Coffee with Sarah Bernhardt: A Parisienne’s Café Adventures

In this monthly column, native Parisian Edith de Belleville — author, attorney, and tour guide — shares her café discoveries

Every time I have a coffee at the Bistrot Renaissance, I always tell myself that constraint does not only have disadvantages. Take Alphonse Mucha, for example. It is thanks to a rather annoying Parisian phenomenon that Art Deco’s emblematic Czech artist became known. This irritating phenomenon is the closure of most shops during the Christmas holidays. When you stay in Paris at this time like me, it can quickly get on your nerves- believe me. And this phenomenon is not new because it  already existed in the 19th century.

Imagine this scene: The great actress Sarah Bernhardt is about to perform in the theater she manages, the Théâtre de la Renaissance, the same one next to the bistrot where I am having my morning coffee. This theater rocks! It was created in 1838 to host the plays of the greatest romantic playwrights Victor Hugo and Alfred de Musset. Sarah senses it; she is going to tear everything up with the play that Victorien Sardou has just written for her. “Gismonda” is what it’s called. This Greek heroine is tailor-made for this immense tragedienne adored throughout the world. She is the international star who will even inspire Proust. The divine, the golden voice as Victor Hugo rightly called her…

Only here, there is a small problem. The play will be performed on January 4, 1895. It is therefore necessary to advertise the play, to flood all the walls of Paris with posters of her play. However, it is the end of December and no printer is open! Well yes, it is the Christmas holidays, everything is closed, remember? What to do?

Sarah, with her familiar tenacity, manages to find a printer that’s open. But this printer has only one illustrator available who is totally inexperienced because all the others have gone on vacation. He is a young man who left his hometown of Prague to succeed in Paris, the Capital of the Arts, during the Belle Epoque. For the moment we can’t really say that he has really succeeded. But the boss of the printing house doesn’t have much choice because time is pressing, and you don’t say no to the famous Sarah Bernhardt.

He takes the risk and gives his novice employee carte blanche. And the result is not long in coming. In a very short time, Mucha has drawn a magnificent Sarah Bernhardt whose slender silhouette perfectly illustrates the sinuous curves and scalloped lines of Art Nouveau.

But Mucha took a little too much liberty. Instead of making a square poster as was done at the time, Mucha had the audacity to create a rectangular poster. This is unprecedented and it is a disaster! The boss, red with anger, slaps Mucha in front of his client and says, “You’re fired!”

Sarah Bernhardt looks at the poster carefully, then kisses Mucha, and tells him, “You are great! I look like a goddess, I hire you!” Mucha will create no less than seven posters of Sarah Bernhardt to illustrate her plays at the Théâtre de la Renaissance. They will be everywhere in Paris and that is how Mucha will earn his reputation as a master of Art Nouveau.

My favorite is the poster for Musset’s play Lorenzaccio that she will perform on December 3, 1896. That’s why I went inside this café, to admire it. It is in front of me and my coffee. I like this poster because the audacious Sarah is dressed as a man when women were not even allowed to wear pants.

In this bistrot everything transports me to the time of Sarah Bernhardt: The red velvet bench recalls the stage curtain of the magnificent theater next door. The old mirrors and the old bistro tables with their cast iron legs on the worn floor tiles are typical of the 1900s. The advertisements hanging on the wall take us back to an era when theater had not yet been dethroned by cinema.

If it were not so early I would have been tempted by the tempting menu on the wall that promises magnificent French wines. In fact I will take a photo so that you can judge for yourself. But there is a small problem. A Parisian couple is sitting right in front and I feel like they are going to ruin my photo. Damn! I take a look at the Mucha poster and think “No worries, constraint is an ode to creativity; I will manage…”

DETAILS

Le bistrot Renaissance
19,rue René Boulanger, 10th arrondissement
Tel: +33 (0)1 42 06 05 27