Paris - Moulin de la Galette - 18e

Plate XC – Moulin de la Galette …

You may have gathered from earlier posts that I have a reasonable familiarity with French art, and especially the Impressionists. I had therefore at least heard of the Moulin de la Galette through Renoir’s popular painting of a crowd of diners and revellers at the site (Bal au Moulin de la Galette). Other familiar works set here are by Toulouse-Lautrec and van Gogh. What I did not know however was that the moulin is still here, and although no longer operating, its sails attract the passer by to come and take a closer look. The Moulin as pictured is actually two mills in one, with the lower storey known as ‘Blute-Fin’ originally built in 1622, and the upper wind sail mill belonging to the later 1717 addition named ‘Radet’. A classified Paris monument since 1939, the building has an interesting history.

Regularly maintained since the seventeenth century the mill was acquired by the Debray brothers in 1809 and used for flour grinding, some of that flour being used to produce the traditional rye bread biscuits known as galettes. Attacked by Russian Cossacks during the invasion of 1814, one of the brothers was captured, killed and then nailed to the wings of the mill’s sails. The dancing room and ‘ginguette’ were late nineteenth century additions. Now a private property the mill came close to demolition in 1915, but was saved by a group of preservationists known as the Friends of Old Montmartre. Moved to its present site in 1924 the most recent restoration was in 1978. Compared to the better known Moulin Rouge, I found this mill far less a commercial attraction and more…. well, more of a mill.