An Evening at the Lapin Agile

When it was a drinking den favored by Picasso and others at the turn of the last century, Le Lapin Agile in Montmartre had a raucous reputation. These days, cabaret shows are still performed there on four evenings a week and audiences find their way up to the little pink house with green shutters, eager to find out how much, if anything, has changed.  

I joined them one autumn evening, having batted away lingering doubts about the wisdom of negotiating Montmartre late at night for a show which doesn’t begin until 9 pm or finish before midnight at the earliest. In fact, it was very straightforward. A five-minute walk from the Lamarck-Caulaincourt metro station (Line 12) was all it took to reach Rue des Saules where a right turn up its steep slope, or rather up two sets of steps, led us straight to the famed venue at number 22. A little cluster of ticket-holders waited around the gate. 

Our entrance, just after 9, was very orderly, which seemed at odds with the exuberant evening I was expecting, given the site’s colorful history. Show your ticket, leave your coat in the cloakroom, follow a staff member into a dimly lit room and sit at the exact spot at one of the large wooden tables which he indicated. A tray of drinks, in fact of identical glasses of cherry liqueur, was presented to us and, not wishing to disturb the routine by enquiring if there was anything else on offer, we took one each, clinked glasses in anticipation and settled back until everyone else had been seated.

A general hum filled the room, then was interrupted by the first strains of a song, coming from one of the tables. Everyone sitting there began to join in, and we realized that this little group, seemingly of friends gathered for a drink, were in fact the performers and that the evening’s entertainment was beginning. A series of folk songs followed, old tales of country girls falling asleep under rose bushes and robbers eaten by rats when hiding under a bed. A rendition of the classic, Le temps des cerises (“Cherry Season”) added a feistier note, at least for those who know it was written during the Paris Commune, a revolutionary song anticipating the good times which would follow when the fighting was over.   

In fact, the “friends” singing so seemingly spontaneously around their table were largely professional singers who would all be doing a solo turn in the second part of the evening.  Justine Jérémie rose to her feet, the epitome of a French singer with her petite robe and elfin haircut even before she picked up her accordion and launched into Sous le Ciel de Paris, a classic which has been covered by everyone from Edith Piaf and Yves Montand to Zaz.

Zoë Fotterino followed later, with a set including rustic charm (La Bicyclette), novelty (songs of her own) and emotional intensity (l’Hymne à l’Amour). Both have released recordings – Justine at least two albums, Zoë so far only individual tracks – as I hope will Florian Pitot, perhaps the youngest performer of the night, whose virtuoso piano playing and winning delivery captured the whole room. 

Florian, like all the singers that evening, performed some very Parisian numbers, including a song referencing the history of Montmartre, which the non-French speakers numbering perhaps half the audience would not have understood. Fair enough, this is authentic Lapin Agile material. However, his talent for involving the audience, even those who understood no French or claimed no musicality soon revealed itself. Watch him flirting his way around the room in J’ai rendez-vous avec vous or delivering the bluesy jazz number, Joueurs de Blues complete with a finger-snapping tour of the audience, encouraging repetitions of the catchy title phrase and you will see what I mean. Both clips were recorded at the Lapin Agile. 

If you are wondering how much you’d get from the evening if your French is not great, let me reassure you. The cabaret could not be more Parisian in tone, indeed that is its charm. Yet, ways have been found to keep those who don’t understand every word entertained. Familiar songs are included, such as Champs Élysées and the children’s song, Alouette, both surely known to one and all. You may not understand the verses, but you can surely sing along with Alouette, chantez alouette. A recorder soloist invited stomping, a comic song was punctuated by blasts from a hooter, one number included a hum-along, another had a chorus everyone can cope with: oui, oui, oui, non, non, non. If you are willing, you will find that you are able.   

Florian Pitot describes visiting the Lapin Agile as “a journey back in time.” In its early days, from the 1860s, it was variously known as “The Thieves’ Den” and the “Assassins’ Cabaret,” so volatile was the atmosphere at times. By 1900, under the management, of Père Frédi (Fréderic Gérard), himself a singer, it became a meeting place for musicians, artists and writers, an informal cabaret where one guest might deliver a chanson, another declaim his latest poem. Later in the 20th century, some of France’s best-known singers performed at the Lapin Agile early in their careers, including Georges Brassens, Claude Nougaro and Edith Piaf. Since 1971 it has been managed by Yves Mathieu, now in his mid-90s and still doing a turn most evenings! (Watch him below, in a clip from 2024.) 

In its heyday in the early 1900s, when impoverished artists and writers like Picasso, Modigliani and Apollinaire gathered here to drink and revel, the atmosphere was raucous. Sue Roe paints a colorful picture in her book In Montmartre, writing “As the evening wore on, the singing in the Lapin Agile gathered momentum as bawdy couplets, street romances, Marseilles refrains, Breton melodies and provincial songs were belted out.” She goes on to describe the revelers at the end of the evening, rolling out onto a nearby bench or simply passing out for the night under a tree. The lines between camaraderie and debauchery were blurred, but out of the spontaneity came creativity. Little known poets, musicians and artists could come here and find an audience for their work, comment on and criticize each other, perhaps find appreciation.     

You can sense this history in the atmosphere at the Lapin Agile today. The standard of musicianship is high, but the ambiance remains jovial. Folk songs mix with the classics of the 20th-century chanteurs, alongside new work written by today’s performers.  You may hear the 17th-century folk tune Auprès de ma Blonde or a rousing drinking song like Boire un Petit Coup, followed by a classic made famous by Jacques Brel or Edith Piaf, but you will also be treated to new pieces written, for instance, by Justine or Zoë and left wondering whether they too will one day be famous. 

Customers interviewed in clips on the Lapin’s Facebook page praise it as a place where people come to “laugh, drink and sing,” and applaud its showcasing of traditional French songs. “C’est authentique,” says one, “you can feel the spirit of all the artists who’ve performed here buried in its memory,” explains another. If it’s the history of la chanson française that you seek, then you will certainly find it here at the venue I have seen described in French as “the conservatory of French song.” And if it’s an uplifting evening of bohemian fun, musicality enlivened with a drink or two, and some cheerful company that you are after, then you’ll find all of that here too. 

DETAILS   

The Lapin Agile
22, Rue des Saules
Montmartre, 18th
Nearest metro: Lamarck-Caulaincourt (Line 12) 

Open Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday 9 pm – 1 am 

€40 per person (includes one drink) 

Reading Suggestion
In Montmartre, Picasso, Matisse and Modernism in Paris, 1900 – 1910 by Sue Roe