Guinguette

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Guinguettes are popular drinking establishments in the suburbs of Paris and other cities in France. They might also serve as restaurants and, often, as dance venues. The origin of the term comes from guinguet, indicating a sour white light local wine. According to dictionaries [1][dead link] Guinguette means:

  • Dictionnaire de la langue français (1750): "Small cabaret in the suburbs and the surrounds of Paris, where craftsmen drink in the summer and on Sundays and on Festival days. This term is new. It comes apparently from what are sold in these cabarets: a malicious light local verd (green?) wine , that is called ginguet, such as found around Paris."
  • Le Larousse du XXe siècle (1930): n.f. (unknown origin). Cabaret of the suburbs, where people drink, eat and dance on feast days."

Contents

[edit] History

During the 18th century, a consumer revolution led to once isolated villages and hamlets outside Paris being swept up in a booming material culuture. Commodities, and particularly alcohol, comsumed outside the customs barrier of the city were considerably cheaper, being exempt from state taxes. This encouraged the growth of an entertainment industry just beyond the taxman's reach and a network of drinking establishments was established. They were especially popular on Sundays and holidays, when Parisians would visit to enjoy themselves and to get drunk cheaply[2]. Today, the term 'guingette' is still used for a waterside refreshment place, particularly open-air, all over France.

[edit] Geography

The majority are on the edges of the Seine and the Marne, and some are in a district that stretches to the outskirts of Rouen. Some guinguettes were however far from the rivers, as the picturesque guinguettes of le Plessis-Robinson built among the chestnut trees. There were hundreds of guinguettes as far as Nogent-sur-Seine, where the nature of the Seine valley changes most.

[edit] Death of a tradition

Today guinguettes are an object of nostalgia for those who lived in the period. The guinguettes were marvellous places to return to lighter times during the mad years of the 1920s. They were obviously an eminent subject for painting during the first half of the 20th century. Then, everybody turned to television and forgot guinguettes, as the French scriptwriter Michel Audiard had one of his characters point out.

[edit] See also

  • Goguette (much the same thing)

[edit] Note

  1. ^ From Histoire et patrimoine des guinguettes et des bords de Marne
  2. ^ Colin Jones Paris - Biography of a City, p226, Allen Lane 2004, ISBN0-713-99321-9
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