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Key figures

Origin and history

The Café-Bar de la rue Étienne-Marcel, located in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, occupies the ground floor of a building built at the end of the 19th century. Its existence was attested in 1897 in the Almanac of commerce, marking its anchor in the Parisian landscape of the time. The place is distinguished by its interior ceramic decoration, made around 1900, which covers the entire side walls. These works, signed by the company D.V.P. Sarreguemines (based at 28 rue de Paradis in Paris), are attributed to the cartoonist Alexandre Sandier, active in the Mosellan faience. The designs include relief vegetal friezes, roses, as well as two allegorical panels depicting La Bière and Le Café, illustrating the original functions of the establishment.

The interior decoration of the café, remarkable for its stylistic unit and its state of conservation, was protected by a registration order under the Historic Monuments on 23 May 1984. This official recognition underscores the heritage value of ceramic tiles, a testament to the decorative arts of the 19th and 20th centuries. Although the building itself is not accurately dated, its architectural style and interior decorative elements reflect the nascent Art Nouveau influences, while being part of the tradition of Parisian cafés adorned with earthenware, popular at that time.

The location of the café, at 3 rue Étienne-Marcel, places the establishment in a central and commercial district of Paris, close to the Halles and the major boulevards. This sector, in full transformation at the Belle Époque, welcomed a varied clientele, from workers to the bourgeois, making these places of sociability key spaces of urban life. Today, coffee retains an accurate location considered fair (note 5/10), according to available data, and remains a rare example of preserved ceramic decor in situ in the capital.

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