Telescoping of history, 1936: the popular front, the first paid holidays, black and white films, Gabin, when we walk along the water’s edge, and then all those Parisians who take the train from the Bastille station , head to the guinguettes in the west of Paris to binge on a bagpipe tune.
In Joinville le Pont, Gégène, alias Eugène Favreu sets up his guinguette in 1914. He fishes in the Marne and sells his fried roach, bleak or gudgeon in his restaurant by the water. The entertainer and actor Roger Pierre recounts and befriends Gégène.
At Gegene, we gueuletonne, we feast, we dance the waltz. On the walls of the guinguette, posters and plates announce the color “Cooking is done with time, butter, a little genius and with Gégène”, or “At Gégène, the roach dies but does not surrender not”. But the biggest advertisement that revived the establishment following the war was a song written by Roger Pierre for his friend Bourvil.
Living by the water and at almost 100 years old, Gégène is doing well, and good news, a young generation has found the address on the banks of the Marne.
“Where there’s embarrassment, there’s no pleasure, but where there’s Gégène there’s laughter where that? In Joinville le Pont, bridge, bridge!