Green space - Montmartre

I don’t know what finally will become of this little park, in the middle of Montmartre. There is in Paris a “Cité Internationale des Arts” which was created in 1965 and which offers international artists-in-residence programs. Most of their activity takes place in a modern building in the Marais district, but there are also some 35 studios at Montmartre, surrounded by green space, normally not open to public. I visited it some five years ago, when it was exceptionally open to public (see here) for a day or a weekend.

There have been discussions about a need – and a budget - to do something with this area, where today the buildings and the green space would need some “refreshing”. Words like a Paris “Villa Medici” have been mentioned, but….

In the meantime, there have however been some more active openings to the public. There is now an event ongoing (until July 29), referred to as “La Villa Extraordinaire”. You enter via the “Villa Radet”, a 19^th century building, built on the corner of the Rue de l’Abreuvoir (“abreuvoir” means a watering place – which a few centuries ago was situated where this building now stands).

This building used to host a number of artists in residence, but it seems now to be transformed to allow exhibitions, installations... This is what we can see today.

Once you have visited this building (and maybe had a glass in the bar), you can reach...

... and have a walk around the green space, where different activities are offered, especially linked to sitting down, maybe have something to eat or drink and you can of course have a glimpse at some of the old buildings, hosting artists.