Stroll in Boris Vian's Parisian footsteps, jazz clubs, cabarets and mythical apartment

Author, musician, poet, inventor... Boris Vian made Paris a living space for music, parties, encounters and experimentation. He explored its underground clubs, unlikely apartments and mythical cellars.

Following in his footsteps, from the Tabou to the Club Saint-Germain, from the Caveau des Lorientais to the Cité Véron, rediscover a vibrant, creative Paris, from the Right Bank to the Left.

Who was Boris Vian?

Engineer, poet, musician and novelist, Boris Vian was a brilliant jack-of-all-trades in post-war Paris. He frequented Saint-Germain-des-Prés, where he rubbed shoulders with Sartre, Juliette Gréco and Miles Davis, embodying a free, ironic and profound spirit. His short but intense life made him a literary and musical myth, still alive today.

• To be read
• A walk in Balzac's footsteps in Paris, from the rue Visconti printing works to the secrets of Passy
• Walking in Emile Zola's footsteps in Paris, from the Latin Quarter to the shadow of the Pantheon
• Stroll in Hemingway's footsteps in Paris, in the legendary cafés of the Lost Generation

Places to discover in the footsteps of Boris Vian in Paris

Les Deux Magots and Café de Flore (6ᵉ arr.). In the Saint-Germain-des-Prés district, Boris Vian was a regular at these two cultural cafés, veritable institutions where he exchanged, sometimes declaimed, and mingled with existentialist thinkers, musicians and poets. The neighborhood quickly became the Parisian epicenter of the post-war literary and musical generation.

Le Tabou (6ᵉ arr.). Shortly after the Second World War, this jazz cellar at 33 rue Dauphine became Boris Vian's central Parisian hangout. Here he practiced what he called "trompinette" in a cellar with a crazy atmosphere where zazous, intellectuals and enthusiasts gathered late into the night. Le Tabou closed its doors in 1962, as did the Caveau des Lorientais (5 rue des Carmes), another jazz club, and the Club Saint-Germain (13 rue Saint-Benoit), which was home to some of the biggest names in American and French jazz. The cabaret-theater La Rose Rouge (76 rue de Rennes, in the basement of today's L'Arlequin cinema) is also mentioned among its now-defunct nightlife landmarks.

La Cité Véron (18ᵉ arr.). From 1953 until his death in 1959, Boris Vian lived at 6 bis cité Véron, a cul-de-sac behind the Moulin Rouge. This discreet dwelling, in a former cabaret dressing room, becomes a poetic space with small salons, singular objects and an abundant library. Vian shared this landing with Jacques Prévert, and the two installed a terrace known as the "Trois Satrapes", a place for conviviality and reading. An amusing feature of the apartment: faced with the narrowness of the premises, Boris Vian had a hole drilled in the wall to accommodate the bathtub, leaving it straddling the bathroom and bedroom!

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