spread out below like a jewel.

Imagine you and your love seated at an outdoor café as the sun dips below the western horizon and the sky fills with a billion stars which are instantly matched by the blanket of magical, twinkling lights that is Paris, the City of Lights. You look into each other’s eyes and all the world falls away until only you two are left, seated high atop an ancient hill with all the world’s sparkling jewels spread out at your feet.