Part II
We now go find Amélie's café. We walk along
Rue des Abesses in a
westerly direction and turn left into rue Lepic. After some 50 metres we
see the café where Amélie worked on our right hand
<6>. Thet
interior of Café des
deux Moulins is exactly like it was in the movie and the window on the
side street is decorated with Amelie memorabilia. The photos of lead
actress Audry Tautou smiles at us from behind the glass. The owner has
sold the café after much thought under the condition that the interior remains
in tact.
We walk back up rue Lepic, cross rue Des Abesses and continue up the winding rue Lepic towards place du Tertre. Before we get there we see, on the corner of rue des Norvins an old bakery shop, that draws its customers from all over Paris with its baguettes from the 19th century oven
We
are now at the summit of the Butte. Before us lies Place du Tertre,
mother of all tourist traps. Amélie does not like the place. Nor do we and we
turn left on Rue des Saules . This takes us past the small
vinyard of Paris, called Clos Montmartre <8>. The 1500 kg harvest gets about 1500 botles of wine.
On the corner of rue Des Saules and
rue de Saint Vincent stands the
photogenic cabaret Au
Lapin Agile <7>. This has been the stage for perfomance by a proven recipe of "Chansons, Humour, Poesie"
for more than 150 years. It was once frequented byt
Picasso, Utrillo, Apolinaire, Modigliani, Orlan, Carco, Dorgeles, Max Jacob,
Paul Fort, Blaise Cencrars and many others. ...
We turn right into rue de Saint Vincent. In this street the first shot of the
movie was taken: "On September 3rd 6:28pm and 32 seconds a blue fruitfly,
capable of 14,670 wingbats per minute, landed on the Rue Saint Vincent in
Montmartre". through the
rue de la Bonne
we walk clockwise towards the rear side of the Sacre Coeur cathedral
<9>.
The church is an inevitable part of the Parisian skyline. Construction
started in 1870 and was initiated by the Catholic Church as a counter move
against the sins of the Paris Comune. The best thing about the church are the
steps in front of it, where you can sit for hours enjoying each other and the
unrivalled view of the city. and the square Willette, at the foot of the
hill. There it was that
Amélie
let her lover to be, search for his lost photo albums: 'Mr Quicampoix, follow
the arrows and keep a 5 Franc coin ready..." You will look in vain for the
pay phones from where she spoke these words. The were placed here especially for
the movie.
Here ends the walk.
Other "real" film locations that played a part in the movie are, among others the porn shop Palace, where Nino worked part-time (close to Place Blanche), the main hall of the Gare de l'Est railway station, where Amélie lets Nino discover the secret of the photo-machine and the Canal St Martin, where Amélie practices skimming stones.
