History of the Pot au Lait
A brief history of the Pot-au-Lait
Located in the heart of the city of fire, Pot au Lait has become a must for an eclectic crowd of students and adults alike.
A typical meeting place in Liège.
The café and its decor change with the times: hip, fringe, militant, Baba, artist, young, not so young, the welcomed fauna will find this bar open from morning to morning, with its one hundred and fifty decorations, drinks and musical themes.
Le Pot-au-Lait is located at number 9 rue Soeurs de Hasque, a pedestrian street in downtown Liège. Number 9 is a superb late 19th-century house that houses a number of cultural and social associations.
This building stands on the site of a former convent which, from the end of the 15th century, housed nuns from another convent in the town of Hasselt. Hasselt is often called Haske in Liège, so the nuns "from Haske" gave their name to the street.
Why Pot au Lait?
Why "Pot au Lait", you might ask? Well, my child, the story goes back to the Middle Ages, to Paris (yes!).
In one of his famous poems known as "les testaments", François Villon (1430-1484) bequeathed an establishment he called "Le Trou Perrette" to a particularly narrow-minded and moralistic abbot.
The name "Trou Perrette" comes from a café that existed in Paris as far back as 1150, called "Le Trou de Perrette" (is an explanation necessary?).
Le trou Perette
In the 60s, a group of students from the University of Liège decided to open a bistro in the cellar of one of Liège's oldest streets: rue St Remy.
The young men were very cultured, and decided to call their bistro "Le Trou Perrette". After a few years and many barrels of beer, the bistro closed its doors.
In the early '70s, shortly after May '68, the Union Générale des Etudiants de l'Université de Liège opened a very "committed" bistro in the cellars of a house on Place Emile Dupond, not far from Rue St Rémy.
In memory of its predecessor, they named it "Le Trou Perrette".
A new kind of venue
The house on Place Emile Dupont was closed in 1973, but a group of students got together to create a new kind of place in Liège.
This venue allowed us to organize films, concerts, debates, theme days... while remaining independent of the powers that be.
This place was opened in 1975 in part of the premises of number 9 rue Soeurs de Hasque and was called, guess how... "Le Trou Perrette". Le Trou Perrette".
For many years, it was a Mecca for Liège: hundreds of activities were organized here, and memorable concerts took place: Renaud, Higelin, Dr Feelgood, Chet Baker...
The success
By 1979, it had become so successful that it was necessary to open another bar next to Trou Perrette.
A name had to be found, and the result of brainstorming was the "Pot-au-Lait", in reference to a fable by another French poet, Jean de La Fontaine (1621-1695). Indeed, one of his fables is entitled "La Laitière et le Pot au Lait" ("The Milkmaid and the Milk Pot").
In 1981, Le Trou Perrette closed its doors.
And that, Madame, is why the Pot-au-Lait is called Le Pot-au-Lait.