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Origin and history

Rasputine is a cabaret-restaurant located in a building built in 1931 by architects Louis-Hippolyte Boileau and Charles-Henri Besnard at the corner of Avenues des Champs-Élysées and George-V. Originally, the building housed the offices of the National Tourism Office as Maison de France, with a nine-storey rotunda and a distinctive sign. Louis Barillet's stained glass windows, which are a significant part of his original decoration, have now disappeared.

Prior to 1965, the site was already home to the cabaret Le Drap d In 1965, the latter was transformed into a Russian cabaret under the impulse of Hélène Martini, who entrusted his decoration to his friend Erté (Romain de Tirtoff). The place then takes the name of Rasputine, with a decor in staff, painted wood and fabrics, and becomes a high place of Parisian social life.

Frequently attended by personalities such as Serge Gainsbourg, Jane Birkin or Frédéric Beigbeder, the Rasputine is partially classified as a Historic Monument: its facades and roofs were inscribed in 1991, followed in 1993 by its front, vestibule, staircase and interior decorations of the basement. In the 2000s, Laurent de Gourcuff purchased it through his company Paris Society and converted it into a chic night club, rented for private events and filming.

The building, in Art Deco style, combines metal frame and reinforced concrete, covered with stone from Hauteville. Its rotunda, visible from the Champs Elysées, makes it a major architectural landmark. Today, Rasputine embodies both an artistic heritage of the 1960s and a symbol of contemporary Parisian night.

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