La Cave Poésie

A heavy wooden door marked with a small, discreet sign breaks the monotony of the brick wall along the Rue du Taur. This is La Cave Poésie. Once a vaulted cellar for a medieval house, it became the life’s work of René Gouzenne in the nineteen sixties. He transformed the cramped, subterranean space into a sanctuary for poets and musicians to perform inches from their audience. Gouzenne famously kept the programming unpredictable, sometimes inviting performers to take the stage without any prior rehearsal.