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Moulin Rouge windmill twirls again 14 months after accident / Photo: © AFP
Moulin Rouge windmill twirls again 14 months after accident
Hundreds of people gathered outside the Moulin Rouge cabaret in Paris on Thursday to see its famed blades start turning again, 14 months after they tumbled to the ground.
Dancers performed the institution's famed cancan in the street to mark the occasion, while fireworks were set off from the roof of the club that says it attracts some 600,000 visitors each year.
The venue -- immortalised by painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and catapulted back into the spotlight by Baz Luhrmann's 2001 film -- woke up in April 2024 without its trademark 12-metre (40-foot) wings.
A failure in the central axis was blamed for the accident, which stunned locals and visitors alike.
New aluminium blades were ready for the Paris Olympics last July, but it has taken time to get its electric motor ready to spin the sails and power hundreds of red and gold bulbs that stud the display.
"The sails have always turned at the Moulin Rouge, so we had to restore this Parisian symbol to Paris, to France, and to the state it was in before," said Jean-Victor Clerico, the cabaret's managing director.
"The whole troupe is very happy to find our sails again, these are the sails of Paris," said Cyrielle, one of the 60 dancers who took part in the street celebration with traditional feathers flying.
Z.Kaczmarek--GL
