Episode 17: "Dazzle Me, Red Windmill"

Perhaps no other Montmartre venue has inspired as much interest as the Moulin Rouge, the most luxurious and exuberant nightclub in Paris when it opened, featuring: a dance hall, cabaret, risque sideshows, clowns, fortune-tellers,and cancan dancers. The garden, marked by an oversized plaster elephant turned-opium-den, trained monkeys, donkey rides, and, of course, the moulin rouge, or “red windmill.” The Moulin Rouge created space where anything was possible: women and men together drinking and socializing openly, lovers meeting and carrying on, and revelers letting loose, concealed by masks at parades and costume balls. The notorious cabaret is a symbol of fun and fancy, ever since La Belle Époque, when it first opened in the heart of the City of Love.