“Earlier that morning Zoé had made the apartment over to a caterer from Brébant’s and his staff of helpers and waiters. Brébant’s would provide the food, the crockery, the glasses, the tablecloth and napkins, the flowers, and everything down to the chairs and footstools.” In between preparing her mistress Nana’s toilette, Zoé knew where to go to get set up for a party. Nana is Émile Zola’s ninth novel in his journalistic 20 volume Les Rougon-Macquart series. It captures the loucheness of society during the reign of Napoléon III. Café Le Brébant had been open 15 years when Nana was published in 1880. The Second French Empire has never truly ended on Boulevard Poissonnière. This is still Paris, the Paris of letters, of pleasure, of romance. Wicker and tassled lightshades hanging midair sway in the gentle summer breeze cooling the terrace of Café Le Brébant. Pacha the resident Maine Coon cat plays and poses and preens herself, blissfully unaware of her role in the street theatre of life. Très Grand Guignol.
