This place is original place of Moulin de la Galette. I'm going to explain the history of this windmill. First of all, Vincent van Gogh created the Moulin de la Galette as the title of Le Moulin de blute-fin.
The moulin( windmill) was originally comprised of two mills; le Blute-fin and le Radet. Together the two mills were known as le Moulin du Palais the first mention of which came in 1622. The mill was purchased by the Debray family in 1809 for the production of flour, however it soon became a new addition to the Montmartre nightlife.
In 1814, during the Franco-Prussian War, thousands of Russian soldiers attacked Montmartre. The Debray family decided to fight off the invaders, which resulted in the death of the father. Local legend says that the patriarch was then cut into pieces and nailed to the wings of the windmill. His son Nicholas Charles, also took a spear to the stomach but lived to change the mills fortunes.
In 1834, Nicolas-Charles subsequently turned the location into a cabaret and outdoor dance hall. The Moulin de la Gallete as it became known (it only took the name officially in 1895) quickly became a hotspot for artists and writers. Sitaued at 3 Rue Girardon, at the corner of Rue Lepic, the Moulin soon became famous for its bal dance parties. One of these parties was depicted by Renoir in his painting the 'Bal du moulin de la Galette'.
The moulin was an inspiration to many other noted artists of the time; Van Gogh, Picasso, Utrillo, Toulouse-Lautrec, Casas and van Dongen among others all painted the famous mill. As the belle époque died down, so did the Moulin, however, its windmill is the last remaining of the hundreds that were once a feature of the Montmartre countryside. read more