Eugénie Buffet (1866–1934) was a French singer who rose to fame in France just prior to World War I. She has been called one of the first, if not the first, performer of the chanson réaliste (realist song) genre. She became a national sensation in France, performing in the fashionable cafés-concerts of Paris as well as embarking on both national and international tours. Her biggest success is said to be her performance of the song "La Sérénade du Pavé" (Sidewalk Serenade), written by Jean Varney in 1895. She was also known to perform in the street for charity in the poorer areas of Paris – work for which she was awarded the Légion d'honneur. Early life Born as Marie Buffet in Tlemcen, Algeria to a French family in 1866 (in an area that was then known as French Algeria), Eugénie Buffet was the daughter of a seamstress and a soldier. When she was six months old, her father died in a military hospital in Oran; as a result her family was quite poor. At the age of 17, Buffet started acting. She struggled in her early years and was living in near poverty; she had moved to Marseilles in order to perform, but she was not very successful at first and was said to have been "booed and hissed off of the stage". She worked mainly in the cafés-concerts of Marseilles, until 1886 when she became the mistress of comte Guillaume d'Oilliamson. The wealthy French count brought Buffet with him to Paris to show off to his friends. Buffet went from "near starvation" to living a fashionable Parisian life. Career in music While in Paris, Buffet became involved in right-wing politics; she attended one of the founding rallies of the Ligue des Patriotes and sang "La Marseillaise" for the nationalists. As a result, she became the darling of such anti-Dreyfusards as Paul Déroulède. In 1892 Buffet attended a performance at Le Chat Noir (the Black Cat) by the cabaret singer Aristide Bruant; Buffet found herself moved by his performance and approached him with the idea of her portraying one of the poor and unfortunate girls of whom Bruant would often sing. Buffet had spent a short time in the Prison Saint-Lazare which had put her into direct contact with women of such description, and she was also said to have followed prostitutes on their rounds at night in order to