À la Mère Catherine, restaurant on Place du Tertre since 1793

À la Mère Catherine, the restaurant on Place du Tertre in Montmartre, opened in 1793 in the former presbytery of the church of Saint-Pierre de Montmartre. Seized during the Revolution, it was sold that year to Catherine Lamotte, who made it a café and restaurant.

Danton was one of its first famous customers. Catherine Lamotte liked to drink with her regulars, who nicknamed her « la mère Catherine ». A plaque at the entrance tells how, in 1814, Cossack soldiers called for drinks here shouting « bystro », Russian for quickly, and so named the bistro; scholars consider the story a folk etymology.

After Catherine Lamotte died in 1844, the house passed to one Gros Guillaume, then, early in the twentieth century, to Monsieur Lemoine, second mayor of the Commune libre de Montmartre, who installed a wooden billiard table. Albert Mériguet and Thérèse ran it after the Second World War. In 1983 Charles Aznavour posed by its terrace for the cover of an album of Bernard Dimey songs.

The room keeps its dark wooden walls, terracotta tiles, exposed beams, large crocks and red and white checked cloths. At the top of the Butte, it remains the oldest restaurant still open on Place du Tertre.