Up the hill

Getting Around Montmartre Paris

Five ways onto the Butte, one funicular, 222 steps, and the pedestrian zone that now covers the top of it.

Montmartre is 130 metres high, the highest natural point in Paris, and every approach to it is a climb. Which station you use decides how much of that climb you actually do. It also decides where you end up, because the five entrances put you on completely different sides of the village. This is the table to read before you set off.

Five ways onto the hill, and which one to pick

If you want the basilica first, come in at Anvers and take the funicular. If stairs are the problem, come in at Abbesses, which has a lift. If you are meeting a tour, check which of the five it uses — eight of the walks listed here meet within sight of the Moulin Rouge at Blanche, and six more meet at Anvers or Place Saint-Pierre. If you want the village without the crowd, come in at Lamarck-Caulaincourt and walk up past the vineyard.

Anvers (line 2) — the funicular approach

Come out of Anvers, walk up rue de Steinkerque for about five minutes through the fabric shops, and you reach Square Louise-Michel with the basilica above you. From here you either take the 222 steps or the funicular beside them. This is the busiest approach on the hill and the one every coach party uses, so it is worth doing early.

Abbesses (line 12) — the lift, not the spiral stairs

Abbesses is one of the deepest stations in Paris and its spiral staircase is famous for the wrong reasons. There is a lift; use it. You surface on Place des Abbesses, already most of the way up the hill, two minutes from Le Mur des Je t’aime and five from Place du Tertre. If you are worried about the climb, this is the answer.

Blanche (line 2) — the Moulin Rouge door

Blanche puts you on the boulevard directly opposite the Moulin Rouge, which is why so many guided walks start here: it is impossible to mistake. The climb up rue Lepic to Place du Tertre takes about fifteen minutes at a steady pace. It is the route most of the walking tours take.

Lamarck-Caulaincourt (line 12) — the quiet back way

The northern side of the hill, and the one almost no visitor uses. You come out between two staircases beside a café. The walk up passes the Clos Montmartre and Au Lapin Agile before it reaches Place du Tertre from behind. If you have already done the hill once, come this way the second time.

The 222 steps, and who should not take them

From Square Louise-Michel to the parvis is 222 steps, broken into flights with landings, and in good weather it is a pleasant ten minutes. In August at midday it is not. If you have a pushchair, a suitcase, a knee or a heart condition, take the funicular or come in at Abbesses instead — neither costs you anything you were not already spending on a metro fare.

The funicular: one €2.55 fare, one direction

Built in 1891 and rebuilt since, the funicular climbs beside the steps and takes about ninety seconds. One Métro-Train-RER ticket buys one ride in one direction with no transfers, and it is covered by the Navigo pass and by Paris Visite. The single fare rose to €2.55 in January 2026 and paper tickets have been withdrawn, so load the fare onto a Navigo Easy card or the transport app; there are machines at Anvers and Abbesses. Check the current fare before you travel, because it is revised every January.

The pedestrian zone — fifteen streets where you have priority

The upper village is now a pedestrian zone. It covers rue de l’Abreuvoir, rue Becquerel, rue de la Bonne, rue du Cardinal Dubois, rue Cortot, rue Girardon, rue Lamarck from numbers 1 to 16, rue Maurice Utrillo, rue du Mont-Cenis, rue Norvins, rue Poulbot, rue Sainte-Éleuthère, rue Saint-Vincent, rue des Saules and Place Jean-Baptiste Clément. Inside it pedestrians have priority, through traffic is banned and any vehicle with a destination there must crawl at about six kilometres an hour. For a walking tour this changes nothing except that it is quieter than it was.

Taxis, luggage and step-free routes

A taxi reaches the boulevard and the lower streets easily and the upper village barely at all. Expect to be dropped at Place des Abbesses or on rue Caulaincourt rather than at the basilica. With luggage, use Abbesses and its lift. The most step-free route on the hill is Abbesses lift, then Place des Abbesses to Place du Tertre on the flat-ish lanes; the parvis itself is reachable without steps from rue du Cardinal Dubois. Only one of the walks listed here describes itself as wheelchair accessible, and the cobbles are real.

Which entrance you choose also decides what you reach first: Anvers puts the Sacré-Cœur straight above you, while Lamarck-Caulaincourt brings you out nearer the Musée de Montmartre and the vineyard streets.

Every departure point is listed against its tour on Montmartre Paris Tours, and Guided tours of Montmartre start from four of these five stations.

Sources

• Basilique du Sacré-Cœur de Montmartre — hours, free entry, the dome, the construction timeline and La Savoyarde. Checked 2026-09-08.
• Ville de Paris and Mairie du 18e — the height of the Butte, the 222 steps, the funicular, the Clos Montmartre, the cemetery hours and the pedestrian zone. Checked 2026-09-08.
• Musée de Montmartre, Dalí Paris and Le Mur des Je t’aime — admissions, hours and the wall’s own figures. Checked 2026-09-08.

Hours and prices move; check anything time-critical before you travel.