Moulin Rouge: the classic of the classics
Art deco posters with a black cat, mugs with cats, aprons with cats... But what has this poor animal done to deserve this? This is the long-repeated question by the slightly clueless tourist on his first trip to Paris. The answer is simple but not always obvious: the black, furry cat with a mysterious air is the image of the world's first cabaret, opened in Paris in 1881, Le Chat Noir (the black cat). On a cold night in November 1881 at number 84 boulevard de Rochechouart, just below Montmartre, a new café was opened offering a unique formula to its customers: with the price of a drink you could enjoy a musical performance. The goal was to retain the customer as long as possible. The new concept is a complete success: affordable prices allow a heterogeneous public to attend, artists celebrate this way of bringing art to the masses, strict social rules are relaxed: the cabaret is born.
Soon, similar places spring up all over the city to the delight of workers, bourgeois, intellectuals and artists. In 1889, the famous among the famous Moulin Rouge opened its doors, scene of famous evenings of dissolute balls. After the Second Great War, Paris, already recovered from its wounds, celebrates the return to peace and prosperity by reinventing the old concept of the cabaret with the inauguration of the now classic Lido or Crazy Horse. The old essence of yesteryear in which the interactivity between the artist and the public was total and it gains in glamor and sophistication: sequins and feathers take center stage and feminine beauty is sublimated through careful nude numbers.
What remains today in Paris of all that? What truth is there in the can-can dances of the current Moulin Rouge? Is it even possible to find a cabaret in the manner of Le Chat Noir?
1)MOULIN ROUGE
It is inevitable to start with the quintessence of Parisian cabarets. Its exterior facade in the form of a red windmill is one of the most photographed images of Paris. The place where the popular can-can dance was born and which inspired the paintings of the great Toulouse-Lautrec, has today become a place frequented exclusively by tourists , as announced by the long queue at the door, before the start of the show. Little or nothing remains of the cheap cigarette-heavy atmosphere and artistic imprint we saw in Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris. Nevertheless, this art deco style room continues to be a marvel and the dancers who perform the famous can-can , the hallmark of the house, excellent. If we do a little imagination exercise, we may be able to recreate the atmosphere of the end of the century.
Address: 82 boulevard de Clichy, 75018 Paris Metro: Blanche Dinner show: different menus from 125 to 175 euros per person.
At the Moulin Rouge with Toulouse Lautrec, Gauguin or Degas.
**2) CRAZY HORSE **
Men and women in equal parts, French clique and tourists at 50 percent: a good sign . The room is small, entirely decorated in red, with an intimate, almost familiar atmosphere, far from the grandeur and spectacular nature of the Lido or the Moulin Rouge. On stage, ten dancers perform with their perfect bodies, sometimes only covered by the reflections of the light effects, a repertoire of sensual and elegant choreographies. Less is more here: no raucous feathers or sequins , only the shape of moving bodies and a sophisticated, original and surprising set design.
The Crazy Horse, opened in 1951, it is considered the most avant-garde cabaret in Paris . It does not try to recover a lost past, it evolves towards the future thanks to the collaboration of internationally renowned set designers, creators and stars such as Dita Von Teese, queen of burlesque , who in 2009 performed at this cabaret as a guest star. Her interpretation of the piece called “Bath” almost killed a few people with a heart attack. But although sensuality is on the surface and the nudes are often complete, what prevails above all else is artistic creation and the extraordinary aesthetics of rhythms and cadences. oh! and the beautiful shoes specially designed by Laboutin . More than recommended.
Address: 12, Avenida de George V. Show plus half a bottle of champagne: 125 euros per person
A show at the Crazy Horse
**3) LAPIN AGILE **
Zero glamour. Authentic cabaret atmosphere. It has cost us, but we have found it. On a steep street in bohemian Montmatre, a pink building houses one of the city's oldest cabarets. In the "Agile Rabbit" (its translation into Spanish) you'll find a mostly French crowd plus a few rather stunned tourists . It is not for less, a packed room and some parishioners willing to accompany the melodies sung on stage, cheer the pianist, laugh at the comedian's jokes or whistle the accordionist who has not shown off in that last performance. Here there is no champagne or expensive spirits but cherry wine from the house, that waters the empty glasses again and again. Noisy to the point of scandal, an oven (essential to wear short sleeves), but fun to say the least and a full-fledged experience. In its day it was frequented by Picasso, Utrillo and Toulouse-Lautrec, but the "Lapin Agile" has known, not without great effort, to keep the tradition alive of the authentic cabaret atmosphere and the bohemian tradition of Montmatre . The so-called house of "music, humor and poetry" has been considered by the writer Patricia Schultz one of the "1000 places to visit before you die".
Address: 22, rue des Saules Metro: Lamarck-Caulaincourt Show plus drink: 24 euros per person.
Lapin Agile: zero glamor
**4)LIDO **
Nor could the famous Lido be missing from our list, in the middle of the Champs-Elysées Avenue. Opened in 1946, shortly after the end of the Second World War and the liberation of Paris, in this cabaret everything is too imposing and excessive : the room, the show with 60 dancers (the so-called “Bluebell girls”) performing elaborate choreographies, the 600 dresses, the 23 different settings, up to the dinner that chef Philippe Lacroix proposes to the attendees. Personally, I find it quite tacky and “déjà vu”, but it cannot be denied that the Lido leaves no one indifferent. Expendable.
Address 116 Bis Avenue des Champs Élysées Dinner with a show: from 160 to 300 euros Show plus half a bottle of champagne: 105 euros per person
The Lido: imposing and excessive