Discover Pigalle
From place d’Anvers to place de Clichy, night revellers, neon lights and illuminated signs ensure that, almost far as long as Paris has existed, this area never sleeps. In the Paris of yesteryear, wine, taxed at the entry to the city was more expensive. So, Montmartre was the lively out-of-town place to go with its mix of lower classes, artists, young women and free thinkers. Later, the village was absorbed into the capital but the rowdiness coutinued. Piano-bars, night clubs, private clubs, concert halls, cafe-theatres, music halls, dinner shows, pubs, cabarets lasted for three seasons or over one hundred years.
In the 1960′s, Serge gainsbourg sang “les petits gars de Liverpool” causing a sensation at the Bus Palladium. Others followed. When the Paris of Jacques Dutronc “awakes” at 5 a.m, place Blanche – at the end of turbulent rue Fontaine-often looks the worse for wear. But after a short less, all is well again.
Moulin Rouge
Montmartre hill once bristled with windmills. They closed one after the other, while the Moulin de la Galette became a popular dance hall. In 1889, another opened with just the exterior decor of a wildmill. Soon the french Cancan – black stocking, gaters and petticoats – created an air of euporia and stardom for La Goulue and her fellow dancers. The first revues were staged and, in 1907, a certain Mistinguett began her music-hall career. After the war, a new generation of artists arrived, including Edith Oiaf, Montant, Trenet and Aznavour…Every evening, glitz, feathers and sequins continue to weave their magic at the Moulin Rouge.
