Le Balajo, a dance hall on rue de Lappe since 1935

Le Balajo, a musette dance hall on rue de Lappe near the Bastille, first opened in 1935, then again in June 1936 at number 9. It takes its name from its owner, Jo France, who had opened a small cabaret in the same street five years earlier, La Bastoche, before taking over the premises of the Bal Vernet.

Jo France asked the painter Henri Mahé, who also worked for the Moulin-Rouge, to decorate it in tribute to the tango singer Carlos Gardel, who died in 1935. To the sound of the accordion, all Paris danced the java here. The accordionist Jo Privat played here for over fifty years and in 1946 wrote “Balajo”, which became the house anthem.

Cinema came too: André Berthomieu’s Le Cœur sur la main in 1948, Gilles Grangier’s Le cave se rebiffe in 1961, Claude Berri’s Le Cinéma de papa in 1971. In June 2011 the hall celebrated its 75th anniversary, with more than five million visitors since it opened.

Today Le Balajo is a nightclub in the 11th arrondissement. Salsa lessons fill weeknights, a rock night returns once a month, and on Monday afternoons a tea dance keeps the spirit of the old bal alive.