What to do in Montmartre when it rains: our local picks

Rain on the hill and nowhere to hide? We live and work three minutes from Artichaut, in the blocks around rue Lamarck. Which is to say: we know this neighbourhood by heart, especially the places to duck into when it pours. Here are our genuine local picks for a good time, warm and dry, in Montmartre.

Our cosy headquarters: L'Étoile de Montmartre

Our bistro, eyes closed. At 26 rue Duhesme, at the bottom of Lamarck-Caulaincourt: simple, honest, the kind of place where you instantly feel at home. Everything is good, the staff is lovely, and frankly we struggle to have a drink anywhere else. Our tip: weekday lunch, with a daily special that rotates between meat, fish and veggie. A neighbourhood institution with homemade, seasonal cooking. The perfect spot to wait out the weather.

Eating well without breaking the bank: Au Bon Coin

When we want a proper meal with zero fuss, we head to Au Bon Coin. Hearty cooking from the Aveyron region, delicious and affordable, the kind of authentic address we'd rather keep to ourselves. Exactly what a rainy day calls for.

The falafel that warms you up: Jalaloh

Tiny place, huge comfort. Jalaloh, an Egyptian falafel joint at 85 rue du Ruisseau, is our grey-day remedy. Fava bean falafel, properly spiced koshary, mint tea, around €12, and a rating that flirts with 5 stars. Sit at the counter, warm up, leave happy.

Browsing books, sheltered

If there is one thing to do in the rain, it's getting lost in a bookshop. Ours is L'Éternel Retour, a little further down rue Lamarck: you walk in for one book and come out an hour later with three. The kind of place where time stretches, exactly what you want under a downpour.

A pastry while you wait for the sky to clear: P1

To wait out the clouds, detour via P1, the best bakery around if you ask us. A still-warm pastry, a coffee, and the rain almost becomes an excuse to slow down.

Become the Montmartre artist, for one session

Montmartre has been the artists' quarter forever: Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec, Picasso and Van Gogh all set up their easels here, and the caricaturists of place du Tertre still sketch passers-by. So when it rains, live the Paris cliché for real. Not by having your portrait drawn on a street corner, but by becoming the artist yourself: discovering a technique, picking up a few tricks, and actually practising.

That's rather our thing at Artichaut, 82 rue Lamarck. You settle in, pick your craft of the day (watercolour, drawing, printmaking, embroidery or mosaic), we hand you the materials and guide you if you like. Never drawn in your life? No matter: try, learn, and worst case we'll call it a caricature. Two hours later you leave with your creation and a coffee in your belly. You can come create for a session, solo, as a pair or with friends.

And for a quiet culture break in the dry, the Musée de Montmartre and its Renoir gardens make a lovely one-hour visit, far from the crowds on rainy days.