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Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The café bar on Rue Rambuteau, located at 3 rue Étienne-Marcel in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, is located on 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 building, at the hinge of the 19th and 20th centuries, illustrates the typical commercial architecture of this transition period.

The interior decor, made around 1900, is a major work of the D.V.P. Sarreguemines faience, then 28 rue de Paradis in Paris. The side walls are fully covered with ceramic tiles, decorated with vegetal friezes in relief (foliage, roses) and two allegorical panels representing La Beer and Le Café. These elements, attributed to the cartoonist Alexandre Sandier, testify to the influence of Art Nouveau in Parisian public places.

Ranked a Historic Monument by order of 23 May 1984 for its interior decoration, this café-bar embodies the heritage of the typical establishments of the Belle Époque. The protection concerns exclusively ceramic elements, highlighting their artistic and historical value. The building, for its part, remains representative of the urban constructions of the late 19th century, a period of profound transformation of Paris under the impetus of Haussmannian works.

The current location, although noted as "passable" (level 5/10) in the databases, corresponds to the historic address of 3 rue Étienne-Marcel. This neighbourhood, close to the Halles, was then a lively place of commerce and sociability, where cafes played a central role in everyday life. The photographs available, such as that of Zoya Bragina under Creative Commons license, allow us to appreciate the partial preservation of this fragile heritage.

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