Notably located in Montmartre, the mills were used to grind flour and to press grapes from the nearby vineyards. Up to 300 of them in various shapes and sizes existed in the early 20th-century. A number of these wooden and stone windmills could be seen from miles around and the Butte became characterised by these quirky landmarks, immortalised by many an impressionist painter.
Van Gogh, Utrillo, Renoir (whose house can now be visited in the form of Musée de Montmartre), and Toulouse Lautrec all painted the lost Paris windmills at one point or another. Today, very few of these windmills survive as many were destroyed to make way for new housing developments, further office buildings and more modern structures.
Wander away from the Sacré-Coeur. Pass by Square Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet, which was once the site of a windmill named ‘Moulin de Turlure’ and stroll on by Place du Tertre where artisans and painters still tout their wares to this day. Walk on to the steep street of Rue Lepic. There, you’ll discover two windmills which are commonly known as ‘Moulin de la Galette.’ Singularly, they are Moulin Radet and Moulin de Blute-Fin.
While Le Moulin Radet now features as the front piece façade of a fancy eatery, the Moulin de Blute-Fin is tucked away from the road and can only really be glimpsed in the winter months when leafy green trees don’t shield it from the view of the casual passerby.
The two windmills which form ‘Moulin de la Galette’ were purchased by the Debray family in the early 19th-century. A this time, the Debray family became famous for selling small ‘galettes,’ a type of small brown bread that was sold together with a glass of milk to make a quick and filling snack. This gave rise to the windmills current name.
You may well remember that nearby Château des Lys (now a club for libertines) was once used to sell milk by the glass to passersby. In 1830, when Montmartre production shifted from milk to wine, the Moulin was transformed into a cabaret, a move which was immortalised by Renoir’s painting “Bal du moulin de la Galette.” Today, the painting is housed within the former train station-turned-museum Musée d’Orsay.
Today, the windmill of Blute-Fin is the only moulin still functioning in Montmartre. It’s now a private residence and is closed to the public. Its counterpart, on the other hand, Moulin Radet was moved a little way down the street and has been incorporated into a trendy French restaurant.
What a lovely post (came to you from the pinterest thread) We stayed in Monmartre a few years ago and came across some of these old windmills on our jaunts but it’s nice to read a bit of background about them. And, when we go back I shall now be looking out for the others!