Réjane promoting Absinthe Terminus.

The « Green Hour » in the hotel lobby

A Stroll Through Time ...

As you leave the hotel, head toward the Place Blanche, have a look at the Moulin Rouge where Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec sketched la Goulue, Valentin le Desossé and all the colourful characters that frequented the famous music hall. Toulouse-Lautrec drank small quantities, but very often, and was never seen without his cane and its incorporated flask and glass. Since he loved absinthe as much as cognac, he concocted for his friends, singers Yvette Guilbert and Aristide Bruant, a powerful mixture of his two favourite drinks which he dubbed “the earthquake”!

In 1896, Toulouse-Lautrec lived in a room just down the street from the Hotel Royal Fromentin at number 30 rue de la Fontaine. Previously, between 1887 and 1893, he had lived at number 19 with his childhood friend, Doctor Henri Bourges

Monsieur Boileau au café, 1893

If you continue down rue Henner, have a thought for Guillaume Apollinaire who lived on the second floor at number 9 from 1901 to 1907. Although he had nothing against absinthe, he did not mention it in his anthology “Alcools” in 1913. Further along, you will arrive at the Square La Bruyère where George Sand lived in 1841 in two cottages surrounded by a big garden; she sublet one of the cottages to Frederick Chopin to facilitate their passionate liaison.

Delacroix came to the Square La Bruyère to give painting lessons to her son Maurice for eight years. Delacroix would be the only member of a jury to vote in favour of Manet's Absinthe Drinker which was refused at the Salon of 1859.