To the south and east of the Sacré-Cœur, the slopes of the Butte drop steeply down towards boulevard Barbès and the Goutte d'Or. Directly below are the gardens of square Willette, milling with tourists. To avoid the crowds, make instead for the quiet gardens to the north of the Sacré-Cœur, the Parc de la Turlure, or head down the steeply stepped rue Utrillo, turning right at the pleasant café, L'Eté en Pente Douce, which has outdoor tables on the corner of rue Paul Albert. From here, more steps lead down along the edge of the gardens to rue Ronsard, where overhanging greenery masks the now-sealed entrances to the quarries. The original plaster of Paris was extracted from here, and the revolutionaries of 1848 used the caverns as a refuge. The circular Halle St-Pierre (daily 10am–6pm; admission fee to temporary shows varies; M° Anvers), at the bottom of rue Ronsard, hosts excellent changing exhibitions of folk art, art brut and art naïf; recent shows have included some alternative-minded French and American painters and an exhibition of giant movie posters from Ghana. Each artist exhibiting here leaves a work behind to swell the permanent collection, works from which are shown on the ground floor in the Musée d'Art Naïf Max-Fourny. There's also an auditorium for film, theatre, music and dance, a bookshop and a cheap cafeteria with the day's papers to read.
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