Bal Blomet, a jazz club on rue Blomet since 1924

Bal Blomet began in 1924 at 33 rue Blomet, west of Montparnasse, in the back room of a bar-tabac: Jean Rézard des Wouves, a Martinican candidate for parliament, played the music of the Antilles on the piano after his election meetings, which turned into dances.

The owner, Alexandre Jouve, made it a regular dance hall. Robert Desnos, who lived at number 45, wrote it up in Comœdia. Josephine Baker, Kiki de Montparnasse and Man Ray, Foujita, Hemingway, Miró, Calder and Sidney Bechet came here, and the Martinican clarinettist Ernest Léardée, later king of the biguine, succeeded Rézard.

Banned during the Occupation, the dances resumed from 1945 to 1962, before it became a plain café again. The Saint-Louis Blues jazz club ran here from 1989 to 2006. Under threat, the building was restored from 2015 and reopened in 2017 under its original name.

On rue Blomet, in the 15th arrondissement, the hall of nearly three hundred seats hosts jazz and classical concerts, musical shows and talks, and presents itself as the oldest jazz club still running in Europe.