Through its long history, the Rue de Clichy, where Le Club Montmartre is housed, has accommodated a…read morevariety of entertainments.
At times, along that street, Parisians have visited the three Tivolis (Les Folies-Boutin, -Richelieu and -Bouxière), which are considered precursors to the modern amusement park; the Casino de Paris music hall, which replaced the Roman Catholic church Église de la Sainte-Trinité; Le Pôle Nord, France's first permanent artificial ice rink; and, beginning in 1901, the Clichy branch of the city's then-popular restaurant chain, Bouillon Duval.
The dining house morphed into a brasserie and survived two world wars. And then, in 1946, a man named Jean Bauchet bought the building and installed a pool hall with the lofty and time-honored name, "L'Académie de Billard".
As time passed and L'Académie succeeded, subsequent owners offered several enticements, including 16 tables (5 French and 8 American billiard, 2 pool and 1 snooker) spread through the cavernous 7000 square foot room that was lined with gilded mirrors and crowned with stunning, 30-foot Art-Deco stained-glass ceilings. They also provided a full bar, nearly round-the-clock service, and, in the back - a "Cercle de Jeux" - one of the country's infamous gambling rooms, eventually closed when the law caught up with the Corsican Mob.
I spent one of the coolest nights of my life in L'Académie de Billard, drinking whisky 'til 5 a.m. while playing billiards with French and British colleagues, good-naturedly arguing with my friends about whose food was best and whose women were best-looking. I got back to my hotel at sunrise, and an hour later had a visit from the concierge, who wondered politely if I wasn't supposed to catch the morning train to Lisbon.
I returned to L'Académie a couple of years later, to show my wife where I'd had so much fun, but the daytime vibe was bland and boring; less, "Don't Shoot the Piano Player" and more, "Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris."
And then, a few years ago, in the name of progress, the idiot owners ruined the place.
"L'Académie de Billard" - a badass name for a classic venue - became "Cercle Clichy-Montmartre" and then, "Le Club Montmartre". Apparently inspired by the 70s disco aesthetic, the owners painted the hall's beautiful interior "Ritz blue and gold," hung neon fucking lights on its walls and ceiling, and PULLED THE BILLIARD TABLES OUT!
The place is now a card room, offering blackjack, "Punto Banco", a few poker variants and three bars. If cards are your thing, and you don't care where you play, I suppose Le Club Montmartre is ok.
But believe me: no matter how much money the changes I've mentioned have brought the owners (and the government, which takes a crazy-high percentage of the house's profits), Clichy, Paris and France have lost something precious, of inestimable value.
