Au Lapin Agile, cabaret on Rue des Saules since 1860

Au Lapin Agile, the cabaret on Rue des Saules in Montmartre, occupies a house built in 1795 that became, around 1860, a carters’ inn called Au Rendez-vous des voleurs. From 1869 it was known as the Cabaret des Assassins, after the prints of famous criminals on its walls.

Around 1880 the caricaturist André Gill painted its sign: a rabbit leaping out of a saucepan. The « Lapin à Gill » became the Lapin agile. From 1903 Frédéric Gérard, le père Frédé, made it the haunt of bohemian Montmartre: Picasso, Max Jacob, Apollinaire, Dorgelès, Carco, Mac Orlan. In 1910 Dorgelès staged a hoax here: a painting made with the tail of Lolo, the landlord’s donkey.

Aristide Bruant bought the house in 1913, when it faced demolition, and left Frédé to run it; in 1922 he sold it to Frédé’s son Paulo. Léo Ferré met Alexandre Lagoya here in 1950, and Claude Nougaro made his debut in 1955. Since 1972 Yves Mathieu, Paulo’s stepson, has owned it.

The oldest cabaret in Montmartre presents itself as a living conservatory of French song. With no microphones, singers and poets hold old-style evenings in which the audience joins in, between the old repertoire and new talent.