The Nouvelle Athènes was a café in the Place Pigalle in Paris, France. It was a meeting place for impressionist painters, including Matisse, Van Gogh and Degas. Degas painted L'Absinthe in this place. Another notable denizen was the eccentric composer Erik Satie, who played the piano in the cafe, and was there introduced to a fifteen-year-old Maurice Ravel by Ravel's father. During the 1940s, the café was known as the Sphynx; it was a striptease club frequented by the Nazis and later by the Free French partisans. In the 1980s and 1990s, it was known as the New Moon, a rock venue where Mano Negra, the French Lovers, Noir Désir, Calvin Russel, the Naked Apes of Reason, Les Wampas, and many other groups performed. The café building was destroyed by fire in 2004. See also List of strip clubs Musée de la Vie romantique, Hôtel Scheffer-Renan, Paris External links Les Amis de la Nouvelle Athènes The New Monico in 1925 HISTORIQUE 9 Place Pigalle et 66 rue Pigalle Pictures Demolition of the New Moon Coffeehouses and cafés in Paris Drinking establishments in Paris Strip clubs in France Defunct clubs and societies Dining clubs Music venues in France Cabarets in Paris Nightlife in Paris Former buildings and structures in Paris Impressionist artists 2004 disestablishments in France Former music venues in France French companies disestablished in 2004