La Louisiane

The tavern, seen from outside.

“You didn't say the goddamn rendezvous is in a fucking basement.”

―Aldo Raine

La Louisiane is a basement tavern in the small village of Nadine, north of Paris, France. It is the rendezvous point for The Basterds, the British and their German contact, in preparation for Operation Kino. The tavern was run by a Frenchman named Eric. The only other employee was a young French girl, named Mathilda.

Notable locations

The tavern consists of a main room with the bar and two tables, as well as a smaller room, with a single smaller table and a phonograph to play music. The bar has many bottles and many drinks like all bars do. And chairs.

The entry to the tavern is via downstairs that lead to a door, which in turn, leads to a spiral metal staircase.

Trivia

• The gramophone from the French tavern is seen for a brief moment in the foreground. Similar shots had already been seen in other of Tarantino's works, such as Pulp Fiction (1994), Jackie Brown (1997) and Death Proof (2007).
• When the tavern exterior is first shown, the entry door is on the bottom of some downstairs, and from there, a spiral staircase leads to tavern floor. The problem is that the top of the spiral staircase is higher than the street level (which is easy to prove, as the lamps from the tavern are over the windows level and the spiral stairs are over the lamps level), which means that the entry door would not be on a lower level, but rather higher than the street level. Also, the entry door seen in the exterior shot is on the same level as the tavern floor, which would make the spiral staircase unnecessary.
  • The only possible explanation would be that the external shot of the tavern does not show the entry to the tavern, but rather another entry, possibly a service entry. This however, defeats the purpose of showing that shot. Public places also don't add their name on their backdoor or service entry.

Gallery

The main tavern room

The Basterds arrive in the tavern.

German soldiers call Mathilda.

The table with the bar in the back.

Hellstrom in the private room.

Hellstrom with the gramophone.

Eric's shotgun under the bar table.

Eric at the bar.

Another view of the bar.

The bar, close-up.

The stairs.

Ditto