The Best Kept Secret in Paris
Did you know there was a vineyard in Paris? It’s called Clos Montmartre and is located in the 18th arrondissment, at the corner of rue Saint-Vincent and rue des Saules. The vineyard yields more than 1,000 bottles that are about 60 dollars each. Every year there is a celebration called Fête des Vendanges de Montmartre which is third in popularity behind Nuit Blanche and Paris Plage (Do you know what those are? If not, no worries, I’ll write about them soon.) Fête des Vendanges is 5 days of celebration with concerts, dance performances, art on display, and a celebration of French wine making. Hundreds of thousands of people gather and celebrate and the wine produced is auctioned off and proceeds are given to charity.
Why is there a vineyard in Paris, you ask? Well, apparently there is a law that says you can’t build anything on top of a vineyard (French people love their wine. Can you blame them?) So, when a group of artists were living in Montmartre back in the early 1900’s, they didn’t want a bunch of real estate investors to build in their neighborhood, so they planted a vineyard on the property that the tycoons wanted. The building was foiled and the vineyard was born.
This vineyard is one of the best kept secrets in Paris, most people have no idea there is a working vineyard in the city.
Love this! We’re heading to Paris next month and I’m totally going to check this out (even though it will be cold and not prime harvest — but still interesting).
It’s lovely. I’m not sure if you’ll be able to get in to see it but you can walk by it. Metro Lamarck is closest station. Thanks for reading!
Amazing! Definitely going to visit while my next trip to Paris! Everyone can enter, right? There’s no restrictions, fees or whatsoever?