Vineyard of Montmartre - it's not a figure of speech. Directly to the intersection of Parisian streets and Sol de Saint-Vincennes from the hill down a real vineyard. 1762 vines 27 varieties of grapes. As in the village, then harvest, making wine and celebrate every year.

Montmartre was once a village. Its inhabitants engaged in viticulture for centuries. Not fifteen acres at the intersection, as it is now, and the whole hill was then covered with vineyards. Legend has it that the first vines planted in the XII century Adelaide of Savoy, the former queen of France, and the abbess of the Benedictine monastery, which she founded, and on the hill.

In the XVI century the wine imported in Paris, began to levy high taxes. Montmartre was not yet part of Paris, drinking in its taverns was cheaper than in the city. However, there was talk about the local wine that is a diuretic, and it is, they say, its superior quality, but it was cheap, and Montmartre pubs thrived.

The more expensive life in the city grew, the more people selilos on the hill. When in 1859 the village became a district of Paris, the locals tried to resist the fear that Montmartre lose identity. He really started to lose her - urbanization has resulted in the decline of wine-making tradition. Buildings of the hill was in full swing, the vineyards would be left at all if the artist Francis Pulbo not planned to save the garden of Aristide Briand Square, comedian, singer, and the first owner of the cabaret "Agile Rabbit". (Aristide Bruant - a man in a black coat and red scarf with posters of Toulouse-Lautrec.) Pulbo proposed plant on the site of a public garden vineyard. Romantic developers won - in 1934, the vineyard Clos Montmartre gave a first crop.

What to say about the wine? North Side, a place for the vineyard is not adapted. So-so wine, experts say. But is not the case, a matter of principle! Montmartre district of Paris became vsego163 years ago - by the standards of Paris not long ago. No one knows who to whom joined. Still monmartrtsy not lost identity - that it causes them to cultivate a modest vineyard, and every year in October, receiving 400-500 liters of wine, to organize a cheerful holiday. It lasts for a week - parades, food, fireworks, and the proceeds from the sale of wine goes to the social needs of the district. It does then the value of the taste?