![Atop Empire State- in construction; Chrysler Bldg & [Daily] News in middle foreground. (1931)](../../../img/Atop-Empire-State-in-construction-Chrysler-Bldg-Daily-News-in-middle-foreground.-1931--199x123.jpg "Balancing on the Empire State")
‘Le Café de L’Enfer was a Hell-themed café in Paris’ red light district (aka Pigalle, the neighborhood of the Moulin Rouge), created in the late 19th century and operating until sometime around the middle of the 20th.’
The Café de L’Enfer in 1952
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Thank you to Cool Stuff in Paris
And next door you have a place called “Le ciel”, which means “heaven”
Creepy! Adding to the bizarreness of the scene is that the bar next door is named ‘le Ciel’ – French for ‘heaven’.
It’s a shame it didn’t survive, as it would be a great venue for black metal concerts!
I was struck by the first picture shown here of a British cartoon from 1819 representing the French revolutionaries: http://www.historyhome.co.uk/pict2/1819.jpg
There is a discount store there now (53 Boulevard de Clichy). Satan manifests itself in mysterious ways.
The last picture is from the famous french photographer Robert Doisneau. The same place is in one of the Eugene Atget’s documentary pictures of the old Paris.
Love this place. Wish it was still around and in the U.S. Reminded me of how I still want to open a haunted house bar/restaurant.
There was a less-elaborate copy of L’Enfer at the end of an alleyway in central Brussels. It had a ‘no one under 18 admitted’ policy which – as a 3-year-old – I felt was an infringement of my human rights.
Lovely! Reminds me of Le Macabre on Meard Street but much more ornate…
I was in Paris a couple of weeks ago and tracked down this cafe. The name still exists at the same address, but the edifice and interior are gone. It looks now just like any other cafe.
So so full of awesome. Can’t imagine why they put it in the red light district
a sculptural paraphrasing (albeit a good one, and brilliantly employed!) of the original in Rome, which dates back to the 16th century:
http://www.reidsitaly.com/destinations/lazio/rome/sights/palazzo_zuccari.html
Also reminds me of the Giardino dei Mostri in Bomarzo, outside of Florence–a whole garden’s worth of monsters, obstacles/games through which you pass on to . . . heaven?
And also reminds me of the name of a bar in Mexico City which a friend who’d lived there in the 70s had told me about: “The Liver Doesn’t Exist”. I’ve always loved the spirit that came up with that one.
Cheers, ya’ll! See you in hell!