Taking advantage of the charms of the banks of the Seine, the Le Moulin Rose nightclub located in Belbeuf opened its doors in 1927, making it the oldest in France. Located in the hamlet of Saint-Adrien, it has attracted all generations to dance from musette waltz to tango, from rock & roll to disco. Open every weekend, even on Sunday, Le Moulin Rose has only closed its doors twice in its entire history, during the Second World War and during the confinements imposed during the health crisis. Since February 25, 2024, the doors have been closed again for a major facelift after a change of ownership.
“It’s a disappearing era”
For 97 years, the establishment had only four different owners and hosted major fashionable stars including Benny Bennett's orchestra, jazzman Louis Armstrong in 1955, French cycling legend Jacques Anquetil, crooner Frank Alamo, the Crazy Horse dancers, the Republican Guard, the Boney M group, and more recently M.Pokora, Kendji Girac, Soprano and Maitre Gims.
It also served as a filming location for the film “Casque d'Or” by Jacques Becker with Simone Signoret and Serge Reggiani in 1952. Anchored in the local landscape, for the last owner Nicolas Lamotte, “it is an era that is disappearing. The Moulin Rose was a symbol to which I am very attached. I worked in this unique place for 25 years, including ten years with my father where we followed the tradition of the popular ball era. But you have to know when to stop. It’s an art of living that I’ve been through and I need to focus on my other activities. We specialize in events, layout and decoration of venues. We are partners of the Perche elite tour and the Open Capfinances. Now, our big project is the construction of our flagship at the Parc des oliviers in Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray. 4,000 m2 of warehouses and offices to accommodate our head office, workshops for creating sets and a high-tech showroom.”
The Sunday dance is over!
However, the legend does not end there. The work is in full swing: “The Moulin Rose has been there for 97 years and it will remain there despite what people say. We are going to give it a facelift and bring it up to standard. When completed, it will be made up of three distinct, but combined, spaces. L'Estival, a 280 m2 semi-gastro restaurant with a grill section open 7 days a week. Le Kasablanca in reference to an establishment that I have in Portugal made up of a cocktail bar, a beach and two pontoons currently being renovated. Customers will be able to come by boat from Rouen in fifteen minutes via the Seine. All on an area of 500 m2. And, the 900 m2 discotheque, open Thursday, Friday, Saturday evening and one Sunday per month for traders in a Pop, RnB and recent music atmosphere. Yes, we are stopping the Sunday afternoon ball, because there were no longer enough people for it to be profitable,” explains the owner who invested 2 million euros plus 400,000 euros in work and wishes to remain discreet .
In the meantime, it is the directors Abidar Belaïd with 22 years of experience in the nightlife world and Abou Sow, specialist in Martial Arts and former head of security for a large nightclub who will manage "the twenty or so jobs that we are creating including the transformation of former fixed-term contracts into permanent contracts and the dozen security agents. Opening planned for the end of April. »