The Charismatic Characters of Montmartre

Just ten years ago, at the number 14 on Three Brothers Street, the coffee machine still worked with gas, the stove with coal, the counter was not in zync but in formica board. There were still Ricard ashtrays on every table, memories of bygone days where smokers were still allowed inside small cafés.

Georgette, almost ninety years old, is an attractive caricature of Inhabitant of the Auvergne gone up to Paris he has there a very long time. She is the boss of the Fine Mocha, small a little bit old-fashioned coffee of the Mound Montmartre where the conversations are nevertheless of the most hilarious. Fifty years having invested in this affair, always accompanied by Fernande, her most faithful customer, Georgette does not succeed in leaving the premises of a whole life. Well then?

Return in the Fin Moka with Georgette and Fernande for a small well-deserved apéritif after wandering the streets of Montmartre this morning. The walls, as much as faces of our two old friends, carry the marks of times-passed. The good mood of this woman from Auvergne and this cheeky Parisian is however most invigorating.


With her magnificent toothless smile, the invincible Fernande declares her allegiance to her glass of Salers, a bitter alcohol of which she must have several grams in her blood.

Without family and without other ties apart from the formica board which they have shared for so long, Fernande and Georgette calmly let, but not without a certain melancholy, pass by the last moments of their life in Paris. Even if "their" Montmartre has indeed changed, not for anything would they want to leave this neighborhood …

But be beware of the snake in the grass. With their thick accents, both inhabitants of Montmartre have not left their tongue in their pockets! In their discussions of the weather outside, the pollution and ices that are melting, industry, red cars and the color green, they bicker and are outspoken: "I say shit as I say hello", concludes Georgette.

And Fernande adds : "I don’t like country people, they are conceited”.

Undoubtedly, the charm of Montmartre also comes from this: of this natural frankness, and the people of the neighborhood who never mince their words but never seem unpleasant!

Here you will hear them discussing technique, you will maybe meet Roman Goupil for a cigarette break on the Italian-style balconies which breathe a fellinien spirit into this place where individuals circulate, convergent, cross and leave. But never, ever, will you hear the residents criticize in this small enclave, haven of peace where reigns the spirit of Montmartre.

At The Renaissance, the coffees have given way to the beers. The regular customers will certainly have a few words to say to convince you that there is nothing common about this bar. Here reigns an atmosphere not like the others: chairs and tables in ebony, the record player and place mats make an intergenerational place.

Having begun in cabarets as the "Tire-bouchon" or the "Bohême", he has comes to perform every evening for the past twenty five years on the stage of the "Noctambules", at 24 Boulevard of Clichy.

The archetype of a provincial who moved to Paris, for nothing in the world would he leave this mount. Even if the spirit is no longer exactly the same, even if the district changes and even if Pigalle by Night attracts more young people today, Pierre Carré will continue singing songs of the seducers and cooing under the disco ball.

It is with Mine Vergès that we penetrate into the most famous of the Parisian cabarets. Wardrobe designer by profession, she is, for the past forty years, the small skillful hand that creates the most grandiloquent of costumes for the spectacle “Féérie”.

In her company, from the wings, we assist in the preparation of the artists then the show. Excitement of feathers and glitter, the wide splits, colorful dress-ups, twinkling, sacred: Mine has trouble saying to herself that she will soon pass on the torch. So she takes advantage of it as long as she can.