This point sits beside La Mère Catherine, a brasserie founded in 1793 on Montmartre's old village square.
Last reviewed 4 October 2026 · A two-minute read · 1100–2011
The short answer
La Mère Catherine, on the Place du Tertre in Montmartre, Paris, occupies a building that was once the presbytery of the church of Saint-Pierre de Montmartre before being seized in the Revolution and sold in 1793 to Catherine Lamotte, who turned it into a café-restaurant. It remains, under that name, the oldest restaurant still operating on the square.
1793 and before
A priest's house became a café after the Revolution
La Mère Catherine is a brasserie on the Place du Tertre, still serving meals today. Before the Revolution, the building was the presbytery, the priest's house, for the nearby church of Saint-Pierre de Montmartre. The French state seized it during the Revolution. In 1793, it was sold to a woman named Catherine Lamotte. Catherine Lamotte turned the old priest's house into a café-restaurant and poured drinks for her customers herself. Patrons liked her enough to give her a nickname, "la mère Catherine," mother Catherine, and the name stuck to the building ever since.
Georges Danton, one of the Revolution's leading voices, met his supporters here.
A plaque by the entrance tells a later story. On March 30, 1814, Russian soldiers occupying Paris after Napoleon's defeat were said to have sat down here and shouted "bystro," Russian for "quickly," demanding fast service. The story claims that word gave French the term "bistro." Historians who study the word are skeptical. It does not turn up in French print until the end of the 1800s, decades after the night it supposedly was born.
early 20th century
Billiards drew players to the bar at Père Labille's
By the early 1900s, ownership had passed on twice over. A man called Père Labille owned the place, while a Mr. Lemoine ran it day to day. Guests could play billiards at the bar, and an old postcard shows players posing for the camera there. Montmartre by then had filled with painters and performers, and the square outside drew crowds the restaurant never lacked for.
1941 to 1944
A German officer dined here under occupation
During the German occupation of Paris, the restaurant kept serving. Ernst Jünger, a German writer and army officer stationed in the city, came often. Jünger wrote in his diaries about Parisian life under occupation, and the restaurant was part of that routine.
after the war to the 1960s
The Meriguet family served a new wave of sightseers
Ownership shifted again after the war. A family named Meriguet ran La Mère Catherine through the postwar years and into the 1960s. The neighborhood that had once drawn working painters now drew sightseers instead, and the restaurant's clientele followed.
2012
A critic accused the square of losing its authenticity
In June 2012, the restaurant critic François Simon wrote a piece in Le Figaro criticizing it. Simon argued the food served to tourists bore little resemblance to real French cooking, and that the square around it had lost its old authenticity.
2018 to now
A 2018 renovation kept the old look intact
A renovation in 2018 updated the restaurant while keeping its old look. The dining room still has dark wood walls, terra cotta tiles, and exposed wooden beams overhead. Red-and-white checked linens cover the tables, and oil paintings of Montmartre hang on the walls. Quotes from Danton are painted up as well, tying the room back to its revolutionary first customers.
The restaurant still sits at 6, Place du Tertre, with a terrace looking out over the square where painters set up easels for tourists every day. It remains, as it has been since 1793, the oldest restaurant still operating there.
{{note|A former Revolution-era presbytery on the Place du Tertre, it is Montmartre's oldest restaurant and is tied to the disputed origin of the word
La Mère Catherine still serves meals on the same spot, its terrace facing the square's artists and crowds.
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The Grandes-Carrières district takes its name from gypsum quarries worked here from the Middle Ages onward, workings dangerous enough to cause fatal collapses underground.
Montmartre Abbey, a Benedictine nunnery founded in 1133 after King Louis VI bought the land, controlled this hilltop until the Revolution swept it away.
Saint-Pierre de Montmartre, whose presbytery became this restaurant, was consecrated in 1147 and is the second oldest surviving church in Paris after Saint-Germain-des-Prés.
The Moulin de la Galette, a windmill built around 1622, stood near the top of Montmartre and later gave its name to a famous dance hall and cabaret district.
Montmartre Cemetery sits in a worked-out gypsum quarry that was used as a mass grave during the French Revolution in the 1790s, several meters below today's street level.
A plaque by the door claims that on 30 March 1814, Russian soldiers occupying Paris after Napoleon's fall banged the tables shouting "bystro" — quickly — and gave French the word bistro, though scholars doubt the story.
The building was the presbytery, the priest's house, for the nearby church of Saint-Pierre de Montmartre, before the French state seized it during the Revolution.
Who founded La Mère Catherine?
Catherine Lamotte bought the seized presbytery in 1793 and turned it into a café-restaurant, pouring drinks for customers herself; they nicknamed her 'la mère Catherine,' and the name stuck to the building.
Is the word 'bistro' really from this restaurant?
A plaque by the entrance claims Russian soldiers occupying Paris in 1814 shouted 'bystro,' Russian for quickly, giving French the word bistro, but historians are skeptical since the word does not appear in French print until decades later.
What happened at La Mère Catherine during the German occupation of Paris?
Between 1941 and 1944 the German writer and army officer Ernst Jünger dined there often, and he wrote about Parisian life under occupation in his diaries.
Who criticised La Mère Catherine in 2012?
The restaurant critic François Simon wrote in Le Figaro in June 2012 that the food served to tourists bore little resemblance to real French cooking and that the square had lost its old authenticity.
What does La Mère Catherine look like today?
Following a 2018 renovation, the dining room still has dark wood walls, terra cotta tiles, exposed wooden beams, red-and-white checked table linens, oil paintings of Montmartre, and painted quotes from Danton, with a terrace overlooking the Place du Tertre.