Au Lapin Agile

On this quiet square in Montmartre stands Le Lapin Agile, one of Paris’s oldest and most charming cabarets. The building dates back to the seventeenth century and originally served as a simple inn. By the 1860s it had become a cabaret known as Cabaret des Assassins, later renamed Au Lapin Agile, after the famous mural of a leaping hare.

From the late nineteenth century, it became a magnet for artists and writers. Picasso, Apollinaire, and Utrillo gathered there to talk, laugh, sing, and share their work. It was unpretentious, intimate, and vibrant: guests sat close to a small stage and participated in songs with biting political satire and witty anecdotes.

Though ownership passed down through family hands (including the “Mère Coulon”), Le Lapin Agile still carries the atmosphere of its artistic Belle Époque. Today, visitors still sit on wooden chairs, sip wine, and listen to folk music—in the same spirit as artists like Modigliani and Cocteau once did.