Paradis Latin Cabaret

A little bit of history….the birth of a mystical place

1802: Napoleon Bonaparte, then First Consul of France, decided to build a theater on the rue des Fosses-Saint-Victor, at the very spot where once stood, a century before, a fortification known as "the wall of Philippe Auguste.” He called it the Theater Latin and celebrated its inaugurated in 1803.

There would be beautiful moments of glory during the Empire and Restoration periods but only after 1830 would it become one of the highlights of Parisian life.

The Latin Theater was not one of those “concerts café’s” on the right bank of the Seine "which pushes the song”. (Caf’concs the expression of the time) No, it's was a very popular and “a la mode” establishment frequented by a heterogeneous clientele, and attracted artists from all walks of life, bourgeois intellectuals, students, workers, merchants and aristocrats alike.

The atmosphere of the Literary Salon that dwelled on the lower floor of the theatre was that of the human comedy by Honoré de Balzac, fed and nurtured by all manner of literature, political discussion and poetics. Everyone unanimously called this salon "the literary watering hole”; where great writers of the time were frequently seen, such as Balzac, of course, and Alexandre Dumas father and son, and later Prosper Mérimée…

1870: the Franco-Prussian war broke out and Bismarck's troops besieged Paris.
Fire Destroys the Theater Latin and the surrounding district; its charred ruins testimony to seventeen years of misery and misfortunes that befell the nation.

1887: Paris begins restoring to its former beauty in preparation for the Universal Exhibition of 1889. It is out of the question to leave these ruins just five hundred meters from Notre Dame!
And so, like the Phoenix, our theater would be reborn from its ashes.
To do this, Paris calls upon the now famous ... Gustave Eiffel! The architect had already embarked on the construction of his famous tower. At 55 years old, he became impassioned by the site and its history, and in discovering the quality of the foundations deciding to use them to create a building in the same metal architecture as the tour.

Sunday January 20 1889: it opens its doors, newly renamed, Le Paradis Latin is born ...
its success was immediate: with sell out crowds every evening. Extraordinary shows and ballets were created, and it was a total triumph.
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But the real devotion of the Paradis Latin comes with the launch of Yvette Guilbert, one of the most famous singers of the era. The grand "Fortune Teller" of the Moulin Rouge - which will be launched in autumn 1889 - and the “Divan Japonais” was now produced in this new fashionable theater .

To recount the story, the troupe of Paradis Latin performs for several weeks, the second part of the evening - modesty obliges the adaptation of a libertine tale of Machiavelli, The Mandragore ...
In the early twentieth century, the new trendy district of Paris nightlife would turn to Montmartre. The left bank was robbed of the spotlight by the hills of the Paris heights. Le Paradis Latin would suffer: the Belle Epoque was not to be for everyone!
Financial difficulties were inevitable, and the cabaret was forced to close its doors several times ... until it was finely purchased by a glass and earthenware creator, Charles Leune, who would install a furnace and a bottling workshop.
1930’s: The last registered occupant, a specialist in industrial packaging of pharmaceuticals, left for a long time, the key under the door