Montmartre in the Snow

Source: open.salon.com - Thursday, December 09, 2010
    Like many big cities, Paris gets cold in the winter, but it’s rare that it snows here.   This December has been an unusually snowy month, and I love it! Well, I love the snow on the rooftops and tree branches…not so much the ice on the sidewalks.   Yesterday afternoon, a sudden blizzard hit the City of Lights, leaving behind about half a foot of snow.   As usual, the city and its surroundings shut down, behaving strangely more in the vein of my teenage home, Atlanta, instead of a city that does have winter.   Cars were blocked on the highways, with some drivers staying outside all night.   The ice and snow persisted into today.   One of the reasons for the former is that the French don’t liberally salt their sidewalks.   They use this resource about as sparingly as they do main courses and napkins.   As you walk, staring down, wary of ice, you’ll see little grains of salt or dirt, but rarely, if ever, anything more. I was a near-casualty of my street’s sloping, ice-covered hill.   My knees still hurt.   Worse still, as I got back up from my fall, an old man slipped just behind me.   They really need to get into salt here. Meanwhile, the first thought I had when I saw the snow coming down, besides “Hey – look at all that snow!” – was, I have to get to Montmartre. One of the prettiest parts of Paris, this village-like neighborhood, which only became incorporated into the city in 1860, was once home to some of the greatest artists