The Bal Mabille features a garden illuminated by thousands of gas lamps, casting a permanent golden glow over the dancers. Jean-Baptiste Mabille opened these pleasure grounds in eighteen thirty-one, originally as a simple place for his students to practice the polka. Soon, the rhythmic clatter of feet on the polished wooden floor became the soundtrack of the district. Dancers performed the provocative can-can here under the trees, drawing crowds who gathered to watch the nightly chaos until the garden closed in eighteen seventy-five.
Bal Mabille
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