Bataclan (theatre)

The Bataclan opened in eighteen sixty-five as the Grand Café Chinois, designed by architect Charles Duval in a distinctive chinoiserie style. It originally featured a ground floor café and a large dance hall, topped by a pagoda-style roof that gave the building a striking, exotic silhouette. The name itself is a whimsical choice, derived from a popular operetta by Jacques Offenbach, though it is also a play on a French expression for a collection of odds and ends or kit and caboodle.