Amazement on the Montmartre hill in the north of Paris, where the wings of the famous Moulin Rouge cabaret are on the ground this Thursday, April 25 in the morning. The reason for the fall, which caused no casualties, is still unknown. The letters M, O and U of the name of the place, located on the facade, have also fallen. The management excludes all malicious act “.
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The wings of the dean of Parisian cabarets, known throughout the world and immortalized in particular by the eponymous film by Baz Luhrmann and by the posters of the painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec at the end of the 19th century, fell during the night from Wednesday to Thursday , firefighters told Agence France-Presse (AFP). No injuries were reported, Paris firefighters said, adding that there was no longer any risk of collapse. The reasons for this fall are currently unknown.
The Paris police chief, Laurent Nuñez, for his part indicated on TF1 that “ security architects from the police headquarters » went to the site, without further details immediately.
Barriers were put in place around the entrance to the establishment but the street was not blocked and a dump truck removed the blades, noted an AFP journalist. The clearing operation ended around 8:35 a.m.
“ This is the first time that an accident of this type has occurred since its creation on the 6th october 1889 », Specified to AFP the Moulin Rouge, which does not have “ no information » on the cause of this accident.
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Temple of Cancan
“ This happened after closing at 1:15am, luckily “, specified the same source, indicating that, “ every week, the technical management of the cabaret checks the mechanism of the wings of the mill and has not noted any problem “.
The only serious accident that occurred in the world temple of cancan was a fire due to work in 1915, according to the cabaret, which had to close for nine years.
The famous establishment, which will celebrate its 135th anniversary on October 6, is located at the foot of the Montmartre hill and in the heart of the Pigalle district. Synonymous with the crazy Parisian nights with the Lido and its cancan dancers, it attracts thousands of visitors from all over the world every day who take photos in front of its facade with its animated wings.
Its “trademark”, the French cancan, made this institution famous with its revues of dancers in petticoats and froufrou, in the footsteps of La Goulue, la Môme Fromage, Nini Pattes en l’air and Mistinguett.
The Moulin Rouge welcomes 600,000 spectators per year, with two performances each evening, 365 days per year, and employs some 450 employees.