☰Montmartre

Montmartre still feels like a separate village grafted onto Paris — which, until 1860, it literally was. The butte (hill) rises steeply from the boulevards below, and the climb up to Sacré-Cœur rewards you with one of the best panoramas of the city. Skip the funicular and take the staircases instead; the side streets are half the point. Place du Tertre is wall-to-wall portrait artists and overpriced crêpes, but step one block in any direction and you're back to quiet residential lanes with ivy-covered facades. The area around Abbesses métro is the real centre of daily life — good bistros, independent shops, and the "I love you" wall in the Square Jehan Rictus. Further downhill, Boulevard de Clichy and the Moulin Rouge belong to a different Montmartre entirely: neon, tourist buses, and sex shops. Know which one you're headed for.