Dr. John Wycoff of Lansing, in a change of heart, asked his travel writer patient to prescribe him something.
“Any advice to give myself during my next four days in Paris? » the good doctor questioned me.
“Agile Rabbit,” I immediately responded. “The 'Agile Rabbit'.”
I knew Wycoff and his wife Cindy would find all the attractions in the City of Lights obvious, including the Eiffel Tower; Champs Elysées; Louvre Museum; Arc de Triomphe; Tuileries Gardens and what remains of Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral on the banks of the Seine. So I prescribed an experience that probably isn't on their list: the oldest bar in Paris, Cabaret Au Lapin Agile – a historical and cultural monument since 1860.
During my first stay in Paris, in 1994, I learned that the Lapin Agile was an “academy of French song”.
On the train back into town after an afternoon at Disneyland Paris, my wife Vera and I asked a local passenger to recommend a more authentic Parisian experience. We were asked to sip sherry from small glasses in the quaint little cottage that is Lapin Agile, where we sat amidst its continuing performance, singing the traditional French songs, raising musical tributes to the French singer Edith Piaf, readings of dramatic poetry. , and good-natured humor embellished with paintings of famous murderers.
Historically, dark cabaret was favored by luminaries, anarchists, assassins, artists, thieves and writers including Pablo Picasso and Charlie Chaplin. Faithfully, I returned to it every time I visited Paris, including, 15 years later, when I took our teenage son Harrison to the Lapin Agile, who, in turn, five years later, during his studies abroad, guided his university friends to the cabaret where they were warmly welcomed by the merry band of artists.
Lapin Agile is located in the 18th arrondissement of Montmartre, a panoramic, bohemian and picturesque district of Paris, where it is hidden behind a picturesque palisade at the corner of a sidewalk staircase, both in the blessed shadow of the Basilica of Sacré-Cœur and yet still in the glow of the infamous “Red Light District”.
While the topless cancan dancers on stage at the Brassy Moulin Rouge are iconic in a carnivalesque way, the Little Lapin Agile is intimate in a different way, more like an enchanting secret affair. The shows start delightfully surprisingly at 9 p.m., but I tell patrons, like the Wycoffs, that they can come and go as they please throughout the evening.
“Before arriving at Lapin Agile, Cindy and I randomly stopped for a bite to eat at a fancy gypsy bistro called Rita's,” Wycoff told me, upon his return to Lansing. “While we were sipping our amazing French onion soup, a thin, tall, elderly French man walked in, wearing bright red velvet pants, a white shirt with a frilly collar and a black vest. He walked with a cane and had a slight limp. We greeted him with a friendly “Good morning” as he sat down, then let him enjoy his own soup.
Wycoff said he then saw the frail Frenchman being helped by a waiter when he slipped and almost fell on his way out.
Later, sitting at the cozy tables of Lapin Agile – my goodness! – Wycoff recognized the star singer of the series.
“The baritone was the elderly gentleman from Rita's and turned out to be the current owner of Lapin Agile! He winked at us and we smiled back and toasted him! It was an evening we will not forget.
Ironically, that same week, the aforementioned Vera Ambrose was also following some of my travel tips on her trip to Bellagio, Como di Lago, Italy. An MSU School of Hospitality alumna and chef/owner of Ambrosia Gourmet Catering in West Bloomfield, I knew she would delight in a dining experience at Ristorante Bilacus, where I arranged for her to meet the chef and dynamic and entertaining owner Aurelio “Gancio”. “Gandola. He and his mother Margherita operate the very popular Bilacus and Trattoria San Giacomo on the picturesque Serbelloni Steps in Bellagio, overlooking the lake.
“Bilacus was bustling from the moment we arrived at the midday opening and I loved every moment. The food was amazing and everything was amazing,” she told Gandola when she sent him and me artistic follow-up photos of her beef tartare with burnt oil and mustard mayonnaise as a starter; Sardinian gnocchi with “secondi” lamb ragout; and the fish that followed.
To complete the serendipitous circle, Harrison, my son with Vera who accompanied me to Lapin Agile years after I was there with her, had lunch with me at Bilacus years before his mother. We 'discovered' Bilacus and scored a table, and met Gandola through the expertise of the itinerary designers and guest ambassadors of the renowned IC Bellagio, a bespoke international Italian travel agency, based in Bellagio.
The bottom line is to be careful when giving travel advice: not every experience is right for everyone. And truly curate the travel advice you receive from experts and connected friends who understand this.
Contact Michael Patrick Shiels at MShiels@aol.com His new book: Travel Tattler – Not So Torrid Tales, can be purchased via Amazon.com Listen to his radio show on WJIM AM 1240 in Lansing weekdays from 9 a.m. to noon.
