By Harry Nara · Last updated
- Where
- Montmartre and the Clos Montmartre vineyard
- Tickets
- Free
- Time of year
- October
- Dates
- Move by a day or two each year
Held over five days in the first half of October, with the exact dates set each year and announced in the summer. The festival has run since the nineteen thirties and this is its ninety-third edition.
There is a working vineyard halfway up Montmartre, behind a wall on a corner most people photograph without registering what is behind it, and it is shut all year except for this. The festival around the harvest runs five days, the whole official programme is free, and it is one of the very few things left on the Butte that is genuinely for the neighbourhood rather than for visitors. The Saturday is the busy day. The weekday evenings are the good ones.
What the Fête des Vendanges actually is
The grape harvest of the Clos Montmartre, celebrated since the nineteen thirties and now in its ninety-third year. The vineyard is small, a few thousand vines producing a few hundred bottles that are auctioned for local charities, and the wine is not the point. The festival is: five days of concerts, neighbourhood stages, a food and wine trail winding up the hill, the formal proclamation of the harvest, a grand parade of the wine brotherhoods in full regalia, a night run through the eighteenth, and a closing ball. Each year takes a theme, and the current one puts music at the centre.
Where to watch the Fête des Vendanges
- The Clos Montmartre itself on Rue des Saules, and this is the reason to come. The vineyard is walled and closed the rest of the year. During the festival it opens, and standing inside a working vineyard with the city below you is a genuinely strange experience to have inside Paris. Slots are limited and go early in the day.
- The Parcours du Goût, the food and wine trail up the Butte. Producers from wine regions across France set up along the hill, and you buy a glass and a plate as you go. It is the spine of the festival and the best of it is in the first hours of the afternoon before the Saturday crowd arrives.
- The Grande Parade, for the wine brotherhoods. Confréries from across the country process through the neighbourhood in full ceremonial dress, which is exactly as odd and as enjoyable as it sounds. It is free to watch from the pavement and the stretch below Sacré-Cœur is the one with the view.
- Square Louise Michel, for the closing ball. The terraced garden below the basilica hosts the final night, which is a straightforward outdoor dance with the whole of Paris laid out behind the stage.
- The back streets on a weekday evening, for the honest recommendation. Rue Lepic, Rue des Abbesses and the lanes north of them carry neighbourhood stages with a few dozen people at them. The Saturday is shoulder to shoulder and the Wednesday and Thursday are the pleasant version of the same festival.
Tickets and what it costs
The official programme is free from end to end: the concerts, the parade, the proclamation, the stages and the ball all cost nothing. What you pay for is what you eat and drink on the tasting trail, bought glass by glass and plate by plate from the producers, which is the sensible way to do it and adds up quickly if you are not paying attention. The vineyard visits are free but limited in number and released on the day. The night run has an entry fee like any race. Everything else is a matter of turning up.
Official information and booking: fetedesvendangesdemontmartre.com
Getting there
Abbesses and Lamarck-Caulaincourt on Métro 12 are the two stations for the Butte, and Lamarck is the one that saves you the climb because you arrive above most of the hill rather than below it. Anvers on line 2 puts you at the bottom of the funicular, which is covered by an ordinary ticket and is worth it with children or in the rain. Expect the streets around the vineyard to close to traffic and the funicular to queue heavily on the Saturday. The whole Butte is steep and cobbled, which matters more than the distance.
Mistakes worth avoiding
Coming on the Saturday and expecting to enjoy it
The Saturday is when the Butte is at its most crowded of the entire year, which on Montmartre is saying something. The festival runs five days and the weekday evenings carry the same stages with a fraction of the people.
Leaving the vineyard until the afternoon
Access is limited and slots go early. If the Clos Montmartre is the reason you came, and it should be, go first and do the rest of the festival afterwards.
Expecting the wine to be good
It is not, particularly, and everybody involved knows it. A few hundred bottles from a north-facing city vineyard, auctioned for local charities. Come for the fact that it exists at all, not for what is in the glass.
Wearing the wrong shoes
The Butte is steep, cobbled and slippery in October rain, and the festival is spread across all of it. This is not a flat afternoon.
Other Paris events
Frequently asked questions
Is there really a vineyard in Paris?
Yes. The Clos Montmartre sits on the north slope of the Butte behind a wall on Rue des Saules, a few thousand vines producing a few hundred bottles a year which are auctioned for neighbourhood charities. It is closed to the public for the whole year apart from the harvest festival, which is the main reason to time a visit to it.
Is the Fête des Vendanges free?
The official programme is entirely free, including the concerts, the parade, the proclamation and the closing ball. You pay for food and wine on the tasting trail, bought individually from the producers, and for the night run if you enter it. Nothing requires a ticket.
Which day should I go?
A weekday evening. The festival runs five days and the Saturday is the most crowded day on Montmartre in the entire year. The Wednesday and Thursday carry the same neighbourhood stages and the same tasting trail with a fraction of the people.
What is the Parcours du Goût?
The food and wine trail that runs up the Butte for the length of the festival, with producers from wine regions across France selling by the glass and the plate. It is the spine of the event, it is where most of the money goes, and it is at its best in the early afternoon before the crowd builds.
How do you get up to Montmartre?
Lamarck-Caulaincourt on Métro 12 is the station that saves you the climb, arriving above most of the hill. Abbesses is the other line 12 stop and is lower. Anvers on line 2 puts you at the funicular, which an ordinary Métro ticket covers and which queues heavily during the festival.
Is October a good time to visit Paris?
It is one of the two best months. The summer crowds have gone, the light on the avenues is at its most flattering, and prices sit below the summer outside the Fashion Week corridor at the start of the month. The harvest festival is one of several free things happening and is the most distinctively local of them.
Sources
Dates on this page are checked against the organiser’s own listing and confirmed through 2026. Written and maintained by Harry Nara.