Chez Loulou

The history of Chez Loulou is rich and is part of the history of the Beaubourg district, which did not wait for the Museum which takes place there today to become a district of arts and letters.

The Beaubourg Plateau

Located between the old Halles de Paris and the Marais district, the Beaubourg district is named “Beau Bourg” (Beautifull Town) out of derision as it was poor and ill-famed while the parish of the Church of Saint-Merri in the center of the district was extremely rich.
In this Beaubourg district, many trades and corporations have settled which work there during the day: needle workers, fasteners, butchers, saddlers, confectioners, slide makers, cutlers, curlers, town criers, glassmakers, but also usurers and money changers. At night, the district turns into a center of all entertainment with its theaters, cabarets and prostitutes. It is a district of small buildings and narrow streets where a predominantly working-class and poor population is gathered, with enclaves close to the slum-city. But also some very rich residences of patrons and artists.

Because from the 16th century, the district acquired a literary and artistic high reputation. It was the district of writers and poets. Boccace, Gérard de Nerval or even Robert Desnos was born in Beaubourg. Victor Hugo places part of his novel Notre-Dame de Paris and Les Misérables there. Restif de la Bretonne tells the story of the Nights of Paris in this district. Honoré de Balzac installed César Birotteau there. Gérard de Nerval meets Aurélia there. Robert Desnos and Guillaume Apollinaire tell it in verse. André Breton takes him as a witness in Lamour Fou and in Arcane XVII. The Beaubourg plateau is the object of all fantasies and the possible place for all excess. Rich and poor alike come to entertain there. Culture and luxury mingle and inspire each other.

In 1832, an epidemic of Cholera struck Paris, and killed 18,000 Parisians, out of the 800,000 inhabitants of the capital at the time. Particularly affected are the poor neighborhoods such as the Beaubourg plateau, considered at the time as the city’s No. 1 insalubrious islet, among the 9 designated islets in the capital. A second epidemic of Cholera in 1849, and an epidemic of Tuberculosis lasting several years at the end of the 19th century (killing more than 80,000 Parisians per year) completed the identification of neighborhoods, such as that of Beaubourg, as the source of all ills. Baron Haussmann, who will change the face of Paris streets, will have as main target of the demolition, neighborhoods with narrow streets which are the melting pot of all germs. The buildings of these islets are called “murderous houses”, and their inhabitants designated as those responsible for the spread of epidemics.

At the time, it was believed that the bacilli responsible for these epidemics proliferated in the shade and did not survive in the sun. We must therefore bring light into these neighborhoods to overcome epidemics. From 1909, the district will begin to see its buildings destroyed in favor of new, wider avenues and places to bring air into the district and light into the streets. The current Stravinsky fountain, next to the Pompidou Museum, was then a block of buildings dedicated to prostitution, the windows of which were lit with small lanterns at night, intended for customers. If you want to get an idea of ​​what all the streets in the neighborhood looked like, there is one left, rue de Venise, the narrowness of which will give you an idea of ​​what an entire neighborhood could look like made of these streets where you can’t cross paths with someone without touching it. It was a paradise for touting and purse stealing.

In 1930, the entire area, today occupied by the Pompidou Museum, was destined for destruction, in favor of a project to expand the nearby Grandes Halles, which had been cramped for a long time. Others are in favor of making it an upscale residential area, with tall buildings and gardens. Others still want to apply the plan proposed by the young architect Le Corbusier and the buisinessman Voisin at the Salon des Arts Décoratifs in 1925, which proposes to completely destroy the Marais, the Sentier, the Beaubourg plateau, the Halles, the Bourse du Commerce and the entire 3rd district, up to Place de la République, to build a series of 24 skyscrapers for 500,000 inhabitants, surrounded by gardens.

None of the projects was chosen, but the inhabitants of the Beaubourg plateau were nonetheless expropriated in 1932 and the demolition of the buildings began. In 1937, the plateau was empty land. All construction projects came to a standstill due to lack of money following the 1929 crisis and the cost of expropriations. There was indeed a stadium project in 1937, on the site of the Stravinsky fountain, a few bleachers were installed, but hardly more, and the stadium was never built, making the place a giant playground for the children of the district. In 1939, the Second World War started, and the priority was definitely no longer to develop this district.

But the ongoing demolitions have breathed new life into the neighborhood. The Beaubourg plateau, now empty, is used as a parking lot for Les Halles traders, and rue Rambuteau becomes a very popular place of passage. It is a creamery which invests the 63 rue Rambuteau, Art Deco is fashion at this time for architecture, so they orders a decoration in golden mosaic, whose ceiling today attests to the beauty of the time. This sublime vestige of Paris from the 1930s, which can still be admired today, will be listed and protected as a Historical Heritage in the 1980s.

In 1957, the automobile invaded the capital and the Beaubourg plateau was paved to become a huge car park, which it would remain for 15 years.

In 1971, Les Halles de Paris was demolished to create a mall and a large suburb train station, and huge Market of Rungis was created in the suburbs to replace this large Paris market of les Halles which could no longer grow. On the other side of rue Rambuteau, in 1972, the parking lot on the Beaubourg plateau was destroyed and dug out to build the foundations of the future Pompidou Museum, completed in 1977. At the same time, the entire block next to the Museum was destroyed. to build the district of L’Horloge, inaugurated in 1979. And in 1983, the Stravinsky fountain or Fontaine of the Automats, created by Jean Tinguely and Niki de Saint Phalle in homage to Stravinsky’s musical work was installed.

The district then becomes the beating heart of Paris, between the tourists who sweep over the museum, and the suburbs which converge by the suburb trains at Les Halles, the Rambuteau street sees its shops change to restaurants and bars. This is how 63 rue Rambuteau becomes a restaurant, which will pass between several owners. In recent years, the address will be known for almost 15 years as Chouchou, a restaurant serving French and oriental cuisine. Well known for its couscous and as an address where you can dine even very late, and often with live music. The owner at the time is Shahir Felifel, one of the Felifel brothers. For several years now, the Felifels made a name in the catering industry in central Paris. In 2019, the Chouchou restaurant moved to Boulevard Sébastopol and it was Franck called Loulou, the eldest of the brothers, who took over the restaurant in rue Rambuteau from his brother and called it “Chez Loulou”.

Chez Loulou – art and jazz

Since he came in this place, Loulou is fascinated by the beauty of the mosaic on the ceiling and wants to give it back visibility and reconnect with the past of the place.

He brings a French Chef into the adventure, to raise the gastronomic standards of the place, and reinvent the menu.

And for the image and the decorations, he called on Jérôme Liniger, Swiss designer, living in the district of Les Halles for 25 years, director of the Si agency .
He imerge himself into the past and artistic present of the neighborhood, playing on a retro design from the 1930s, and taking charge of the artistic direction of the place, redecorating the entire restaurant with a collection of works emblematic of modern art, ready-made, dadaism, even of the factory and from living contemporary artists : respond from one wall to another, Magritte, Wharoll, Klein, Duchamps, Man Ray, around large canvases inspired by the work of Robert Delaunay which had already occupied the walls of the restaurant for years. Tristan Tzara deploys his Dada manifesto, from wall to wall. Concerts and arts events will once again rock the walls. The poets long since driven from the Beaubourg plateau will be welcome back, to give voice, and verse.

A very close to the Pompidou Museum, a new place is emerging, an art bistro, and heir to the cabarets where artists, children of the plateau, met, created and feasted.