Montmartre: Paris's Village of Art and Sin

In the second portrait of his series Great Parisian Neighborhoods, award-winning raconteur John Baxter leads us on a whirlwind tour of Montmartre, the hill-top village that fired the greatest achievements of modern art while also provoking bloody revolution and the sexual misbehavior that made Paris synonymous with sin

High on the northern edge of Paris, Montmartre has always attracted bohemians, political radicals, the searchers for artistic inspiration as well as those hungry for pleasure. In its winding, windmill-shadowed streets, which, only fifty years before, saw the anarchist rising of the Commune, Renoir, Picasso and van Gogh seized a similar freedom to remake painting, while, in the tenderloin of Pigalle, Toulouse-Lautrec drew the cancan dancers of the Moulin Rouge, celebrating a hedonism that titillated the world,

In Montmartre, bestselling author and IACP Award winner John Baxter lifts the curtain on a district that visitors to Paris seldom see. From the tumbledown workshops of the Bateau Lavoir in which Picasso and Braque created Cubism to Clichy's Cabaret of Nothingness where guests dined at coffins under lamps of human bones, the whole of this mysterious enclave is ours to explore.

For visitors and armchair travelers alike, Montmartre captures the excitement and scandal of a fascinating quarter that condenses the elusive perfumes, colors and songs of Paris.

Discover the explosive history of Paris's most notorious neighborhood:

• The Birth of Modern Art: From the tumbledown workshops of the Bateau Lavoir where Picasso and Braque created Cubism to the streets where Renoir and van Gogh found their inspiration.
• Legendary Parisian Cabarets: Explore the origins of the Moulin Rouge's famous cancan dancers and dine at coffins in the ghoulish Cabaret of Nothingness.
• Bohemian Life: Meet the bohemians, radicals, and searchers for pleasure who made Paris synonymous with sin and artistic freedom.
• A History of Revolution: Witness the bloody anarchist rising of the Commune, when the citizens of Montmartre declared themselves independent from Paris.