The bulbous white-stone domes of Sacré-Coeur (built from 1875 to 1919) are Montmartre's dreamy visual emblem, but its real appeal is far earthier. Lacking a port district as the usual venue for less-than-holy pleasures, mid-19th-century Parisians claimed this hilltop village as a place to escape from the pieties of bourgeois France. Taverns, dives, and dance halls opened—some, like the iconic Moulin de la Galette, occupied the old windmills that crowned this breezy outcrop—and artists (Toulouse-Lautrec, of course, but also Picasso, Braque, Modigliani, and Utrillo) followed in search of provocative and accommodating subjects. Today, nostalgia for the Belle Époque is an industry perpetuated in cafés, clubs, theaters, restaurants, bars, and boutiques centered on the Place du Tertre, the prototype tourist trap that's fascinating precisely for that reason