A Pinay in Europe

The Montparnasse District

26 February 2009

Everytime I see the building icon of Montparnasse in the Metro map, I always ticked it off mentally as “seen-it, climbed-up the 56th floor, no need to do a repeat” kind of thing. But yesterday, we stumbled upon a very interesting road just a stone’s throw away from the tallest building in Paris, that which gave us the feeling that we were walking through the “Edith Piaf” era of cabarets, theaters, bars and all.The truth is, never have I seen a single road with a high concentration of theatres, bars, a 4-star hotel on the side and establishments that cater to the sensual delights of the Parisian, i.e., turkish spa, peep shows, sex shops, massage clinics.

But you would say, how about the Boulevard de Clichy where the famous Moulin Rouge is! There must be close to a hundred similar establishments: sex supermarket, sex shops, peep shows, sex so and so…but this is a boulevard, mind you..and I am talking only of a road, the rue de la Gaite! Besides, there is a very “Parisian of old” feel in this road! Take for example the facades of the theatres:

La Comedie Italienne, founded in 1980, is the only Italian theatre in France. Shows are exclusively of Italian origin - classic and contemporary - majority of which have not been shown in France. Performances are in French.

Theatre de la Gaite-Montparnasse founded in 1867.

A drinking soda seller recovered the materials from the demolished Exhibition theater of 1867, to put up a Cafe-concert hall in the very popular road at the time, the rue de la Gaite. The Concert de la Gaite, or now called Theatre de la Gaite-Montparnasse opened its doors in September 1868 with the grand performance of divas and dancers a la folies bergere.

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