Nadine Santereau (ARTISTES LYRIQUES)
54 Rue Pelleport, 75020 Paris, France

Operatic soprano Nadine Santereau was known for her musicality and striking performances of authentic personality. In 1956 she appeared at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence in Platée, the opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau with a libretto by Jacques Autreau and Adrien-Joseph Le Valois d’Orville. It was a triumphant return for the opera on the French stage, after a 40 year hiatus. In 1957 she performed alongside the National Orchestra and the Choirs of the Monte-Carlo Opera in Léo Ferré’s oratorio based on the poems of Guillaume Apollinaire. In the 1960s she played the role of Eurydice in Christoph Willibald von Gluck’s opera Orphée at the Opéra-Comique in Paris.

Jean-Francois Catoire (Contrebasse)
23 Rue de la Py, 75020 Paris, France

Bassist Jean-Francois Catoire was an accomplished performer who was at home playing with his Parisian neighbours and equally with the greats of the international Jazz world. In Paris he recorded an EP with the singer-songwriter Kara, who lived not too far away at 29 Boulevard d’Algérie (19th arrondissement), but he will be best remembered for his association with the various ensembles fronted by French pianist Jef Gilson. Paris has always been a haven for US jazz musicians, and Catoire had the opportunity to record with Philly Joe Jones (1969), Bill Coleman (1969), Sahib Shihab (1972), and the free jazz duo Byard Lancaster and Clint Jackson III (1974). He represented contemporary jazz at the 1967 Gypsy Jazz Concert at the Maison de L’ORTF, playing with René Mailhes and Manu Dibango. Embedded within him was the musical history of Paris, so it was with pride that he accompanied Joseph Reinhardt (the son of Django Reinhardt) at the very same concert.

René Aranda (COMEDIENS)
20 Rue du Capitaine Ferber, 75020 Paris, France

René Aranda started his career as a child actor in the famous troupe at the Théâtre du Petit Monde in the 1930s. Like many actors starting out in the business, Aranda was an allrounder, confident in combining acting, dancing and the singing of café-concert songs. In the 1950s he would take to the stage of the Théâtre municipal de la Gaîté-Lyrique in the operetta Chevalier du ciel. A modest career awaited Aranda in the movies, where he first played uncredited roles but graduated to small named parts in the 1960s and 70s. In 1980 he portrayed King George V in Peter Sellers’ The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu.

Armand Meffre (COMEDIENS)
14 Rue du Capitaine Ferber, 75020 Paris, France

Actor, author, screenwriter and accomplished artist Armand Meffre boasted a dual theatre and cinema career that lasted more than 40 years. His first love was painting, and Meffre was invited by André Lhote to study at his Parisian academy on rue d’Odessa. He also cut his teeth with an amateur acting troupe, before joining Roger Planchon in 1956. At the Théâtre de la Comédie in Lyon he appeared in Grand peur et misères du Troisième Reich (Bertolt Brecht) and Aujourd’hui ou les Coréens (Michel Vinaver). In 1960 he moved to Paris where his career blossomed on the stages of the capital. A decade of acting in Paris took in productions at the Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier, Théâtre des Arts, Théâtre Récamier, Théâtre Gramont, Théâtre du Tertre, Théâtre National Populaire, Théâtre Montparnasse, and the Palais de Chaillot. From 1970 to 1974, on television he played Pastouré in the popular series Maurin des Maures directed by Claude Dagues. From 1961 to 1998, he appeared in more than fifty television films, often under the direction of Marcel Bluwal. He started to make a name for himself as an author, publishing his short stories L’Humanité Dimanche in 1977. In the same year his play Le Brise-lames premiered at the Théâtre municipal de Montpellier. The play tells the life of fishermen in the Italian community of Sète. It would tour the south of France, taking in the theatres at Béziers, Montpellier, Perpignan, Carcassonne, Narbonne, Nîmes and Alès. In 1989 he published his award winning debut novel Ceux qui ne dansent pas sont priés d’évacuer la piste. Toward the end of his life he was honoured with several exhibitions of his painting.

Marcel Bouret (CHANSONNIERS)
3 Rue du Capitaine Ferber, 75020 Paris, France

Artist, actor and chansonnier Marcel Bouret was a popular act on the cabaret and revue circuit of the 1940s and 50s. A classic singer and humorist, he shared the stage with such famous performers as Andrex, sang alongside Jean Valenti and Gaby Wagenheim, and told a joke or two with fellow chansonnier Pierre Still. At the annual festival in the 17th arrondissement he even turned his hand to directing, where he presented Louis Urgel’s comedy Leur Jour. He published a number of books with his twin sister, the illustrator Germaine Bouret.

Place Édith Piaf
The bronze statue of Édith Piaf was created by artist and sculptor Lisbeth Delisle, and commissioned by Paris City Hall in 2003 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of “the little sparrow’s” death. It also happens to be in close reach of the Tenon Hospital, where Piaf was either born or given emergency care after coming into the world under a streetlight in nearby Belleville, in 1915.

Marcel Guiet (COMEDIENS)
29 Rue Belgrand, 75020 Paris, France

Actor Marcel Guiet starred in the 1975 film Monsieur Balboss, playing the lead role of the young vagabond opposite Michel Galabru’s corrupt police commissioner. His first appearances were in the theatres outside of Paris, including Don Carlos (1968) and Armand Gatti’s La Naissance (1969). By the 1970s he worked in some of the capital’s smaller theatrical venues such as the Théâtre Mouffetard and Théâtre du Soleil.

Armand Molinetti (Batterie)
70 Rue Belgrand, 75020 Paris, France

One of the great French showman drummers from the 1940s, 50s and 60s. During the WW2 occupation he played in the big bands of Alix Combelle and Jacques Hélian. In the 1960s he was an in demand session drummer, and worked with some of the iconic names of the decade including Les Chats Sauvages, Les Chaussettes Noires, Les Fingers and Les Aiglons. A man with a big name reputation, he played with many of the jazz stars of the era: Roy Eldridge, Django Reinhardt, and Don Byas.

Jean Topart (COMÉDIENS)
151 Rue de Bagnolet, 75020 Paris, France

Born in the 20th arrondissement, actor Jean Topart was a member of Jean Vilar ‘s Théâtre National Populaire troupe during the 1950s and 60s. He played numerous roles in the theatre, and was a major player in some of the nation’s favourite television dramas, including Claude Barma’s Cyrano de Bergerac, and the soap opera Rocambole directed by Jean -Pierre Decourt. He had one of the most recognizable voices on French radio and television, leading to an active career in the world of animation and dubbing. He was the voice of the narrator in the animated series Rémi sans famille (1977), and in Les Mystérieuses cités d’or (1982). He is buried in the Père-Lachaise cemetery (division 57).