Café-charbon
Cafés-charbons were establishments in Paris that combined the sale of wine and other beverages with the retail and delivery of coal. They were closely associated with Auvergnat migrants, known as bougnats, and the establishments themselves came to be called bougnats by metonymy.[1]
History
[edit]The cafés-charbons were part of the Auvergnat presence in Paris, particularly in working-class districts. During the interwar period, Auvergnat migrants were active as merchants of wood and coal and as café proprietors.[2]
The business was often family-run: one spouse delivered coal while the other served customers at the bar. Marc Tardieu's Le Bougnat (2000), based on the author's grandparents' café-charbon in Ménilmontant, documents this way of life and its disappearance with the spread of collective heating and fuel oil after the Second World War.[3]
Cafés-charbons were particularly associated with the 11th arrondissement of Paris, especially Rue de Lappe. As the coal trade declined, many Auvergnat proprietors diversified into cafés, restaurants and other hospitality businesses.[4]
Etymology
[edit]The CNRTL derives the word bougnat from charbougna, a popular Parisian term for a coal merchant, modified by analogy with Auvergnat. The term is attested from 1889 and it refers to both the coal merchant and the proprietor of a café, and by metonymy to the café itself.[1]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- 1 2 "Bougnat". Centre national de ressources textuelles et lexicales (in French). Retrieved August 9, 2026.
- ↑ "Les gens de Paris: Dossier pédagogique" (PDF) (in French). Musée Carnavalet. Retrieved August 9, 2026.
- ↑ Tardieu, Marc (2000). Le Bougnat. Éditions du Rocher. ISBN 9782268034843.
- ↑ "Les Auvergnats de Paris" (in French). Éditions du Rocher. 2001. Retrieved August 9, 2026.
