Pigalle (Paris)
Pigalle is the name for the entertainment district in Paris around Place Pigalle , where the world-famous Moulin Rouge is located. It is on the border between the 9th arrondissement and the 18th arrondissement . The quarter was named after the sculptor Jean-Baptiste Pigalle (1714–1785).
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Pigalle is famous and notorious these days as a tourist trap with lots of sex shops around Place Pigalle and street prostitution in the side streets. The Divan du Monde and the Moulin Rouge, a famous cabaret show , are both in Pigalle. The Musée de l'érotisme (Erotic Museum) was also located here until 2016.
The area south of Place Pigalle is known for its music stores. A section of Rue de Douai is almost entirely home to shops selling guitars, drums and other musical instruments.
Around 1900 painters such as Henri Toulouse-Lautrec , Pablo Picasso , Vincent van Gogh and Maurice Neumont lived here . Pigalle was also home to the Grand Guignol Theater , which closed in 1962.
The area has been immortalized in films and music. E.g. in three o'clock at night from 1956 by Jean-Pierre Melville , who plays in the bars of the district, or by Pigalle with Véra Briole and Francis Renauld from 1994. The album La Rue Pigalle is from Édith Piaf , Maurice Chevalier sang Place Pigalle and Bill Ramsey 1961 Pigalle, that is the big mousetrap in the middle of Paris .