The company

Le Pavillon gathers thirty-six people around a table, a few times a year, at the home of someone who receives — a wine house, a gallery, a workshop, a chef.

One dines, one visits, one learns a thing. No business is done here.

The word

A pavillon is what one hoists to say that one is there. It does not announce itself : it shows itself, and only to those already in the harbour.

The doctrine of the company lies in that word, and that is why it was chosen. The name is not translated : it is a name, not a word.

The number

Thirty-six is six by six.The company is the square of its table.

Six is the right table : the only one where everyone speaks to everyone, and one leaves having truly met five people. Thirty-six is not a number chosen and then justified — it is that table squared.

And for those who look further : thirty-six is the sum of the cubes of one, two and three ; it is also the first number after one to be both square and triangular — the next is one thousand two hundred and twenty-five.

Thirty-six, or the evening does not take place.

The table of the evening

It is announced with the invitation, and the room is recomposed at dessert : two seatings in one evening, ten people properly met instead of five.

The table is chosen to suit the place, never the reverse. And it carries no name : tonight’s table is six.

How often

Four evenings a year at least — four is the floor, never the ceiling. One evening for every eighteen of the Thirty-Six, which gives each of them two evenings in the year, exactly.