Shock on the Montmartre hill in Paris, where the wings of the famous Moulin Rouge cabaret are on the ground Thursday morning following their fall for a reason still unknown during the night.
The wings of the dean of Parisian cabarets – immortalized by the posters of the painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec at the end of the 19th century – fell during the night from Wednesday to Thursday, firefighters said, confirming information from BFMTV.
The letters M, O and U of its name, located on the facade, have also fallen.
No injuries were reported, Paris firefighters said, adding that there was no longer any risk of collapse. The reasons for this fall are currently unknown.
“It’s incredible,” said Exaucé, who did not want to give his name. A chef at the Moulin Rouge, he discovered the blades on the ground when he arrived on site around 8 a.m.
The capital’s police chief, Laurent Nuñez, for his part indicated that “security architects from the police headquarters” went to the site.
Thursday morning, barriers were put in place around the entrance to the establishment, but the street was not blocked and a dump truck removed the blades, a journalist noted.
“It’s funny. It’s like cutting the head off the Eiffel Tower. That hurts me. I hope they will repair it quickly,” reacted to Daniel, 58, who explains that he passes the building every day on his way to work.
“This is the first time that an accident of this type has occurred since its creation on October 6, 1889,” said the Moulin Rouge.
Temple du cancan
“It happened following closing at 1:15 a.m. fortunately,” said the same source, indicating that, “every week, the technical management of the cabaret checks the mechanism of the wings of the mill and found no problem.”
“On the site itself, we have 24-hour surveillance, particularly on the roofs, with human presence. We already know that this is not a malicious act, it is obviously a technical problem,” Jean-Victor Clerico, general director of the Moulin Rouge, told the press.
The only serious accident that occurred in the world temple of cancan was a fire due to work in 1915, according to the cabaret, which had to close for nine years.
The famous establishment, which will celebrate its 135th anniversary on October 6, is located at the foot of the Montmartre hill and in the heart of the Pigalle district. Synonymous with crazy Parisian nights with the Lido and cancan dancers, it attracts thousands of visitors from all over the world every day who take photos in front of its facade with its animated wings.
Its “trademark”, the French cancan, made this institution famous with its revues of dancers in petticoats and froufrou, in the footsteps of La Goulue, la Môme Fromage, Nini Pattes en l’air and Mistinguett.
The Moulin Rouge welcomes 600,000 spectators per year, with two performances each evening, 365 days per year, and employs some 450 employees.
