Bohemian Paris Tour - Art Scenes

Bohemian

PARIS

Thanks to the economic growth of Paris, many artist migrated to the city of lights during the Belle Epoque/Années Folles achieving stardom, but most of them starved till death; drinking, painting, and prostituting in the streets of Paris with Montmartre at its epicenter — and today you can still experience the bohemian lifestyle of Renoir or Picasso.

Time period: 1850-1950s

Movie or book: Midnight in Paris (2011)/Moulin Rouge by Pierre La Mure

Soundtrack: Edith Piaf/Josephine Baker’s music

Fashion: colorful outfit, oversized blazer or rain coat plus a beret

Budget:

Leconte, A. & Guilmin L.: Nouveau Paris Monumental, Itinéraire Pratique de L’Etranger; Paris, 1931

This tour would take you from the Seine to Montmartre; the neighborhood where many artist lived and had their art studios like Van Gogh, Matisse or Modigliani; and where the first cabarets open up creating the red light district of Pigalle. The area is characterized by neon signs on Haussmann buildings, charming steep streets and cute overpriced restaurants. In the early XIX century people with an unorthodox way of living, characterized by free love, frugality, and creative expression (the hippies before World War II) were called bohemians in reference to the Romani people from Boheme — and by the end of the XIX century it was a lifestyle the impressionist embrace around the cheap old hilly village of Montmartre. During the Belle époque the café society evolve from boujee to bohemian, from a place to people watch along an exotic drink, to a place to have discussions fuel by a cheap drink. Some of these cafes started serving food and incorporating small acts like poetry or live music; and by the end of the century a new form of entertainment appeared in “The City of Lights” besides the opera, the cabaret. In 1881 Le Chat Noir opened its door in Montmatre offering alcoholic drinks and food, while an array of acts presented by a master of ceremonies was being performed on a small stage. It was a success! and some small opera houses followed with similar concepts like: the Folies Bergere with its revues (gogo dancing) or the Paradis Latin (an aristocratic theater built by Napoleon in 1808 but rebuilt by Gustave Eiffel in 1889) who started incorporating acrobats. That same year the iconic Moulin Rouge got inaugurated with its lavish red velvet interiors, chandeliers, and the revolutionary can-can dancers. Soon the cabarets became the place where aristocrats, bourgeois, politicians, artists, writers and students rub elbow to elbow. Sadly the party was over and after World War I the city was not longer the center of innovation; and the bohemian class migrated to the left bank of the Seine River (where still is). During the Anne Folles “The School of Paris” art movement got created (not a single style but an entrepreneurial spirit that gave us the avant gardes) created by a handful of immigrants from all over Europe like: the Russian Chagall, the Italian Modigliani, Picasso from Spain or Mondrian from the Netherlands, who hung around the cafes and salons of Montparnasse. In the of 1940 The Nazzi invaded Paris and killed the bohemian spirit of the city; and from then on it never recover its title as the center of the art world — it went to NYC after WWII. The tour suggest having a coffee (and a joint) by the Seine river, a historical apartment plus a scenic walk through Rue Montmartre in the morning; the Museum of Montmartre, dinner plus the church Sacré-Cœur in the evening; and sex shops plus the Moulin Rouge at night.