Moulin Rouge
82 boulevard de Clichy, 18th
tel: 01 53 09 82 82
The kitschy Moulin Rouge with its signature neon windmill still does a roaring trade as tourists flock to see the high-kicking cabaret girls in feathers strut their stuff. Of all the glitzy Parisian floor shows it is probably the most tame and traditional, but the club’s history is gloriously scandalous. Toulouse-Lautrec sat here sketching the working girls’ energetic can-can; in 1896, the annual Paris Art School Ball at the Moulin Rouge was the scene of the first all-the-way stripteases, by one of the school’s prettiest models. She was arrested and imprisoned, and students went to the barricades in the Quartier Latin, proclaiming “the battle for artistic nudity” – two died in subsequent scuffles with police.
There are two shows a night (and some matinees). Sixty ‘Doris Girls’ parade in 1,000 spectacular costumes, all feathers, sequins and rhinestones, with their show entitled Féerie (‘enchantment’).
