From my bed, I can see the Sacré-Coeur’s stained-glass windows and leering gargoyles. When I open the window, the Eiffel Tower, gold-domed Les Invalides and La Défense are arrayed below. That princely view cost me just €15 (£13) for the night — about the same price as a book of eight first-class stamps or a Pret premium salad.
The catch? I had to pray for it. The deal is that you have to top up the fee with an hour of prayer in the middle of the night. The prayer circle — known as l’adoration perpétuelle — has been unbroken since the Sacré-Coeur opened in 1885. One of the ways it keeps going is with the help of pilgrims and tourists staying at the inexpensive L’hôtellerie de la Basilique (the Basilica guesthouse) next door, which opened in the 1960s and is run by the basilica’s chaplain priests and the Benedictine sisters of the Sacred Heart of Montmartre. Nothing, not wars (even the Second World War, when bits of the ceiling rained down on worshippers during bombings) nor the Covid pandemic managed to interrupt it. So, no pressure.
Check-in for the dorm rooms (the guesthouse has 170 beds) is between the narrow window of 7pm and 9.30pm. If I’d paid for the luxury of a private room (£35), I’d have been able to check in at 4pm, and I’d have had the luxury of a towel. Unfortunately, I didn’t read the small print about bringing my own, so if cleanliness is next to godliness I stumble at the first hurdle. But the dorm is much better than many of the hostels I frequented in my backpacking days. There’s a desk (with a little pamphlet guide to praying) plus a chair and small wardrobe, all in light wood, and a single bed with white bedding. It’s simple and private — each bed is partitioned off.
At dinner, served at long tables in the cantine (three courses for an additional £13), I sit with a young Catholic woman called Anaïs. Lots of her church friends have already stayed and prayed, but she’d found out about it from an Instagram reel. Dinner reminds me of school, only with wine. The meat eaters have veal and all the trimmings, and I have a potato cutlet, with large carafes of red wine to wash it down. After dinner, a nun gives us our prayer briefing and a few house rules (no phones, the idea isn’t to spend the hour doomscrolling).
L’hôtellerie de la Basilique has 170 beds
SOPHIE LLOYD
Guests can pick any hour-long prayer slot between 11pm and 6am. To me there is something appealing about enjoying one of Paris’s most famous landmarks while the city is asleep, so I go for the 3am slot. I try to go to bed early to combat impending fatigue, but my neighbour is already emitting thunderous snores. I fashion my own earplugs with my headphones and a pair of socks, and curse myself for not upgrading to a private room.
My alarm rings at 2.50am. Fortunately, I don’t need to leave the building to access the basilica — a corridor with a Hogwarts feel connects it to the guesthouse. Inside, the Sacré-Coeur is moodily lit with fake candles, and a recording of hymns plays so faintly that it sounds like a low humming. There are ten or so others on the prayer graveyard shift with me, several of whom can’t be much older than teenagers.
What you need to know?Where is it? A hostel next door to the Sacré-Coeur in MontmartreWho will love it? Bargain-hunters, spiritual seekersInsider tip Go for a two-course lunch at La Cantine de la CigaleMy night-time visit to the Sacré-Coeur
I’m not a natural when it comes to meditation or sitting still. In my early twenties, I checked into an ashram and lasted less than 48 hours before bursting into tears and having to leave. I struggle not to fill a silence and tend to spiral when alone with my thoughts. I’m also agnostic, so praying feels a little disingenuous. I decide instead to use the time to think about all the people I love, and why I love them, one after the other. That takes a full 40 minutes, leaving me to bask in a feeling of genuine warmth. Then I study the giant gold and blue mosaic of Jesus on the dome ceiling. The low light gives his arms shadows like aeroplane wings. Increasingly sleepy, I set my brain a challenge to try to think of a cheese starting with every letter of the alphabet. I come unstuck at “d”.
The gold and blue mosaic of Jesus on Sacré-Coeur’s dome ceiling
GETTY IMAGES
And just like that, the hour is up. By the time I am back in bed, my neighbour has stopped snoring so I sleep until breakfast at 8am. I sit at the same long table as the night before, this time with several people in clerical garb. By 9am I am out on the Paris streets — this budget stay comes with an early check-out — but it means I am down the Sacré-Coeur’s steps before any of the tour groups arrive, ready to start the day.
How to enjoy Paris on the cheap
When you’ve paid only £13 for a bed, it puts the prices of the gentrified Montmartre into perspective. I have no intention of spending more than that on a turmeric latte and a cookie. One of the best, cheap meals you can get anywhere in Paris is at a bouillon (traditional restaurant), but each time I go to Montmartre, the queue outside Bouillon Pigalle gets longer and longer. It already looks like a Taylor Swift concert, and it isn’t even midday. La Cantine de la Cigale, just along the street, has no queues and a two-course menu for just £14, plus a vegetarian option (cantine-cigale.com). That’s positively expensive compared with the plethora of West African restaurants just north in Porte de Clignancourt, where there’s also an excellent bookshop-café, La Régulière, selling coffee for less than £2.
The Basilica guesthouse has superb views of the city
SOPHIE LLOYD
I fill my day with Montmartre’s free sights, starting with the Wall of Love. This blue-tiled wall, just behind Abbesses metro, has “I love you” written on it in 250 languages, which feels appropriate after my prayer hour. Next is the free-to-visit Montmartre Cemetery, the resting place of Émile Zola, Edgar Degas and dozens of other artists. Later that afternoon I pass the Sacré-Coeur again, where the queue extends the length of the building, and hawkers selling Eiffel Tower keyrings and tourists with selfie sticks compete for attention. I think, somewhat smugly, how much more peaceful it was at 3am.
Anna Richards travelled independently. One night’s B&B from £13 in a dorm bed and from £35 in a private room (sacre-coeur-montmartre.com). Fly or take the train to Paris