Vincent van Goch lived in Paris for two years (1886 to 1888), before tiring of the city and relocating to Arles in the south of France. But, during his time there, his work changed significantly as he met and was influenced by impressionist painters, such as Bernard and Toulouse-Lautrec. 

He’d started to use lighter, more vibrant colours and was developing the style for which he’s better known today, later pursued and developed further during his time in Arles and St Remy de Provence. He completed the painting above, Café Terrace Montmartre, in 1886. It’s of a guinguette.

At the time there were hundreds of guinguettes around the outskirts of Paris, often located along the banks of rivers and canals, beyond the city’s customs area. There, life was considerably cheaper, which led to a thriving scene of open-air dance halls and taverns, far from the confines of the dirty, stifling city and, crucially, the reaches of the tax man.

Young, working-class Parisians were drawn to the low-priced alcohol, food, fresh air and dancing to musette, a particular style of accordion playing. Renoir famously painted one of his favourite guinguettes in “Le Dejeuner des Canotiers” (Luncheon of the Boating Party).

The guinguettes thrived for around a hundred years and, although they’d almost disappeared by World War II, they never became extinct and there’s been a resurgence of interest in recent years. Modern guinguettes have emerged, recreating the nostalgic ambiance of the past, with an added contemporary twist.

On my last day in France I went to one in Baule on the north bank of the Loire, La Corne des Pâtures (The Horn of the Pastures), and it was great. 

The picture below is of the entrance and the guinguette’s welcome sign, which Google Translates roughly, and probably inaccurately, as:

“You enter a summer bubble, an associative, cultural and artistic space, concerned about the environment and autonomous in energy, where the short circuit (?) and the consumption of quality products are privileged. La Corne des Pâtures is a place of sharing where good spirit, solidarity and living together reign. The team, made up of employees, volunteers and volunteers in civic service, is at your service with great pleasure and its best smile to spend a pleasant summer in the shade of the poplars.”

Running for four months of the summer, from June to September, La Corne des Pâtures is funded by a mix of regional and EU money and is a truly wonderful thing. 

We went on a Sunday afternoon, a relatively quiet time but, throughout its four months, a wide range of entertainment and activities are on offer for all ages and tastes. There are days when there’s a local producers market, live bands in the evenings, games, competitions, tournaments, street art shows, puppeteers, events and activities for children, outdoor cinema screenings and more.

It has the feel of a circus, its organisers living in a gathering of gayly painted caravans beside the venue, where two ancient, converted buses form a sort of hub, from where drinks and food are served.

In the shade of trees strung with lights in old tin cans, with the big, wide Loire rolling gently by to one side, groups of people, some local and some, like me, from elsewhere, including different nationalities, young and old, sat chatting and drinking around ramshackle old tables on painted chairs.

The power that kept the beer cold and the lights on came from a huge bank of solar panels on top of the buses, which provided all the power used on site. Everything was recycled, all organic waste was composted and there were compost toilets. 

It was a great way to end my time in France and made me think how wonderful it would be to set up something similar along the banks of the river Exe where I live. But then I thought of the unavailability of EU funding and of how our local council, like most back home, has seen a 40% cut in its funding in recent years. Perhaps I’ll look into it when home.

I’m heading for home Monday, so that’s the end of this little trip, shorter than some – a blogette?

À bientôt!

I took a few photos.