Opening of the guinguette in Tours sur Loire as well as the other guinguettes in Touraine!

The word ” guinguette” comes from the word “guinguet”, a white wine from the Ile-de-France region which, it is said, although it did not excel in terms of taste (“Qui boit une pinte de vin de Montmartre en pisse quatre!” (“Whoever drinks a pint of Montmartre wine pees four!”), contributed cheerfully to the festive atmosphere that reigned in bars, restaurants, bals musette and open-air cabarets. Most of these establishments, which became known as ” guinguettes “, were located outside Paris, beyond the 57 dock dues introduced in 1785 by Louis XVI (the dock dues were a former indirect tax levied by certain towns on the value of goods imported into them).

A number of these guinguettes were set up on the banks of the Seine and Marne rivers (Joinville-le-Pont, Nogent-sur-Marne, Champigny-sur-Marne, Suresnes, Villeneuve-Saint-Georges, Nogent-sur-Seine…), combining quayside terraces and dance bands with the pleasures of canoeing, swimming and diving competitions, jousting and fishing, not forgetting fairground games, skittles and boules. In the 1960s and 1970s, the ban on bathing in these waterways, due to poor water quality and a high number of drownings, led to the decline of these convivial venues… before they made a comeback a few years ago as part of France’s festive heritage, following the example of the guinguette at Tours sur Loire!