Tour Details
Duration
2.5 hours
Product Type
Tour
Venues
- Bateau Lavoir
- Place du Tertre
- Sacré-Coeur
- Moulin de la Galette
- Lapin Agile Cabaret
Photos & Highlights
- Discover Montmartre through the eyes of the famous artists who lived there as history comes alive for your family
- Led by an expert guide experienced in engaging young minds
Select a date
Tour Description
The winding, cobbled streets and crooked buildings of Montmartre have inspired artists for over two hundred years. Formerly a village on the outskirts of Paris, Montmartre's unique atmosphere remains a tranquil contrast to the hustle and bustle of the greater city. And from the last quarter of the 19th century to the outbreak of WWI, it was the heart of bohemian and artistic life, with such illustrious inhabitants as Renoir, Van Gogh, and Picasso. So why did these artists want to live at the top of a hill? Were they all friends? Who did they paint? Our 2.5-hour Montmartre with kids tour, led by a scholar trained in guiding in Paris with kids, follows in the footsteps of these artists and their cohorts, discovering the history behind the storied neighborhood through the colorful and unusual experiences of the legendary creatives who lived there.
Looking for this tour for adults? See our Montmartre Walking Tour.
Montmartre With Kids Tour
Why does Montmartre feel different from the rest of Paris? From its beginnings as a Roman city, Paris has always grown at a swift pace. Pushing out from the center, the city was soon butting heads with the neighboring villages that were formerly on its outskirts. As the city approached, Montmartre's windmills and small-town atmosphere receded. Creatives—namely artists—flocked to the cheaper rents on the steep slopes of the butte Montmartre. Lively cafés and cabarets sprang up to accommodate them, namely the Moulin de Galette, creating Montmartre's legendary festive atmosphere. Here, artists like Renoir captured the vivacious spirit of the quartier or neighborhood.
Collective Creativity
Tracing a path through the twisting streets, we may see where Picasso or Toulouse-Lautrec once spent hours creating paintings and drawings inside their art studios. Perhaps we will see where Van Gogh or Suzanne Valadon lived. Connecting the sites of their former haunts with visuals of their work, we will build a picture of both their art and the daily lives of 19th-century Parisians. We might sit down for a hot chocolate at one of Modigliani’s favorite cafes or pass by a popular cabaret where the artists would spend their evenings together. With our sketchpads in hand, we will stop to artistically interpret these sights for ourselves. As we create our quick freehand sketches, we will build a connection with our artist friends, visiting some exact sites where the artists painted or wrote about in their letters and journals.
"We absolutely adored the tour—this is our third Family Walk with Context and it's the best one yet! Our guide was wonderful with all of us, especially the kids, and we all learned so much about Montmartre's history. I would recommend the tour without exception."
Take-Aways
As we stroll through these magical cobblestone streets, we will gain insight into the artists’ lives and the era, but also about their styles and how art developed. Coming away with an understanding of Montmartre's development from a small village to a bohemian hub, we will hopefully leave our “young artists” with a desire to explore their own creativity and curiosity to discover more about the intriguing characters who have made Montmartre historic.
FAQ
Do my children need to have any prior knowledge of art to take this tour? Absolutely not. But if your children have an interest in art, you may like to begin with our Orsay with Kids tours, which provide an age-appropriate exploration of some of the movements of this period.
Is this tour walking-intensive, and/or wheelchair accessible? While we don't cover a large distance on the tour, Montmartre is a veritable hill, and we will be walking up stairs and on inclines, as well as on cobblestoned streets. If you have mobility concerns, please feel free to contact us before booking; we can help you decide if our group walk or a private walk, with a modified route, will be best.
Experts
Where You'll Start
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76 Reviews
Reviews can only be left by Context customers after they have completed a tour. For more information about our reviews, please see our FAQ.
This was a great tour and was the perfect pace for us. Our guide had lots of interesting information and made it especially fun for my boys.
Kathy
Reviewed on:
Jan 3, 2015
Our guide was lovely, but for nearly 300 Euros I really expected more of an experience. The description leads one to believe that your family will get to do some drawing and really get the behind the scenes tour of Montmartre to know more. We walked on some lovely streets and looked at the exteriors of several houses where painters had lived. We didn't even get to go in the Renoir museum but peeked through the crack in a locked gate.
We had specifically requested time at a cafe (as described in the summary) but all the cafes were full so we were not able to do this --- how about making some sort of arrangements beforehand? You can imagine the disappointment of 2 kids on this particular issue.
It would have been so simple to fulfill my kids' expectations. A pad of paper and some colored pencils, a few postcard prints of paintings inspired by Montmartre sites and a table at a artsy cafe. That is my recommendation to you to get positive reviews from family tours. What we got was not all that different from what I could have put together myself from one of the many online or print guides to Paris.
There was nothing wrong with our tour, it just wasn't worth the expense and your great website writeup really led me to believe we'd be getting much more of an experience.
Emily
Reviewed on:
Oct 27, 2014
Marie is so full of enthusiasm and knowledge! My husband, an art history major in college, asked her several rather obscure questions, all of which she responded to with accuracy and insight. Best of all, she tailored our walk to the children's interest and ability levels. We'd had a wonderful tour of the Louvre with her two years ago, so we were thrilled to be able to take advantage of her expertise again.
Carolyn
Reviewed on:
Oct 14, 2014
