As I arched my back, raised my chin and stuck out my behind, it occurred to me that I had never given so much attention to how I stand. I was being trained to mimic a cabaret dancer’s posture as part of an attitude and dance class at the Crazy Horse Paris. Once I had mastered the stance, it was time to strut my stuff.
My initial self-consciousness quickly faded. By the end of the session (€90pp/£77), after learning how to spin on a pole, all awkwardness had melted into camaraderie and fits of laughter.
Cabaret is a Parisian institution that dates to the 1880s and draws visitors from around the world to be entertained and titillated. The Parisian scene is undergoing something of a resurgence, partly thanks to the reality TV show Drag Race France increasing interest among younger audiences, and Jean Paul Gaultier incorporating it into its fashion shows. In 2025, the French government launched an initiative to support cabaret artists and venues.
The best-known venue is the Moulin Rouge – inspiring Baz Luhrman’s film and West End show. It lures more than 600,000 visitors annually and, among them, they consume around 240,000 bottles of champagne. The club is in the Right Bank Pigalle neighbourhood, just 20 minutes by public transport from the Eurostar terminal at Gare du Nord, making it the perfect first stop on my no-fly, Parisian cabaret-hopping tour that would also take in the Crazy Horse, La Nouvelle Seine and Madame Arthur.
The French Cancan is a classic at the Moulin Rouge (Photo: Sandie Bertrand/Moulin Rouge)Opening in 1889 as a light entertainment venue, Moulin Rouge morphed into its current form, featuring elaborate costumes, dancers in lingerie-like costumes and its signature can-can, in 1951. On a backstage tour of the red-windmill fronted venue, I learnt it has a feather workshop, cobbler and atelier for the production’s 1,000 costumes and 800 pairs of shoes. These spaces are quite the contrast to the grand Belle Époque-inspired interiors seen by the public.
I was surprised to learn that most of the venue’s 90 dancers are not French – the largest group of the 18 nationalities represented are Australian. Auditions are held globally, with thousands vying for one or two spots. All performers need professional ballet training – and most are ballerinas who have struggled to progress due to being too tall. The female performers need to be at least 175cm (over 5ft 7in) and men must be at least 185cm (more than 6ft).
Moulin Rouge is the most recognisable cabaret venue with its windmill-fronted exterior (Photo: Getty)What makes the Moulin Rouge so impressive is its scale. However, its high production values arguably take away from how skilled the individual performers are – they get lost within the group of dancers and elaborate costumes. There have been 10 different productions since 1951 and the most recent resident production – “Feerie” – has run since 1999. Some of the staging choices highlight its age, including a quite dated Middle East inspired segment.
During the backstage tour, I learnt how the can-can began as an act of feminist defiance during revolutions in France in the 1800s; two moves are meant to poke fun at the army and the church, while skirt waving is a subversion of modesty culture that was pervasive in 19th century France. But in the performance, this historic detail jarred with the scenes of topless women dancing around fully clothed men.
The Moulin Rouge has up to 850 audience members at its two shows per evening. Performances are held 365 days a year (including Christmas Day) at 98 per cent occupancy, so its commercial success is clear.
Sophie enjoyed a backstage tour at Crazy Horse ParisI did question if my main objection was the nudity. However, my visit to Crazy Horse – another high-production value cabaret, and the only one with some fully nude performers – changed my mind. Having been primed with a backstage tour and dance class, my attention was solely on how impressive the individual dancers were. In once section, a performer dances on a spinning hoop and turns upside down.
It was the visual wonder of the staging and dance, rather than the nudity, that stuck with me. These artistic choices are part of a deliberate strategy by the venue to reach female and younger audiences – as older iterations of cabaret, and indeed Crazy Horse, were created for the male gaze.
This strategy also includes collaborations – most recently a residency by Colombian popstar Karol G following successful stints from Dita Von Teese, Blackpink’s Lisa, and US Drag Race series seven winner Violet Chachki. Meanwhile, off-stage, Crazy Horse has been featured in Gen Z Netflix smash-hit Emily in Paris and is where Beyoncé filmed the “Partition” music video in 2013.
The venue’s fresh approach seems to have worked. When I visited, the audience skewed younger and more female than the Moulin Rouge’s.
Both the Moulin Rouge and Crazy Horse felt marketed towards tourists with their large commercial merchandise stands and an MC who spoke in English. More than half of their audiences come from abroad – but I wanted to experience cabaret like today’s Parisians.
A floating restaurant next to the Notre Dame may seem like an odd suggestion for a locals’ cabaret favourite, but La Nouvelle Seine fits that bill. On the top deck is a restaurant hosting residencies from female chefs; its French-fusion menu featuring fish tartare served with strawberries and risotto with labneh was among the more creative meals I’ve had in Paris.
Sophie at La Nouvelle Seine, which offered a different take on cabaretBut it is on the bottom deck where the cabaret magic happens. Every Friday and Saturday, it is home to a burlesque show. Each of the four performers expressed a different style and sense of humour. One was dressed as a 1950s pin-up, for example, while another was styled as a sci-fi gamer girl. I was among one of two non-French groups in attendance. Many audience members were in their twenties and thirties.
Another side of cabaret that tourists often miss is the drag and queer scene. Predating the current iteration of the Moulin Rouge by five years – and just around the corner in the Pigalle – Madame Arthur was Paris’s first drag cabaret venue, established in 1949.
The main show featured themed musical performances and crowd interactions from four drag acts – all in French. While my GCSE in French helped a little, I enjoyed the spectacle regardless. It remains underdiscovered among tourists, with nearly two-thirds of the annual audience being Parisian (it is also open until 6am as a nightclub, with jazz and cabaret rooms).
The audience is filled with locals at Madame Arthur (Photo: Roxane Montaron/Madame Arthur)It was the least traditional cabaret show that had the most Parisians in attendance.
Lou Diprey, in the 10th Arrondisement, is one of the newest cabaret venues in the city, having opened in December last year. At the weekend, it hosts daytime drag brunches. I saw a performance by Misty Phoenix, one of the finalists on series three of Drag Race France. As a fan of the Drag Race TV franchise, this got me thinking about how cabaret has been exported from Paris to the world and now updated for a modern audience. The spectacular costumes and impressive lip-sync battle, which are some of my favourite parts of the global Drag Race franchise, can trace their lineage back to underground European cabaret.
After seeing five shows in three days, I experienced the full spectrum of Parisian cabaret – and understood why it is so beloved by locals. As La Biche, who has been a resident performer at Madame Arthur for five years, told me: “We draw from popular culture to offer a joyful, dance‑filled evening, but also, of course, messages of acceptance and love.”
In a world where travel is so often influenced by, and shared on, social media, it was refreshing to find that phones were banned in most venues.
La Biche said: “Cabaret is the art of being fully in the present moment. You put your phone down, you forget your day, and you spend an evening in symbiosis with the audience — laughing, crying together, dreaming of a better future.”
How to get there
The writer was a guest of Paris Je T’Aime, the Paris tourist office. Rail travel was provided by Eurostar. One-way Eurostar standard class tickets to Paris from £39, Business Premiere from £245.
Where to stay
A room-only stay at La Jolie Mome Batignolles starts from £106 per night.
More information
parisjetaime.com/eng/eurostar.com/uk-en
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