 Many of Montmartre's windmills and much of its "old village" charm had already been destroyed when Paris's tourist boom began, but investors and speculators rebuilt it anew.Montmartre has some of the best views of the capital.The boulevards below Montmartre, also called "le bas de Montmartre" ("lower Montmartre") or more informally Pigalle, were once popular with mid-19th-century Parisians for their cabarets, as at the time they were outside the city of Paris (up until the annexations of 1859) and thus exempt from the "octroi" (taxes levied on goods for consumption – including drinks – that were imported into the city).