Inside Nonsense, the Secret Bar Transforming Montmartre’s Nights

Tucked beneath the Hôtel La Bohème Montmartre on the storied Place du Tertre, Nonsense emerges as Paris’s newest intimate bar and stage hybrid, a clandestine boudoir where cocktails, performance, and fantasy intertwine. Conceived by nightlife visionaries Paul Clergerie and David Dray, the historic basement space has been reborn as a contemporary cabaret that channels the smoky allure of 1920s jazz dens with a distinctly modern edge.

Behind its cabaret façade, Nonsense unfolds in layers of deep velvet, aged gilding, and rococo flourishes, a dreamscape that feels at once retro futuristic and timeless. Open from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m. on Wednesdays and Sundays, and until 4 a.m. from Thursday through Saturday, the venue positions itself as a refuge for night owls, music lovers, artists, and cocktail devotees who are drawn by its promise of immersive nocturnal exploration.

On its compact stage, rising talents from across the globe cycle through a kaleidoscope of genres. Rock, jazz, soul, funk, and hints of house music collide in a program that plays freely with eras, from the fevered pulse of the 1920s to the electric momentum of 2025. Nonsense treats its stage as an artistic laboratory, a launchpad for emerging musicians and a portal for guests eager to discover the unexpected. Each evening becomes a journey, drifting from New Orleans brass to Berlin club culture, from Harlem crooners to Parisian sound alchemists.

But the show hardly stops at the footlights. At the bar, mixologists perform with theatrical flair, doubling as actors who transform every order into a moment of play. Service is choreographed like a living script, glances exchanged and gestures amplified, drinks narrated as stories. At Nonsense, hospitality becomes a form of performance art.

The venue’s secrecy only heightens its charm. Hidden below the hotel’s bustling brasserie and elegant guestrooms, the basement space is accessed as if by initiation. Actors, dancers, and singers roam Montmartre’s streets offering Golden Tickets, the coveted token that unlocks entry. Within, travelers and locals mingle in a sanctuary that captures Montmartre’s spirit, confidential, artistic, and unabashedly alive.

Though not a restaurant, Nonsense offers a culinary counterpart to its creative universe. Chef Julien Sebbag brings an instinctive and contemporary sensibility to a menu designed to accompany the rhythm of the night. His dishes, vivid, expressive, and quietly elegant, serve as an extension of the venue’s modern bohemia, enhancing the experience without ever pulling focus from the performance.

Nonsense also marks a continuation of Paul Clergerie’s decade long exploration of nightlife as cultural expression. His path through event production, most notably the Who’s Next fashion trade show parties, evolved into roles within the Perchoir universe, where he helmed the barge La Passerelle. His entrepreneurial instincts later led to Jean Louis La Nuit, a club concept merging fashion, design, and revelry, followed by the festive restaurant Chez Lulu and Jean Louis le Saloon in the Drôme, a wildly atmospheric project inspired by cowboy lore.

With Nonsense, Clergerie and Dray craft a venue that feels simultaneously secretive and spectacular, a hidden and intoxicating world where cocktails, cuisine, and live performance blur into a singular and sensorial feast. In true Montmartre fashion, the night here is not merely observed. It is lived.