Moulin de la Galette

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Coordinates: 48°53′14.63″N 2°20′13.36″E / 48.8873972°N 2.3370444°E / 48.8873972; 2.3370444

The Moulin de la Galette restaurant topped by the Moulin Radet.

The Moulin de la Galette is a windmill situated near the top of the district of Montmartre in Paris, France. The area has been depicted by artists such as Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Ramon Casas, Vincent van Gogh, and Pablo Picasso. The windmill has been classified as a monument since 1939.

Previously, Moulin de la Galette was a famous guinguette. It is now a restaurant.

[edit] History

The Moulin de la Galette is made up of two mills: "Blute-fin" and "Radet". The first mentioned name of the mill was "Palace windmill" in 1622. The Debray family acquired the two mills in 1809 for producing flour. But it was also used to pressurize the harvest or grind materials needed for manufacturing. The Parisian people appreciated it as Sunday walking goal.

The windmill "Blute-fin" was build in 1622 and often repaired. The name comes from the French verb "bluter" which means sifting flour for the separation from bran.

At the end of the Napoleon empire, in 1814, during the siege of Paris one of the Debray brothers strongly defended the windmill against Cossacks. They killed him and nailed him to the wings of the windmill.

In 1870, the owner Charles-Nicolas Debray, added a guinguette with a dancing room, and called it "Moulin de la Galette" in 1895. The "galette", is a small rye bread that Debray millers made and sold with a glass of milk. Now, in French, "galette" is the name of cake. In 1830, they replaced milk with wine (especially the local Montmartre wine) and the windmill by a cabaret.

The atmosphere was relaxed and customers more popular than in other establishments such as "Moulin Rouge". People came to "Moulin de la Galette" for enjoying and dancing. In "Moulin Rouge", with a windmill-like building in a low-altitude place without wind, people came to see a show with professional dancers.

Then the place was used as music-hall, radio and television studios. It was closed in 1974, at the end of the ORTF (French public TV). It is now a private property.

The windmill "Radet" was built in 1717. In the 19th century, it was transformed into a guinguette on Sundays and public holidays. An association "Friends of Old Montmartre" saved it from destruction in 1915. In 1924, its owner moved the windmill to the corner of Girardon and Lepic streets. It was restored in 1978, but is not running.