Mass tourism sparks battle for Montmartre`s soul
(Artdaily.org)

Inside a dark, low-ceilinged room once frequented by Picasso and Modigliani when they were still struggling artists, a group of tourists from Russia, Canada and Australia are listening to traditional French songs. This is the Lapin Agile, a small house surrounded by acacia trees which is home to the last cabaret in Montmartre, an iconic neighbourhood perched on a hilltop in the middle of Paris. But in recent decades, this village-like district of steep, hills and sweeping views has been transformed by the arrival of mass tourism. `It`s the last of the traditional cabarets,` says owner Yves Mathieu, grumbling about the proliferation of souvenir shops selling Paris mugs and Eiffel tower key rings clogging the nearby cobblestoned streets. `I`m 90 years old but I`m not giving up,` he says pointing to the cabaret`s sparse furnishings of plain wooden tables and