For over a century, a windmill has welcomed Parisians and visitors from around the world to the famous Moulin Rouge cabaret.
But no more: Overnight, the sails of the windmill collapsed in a mysterious incident, along with three letters from the cabaret’s name — leaving late-night revelers and early-morning commuters stunned.
No one was injured, Eric Lejoindre, mayor of Paris’s 18th district, wrote on X. And the structure is not in danger of collapse, firefighters told local media outlets. But without its sails, is the Moulin Rouge — meaning “Red Windmill” in French — still the Moulin Rouge?
“It’s pretty disturbing to see it without” its sails, resident Raphaël told Le Parisien newspaper. “After all, it’s a symbol in Pigalle and even throughout Paris. But the main thing is that there were no injuries.”
The collapse happened Thursday shortly before 2 a.m., Jean-Victor Clerico, the director of the Moulin Rouge, told French television station TF1. The Moulin Rouge’s last show begins around 11 p.m. and ends around 12:30 a.m., and the audience had cleared out of the venue by the time the sails collapsed, Clerico said.
It’s not clear what caused the collapse. Clerico said the sails were regularly checked and maintained by an external company and by the cabaret’s own technical teams. He told journalists on Thursday it was not sabotage, but rather “a technical problem” that caused the sails to fall to the ground, bringing three letters on the front of the building down with them, according to Le Monde.
Earlier, an unnamed Moulin Rouge official told Agence France-Presse that technical experts from the cabaret checked the windmill weekly and “did not note any problems” with it.
The Moulin Rouge did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Washington Post on Thursday.
Clerico told TF1 it was the first time an accident like this had happened since the Moulin Rouge opened in 1889. He said the cabaret would be open as usual Thursday evening, adding, “the show continues, that’s the most important thing.”
The Moulin Rouge was one of several cabarets to spring up across Paris around what became known as the belle epoque — a time of peace and prosperity between the Franco-Prussian War and World War I. It was “a period of transition between two centuries, during which social barriers collapsed and the industrial revolution gave hope of a better life for all, in a rich cultural profusion of fun and frivolity,” according to a history of the Moulin Rouge.
The music hall opened on Oct. 6, and Parisians showed up en masse “to discover this extravagant place,” according to the history. When the French cancan was invented, it became a staple of the cabaret’s shows and a symbol of changing social mores and the role of women in French society.
The Moulin Rouge has been part of Parisian life since then, though now its shows mainly draw tourists. A fire in 1915 ravaged it and forced it to close for nine years for renovations.
It will celebrate its 135th anniversary in October.
