Residence · 1888
Erik Satie's lodgings, rue Condorcet
Address · 50, rue Condorcet, 75009 Paris
Metro · Anvers (2) / Poissonnière (7)
Today · Private, seen from the street. Residential building, seen from the street.
The story
Rue Condorcet links rue de Maubeuge to rue des Martyrs, south of Montmartre, in a neighborhood of modest housing and workshops. At the end of the 1880s many penniless artists settled here, halfway between the cabarets of Pigalle and the shops of the Chaussée-d'Antin. Erik Satie, who had arrived from Honfleur and fallen out with his father, was then trying to make a living from his music. The young musician was in his early twenties and lived on odd jobs as a pianist.
In the plate section of his book, Churton publishes a photograph of 50, rue Condorcet, described as Satie's first decent lodging, occupied around 1888 until his finances collapsed. This was when he composed the Gymnopédies and the Sarabandes, played at the Chat Noir and became friends with Debussy at Bailly's. The book gives no further details about this stay. The photograph shows the facade of an apartment building typical of the neighborhood.
For lack of money, Satie then moved up to the top of the Butte, on rue Cortot. The building on rue Condorcet is now a private residence, with no known plaque. It can serve as a stop between Pigalle and avenue Trudaine for following the composer's early years in Paris. It shows how the stages of Satie's life followed one another only a few hundred meters apart, from rue Condorcet to the Chat Noir and then rue Cortot. From here the walker can reach avenue Trudaine in two minutes.
To be checked · Address known only from the caption of a plate in the book; exact dates not verified. Coordinates estimated.