Montmartre

Montmartre has become almost too charming for its own good. Yes, it feels like a village (if you can see through the crowds); yes, there are working artists here (though far fewer than there used to be); and, yes, the best view of Paris is yours for free from the top of the hill (if there's no haze). That's why on any weekend day, year-round, you can find hordes of visitors crowding these cobbled alleys, scaling the staircases that pass for streets, and queuing to see Sacré-Coeur, the "sculpted cloud," at the summit.

If you're lucky enough to have a little corner of Montmartre to yourself, you'll understand why locals love it so. Come on a weekday, or in the morning or later in the evening. Stroll around Place des Abbesses, where the rustic houses and narrow streets escaped the heavy hand of urban planner Baron Haussmann. Until 1860, the area was in fact a separate village, dotted with windmills. Today, there are only two windmills left as well as one quaint vineyard; you cannot visit the vineyard.

Always a draw for bohemians and artists, many of whom had studios at Bateau-Lavoir and Musée de Montmartre, resident painters have included Géricault, Renoir, Suzanne Valadon, Picasso, van Gogh, and of course Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, whose iconic paintings of the cancan dancers at the Moulin Rouge are now souvenir-shop fixtures from Place du Tertre to the Eiffel Tower. You can still see shows at the Moulin Rouge and the pocket-size cabaret Lapin Agile (though much of the entertainment here is on the seedier side—the area around Pigalle is the city's largest red-light district. The quartier is a favorite of filmmakers, and visitors still seek out Café des Deux Moulins (15 rue Lepic), the real-life café where Audrey Tautou worked in 2001's Amélie.Movie biz roots run deep here—the blockbuster Moulin Rouge took its inspiration from here. In 1928, Studio 28 opened as the world's first cinema for experimental films.