Goguette

As well as providing venues for informal solo and ensemble singing, goguettes also served as places for drinking, socialising, and recreation.

Goguettes can trace their history back to 1729 and the "Société du Caveau" in Paris, founded by poet and chansonnier Pierre Gallet (1698–1757), but their heyday was in the years 1818 to 1900.

In the early 19th century, goguettes met in the premises of cafés and restaurants, and provided a space for their members (for a small fee) to sing in public or to have their own compositions sung.

Open to all social ranks, in practice they tended to attract literate men from the artisan class; they were also associated with revolutionary politics and were carefully monitored by the authorities.

[1] A goguette tended to draw its members from the locality, and would have a formal structure of committee meetings, officials, minutes, etc., as well as social events.