The grapes are gone...

During centuries there used to be a lot of vineyards in and around Paris. As we have seen from previous posts, there are still a few small ones around, e.g. here, here and here. The most well-known one is of course the Clos de Montmartre, on which I also already posted.

In October it’s time for harvesting and at Montmartre it involves some important festivities, including a procession where all kinds of associations and especially a number of confraternities, representing different French wine regions walk the way from the local – 18th arrondissement – Town Hall to the Montmartre vineyard, ascending the narrow streets of the northern slopes of the hill. The festivities last over a weekend. I followed the procession which took place last Saturday. When we reached the vineyard we could see that the grapes had been harvested the preceding days.

Each year some 2000 bottles are produced. It’s according to today’s taste not the best wine, but the bottles are rather sold for a good purpose; the money collected goes to social causes.

Each year a godfather (“parrain”) and godmother (“marreine”) are nominated. We can see the actor Gérard Jugnot and the actress Firmine Richard on the podium in front of the Town Hall, together with the local mayor, former minister, Daniel Vaillant.

Some 500.000 thousand visitors were expected on the hill during the weekend, enjoying the magnificent summer weather.