Sexy Sexy France

Sexodrome- 24/7

Moulin Rouge, the Sexodrome and sex shop after sex shop showing lingerai clad figures and toys meant for adult play.
Wecome to Pigalle, the 9th arrondissement of Paris, the red light district.

My apartment is in Montmartre, 3 blocks North of this infamous region. When you walk the gentle slope downwards past cafes, little 10 foot wide restaurants the neon lights bleed their way up, some flashing, glowin gently on the pavement as you descend into Pigalle. There is a rapid transformation when youa rrive at the intersection and the seduction of the place is almost suffocating.

The newstands are filled with porn magazines, thier covers show figures of women graphically demonstraing what is sold in the many peep shows linging the road. There is a lingerai shop on the corner that specializes in S&M, it’s windows advertising leather whips and corsets, gags, and with models in erotic poses that suggest a melange of pain and pleasure. The sidewalks are a mosaic of peepshow venders shouting loudly and singling out potential customers, prostitutes in black boots strutting with the attitude of a true Madame, young people clad in clubbing clothes on thier way to dance and a few paranoid tourists with their backpacks slung frontways heaidng in the direction of the Moulin Rouge’s bright lights and crowded front.

There is loud music, horns honking and music pumping from the stripclubs and peepshows. The paris breeze blows the smell of the sex shops, and urine from the alley ways up to mix with the crowds sordid musk. Here infront of the sexodrome, anyone’s, but a true parisean’s, knees would go weak.

Open 24/7, the sexodrome offers everything to meet one’s lusty needs. A theater of porn, a shop of everything sexual, an erotic bookstore full of fetish writing, a variety of live shows, sexy sauna and private salons. The neon lights blaze high over the street, and all the manequins seem to beckon over the street. It is a mansion of lust.

The museum of erotica down the road has a window display of the most outrageous things one could imagine. The most shocking is actually quite funny: A chair with a small rotating gear with 5 rubber tongues that “lap up” what ever sits there. Also there are posters advertising the exhibition of fetishes and fantasies. With every step, your pulse rises, breath quickens and hold as you register what you see. The people, the establihsments, the sexual things you can smell in the street lingering without propriety. How strange, that this is the way.

This is an industry in the open here, the same as ours in North America, only it does not hide in the ghettoed alleyways and druggie hangouts.

Pigalle is worth the shocking walk and gritty sights to understand what sexual liberation means. Dirty, skanky, glorious pigalle… the Madame of the arrondissements in Paris.

The world can not blame North America for “global warming”…

So here I am in Europe… the supposed jolly green giants of the world, and I thought I would be forced to change my North American habits for that reason.
Here, in Paris, I have yet to a recycling can.
They only recycle glass.
Everything else gets thrown out.
The population density here is ridiculas, which is why they have a metro, which is why they don’t drive cars, which is why they “pollute less”.
However, by not recyling they use WAY more energy and pollute at an exponential rate for the things that could have been re-used.
Yes, we drive more, but atleast we recycle!

Marilyn Monroe… New Exhibit at Le Louvre focuses on Classic American Cinema

Has anyone heard of the new exhibit at the Le Louvre? It is a controversial display, as a tribute to American Cinema. Truly, our post-colony metropolisese have infilatrated Europe, when their is a Macdonalds kitty corner to Le Louvre and Palais Royal, whose garbage ends up in Les Jardins Tuileries. The French have finally bowed to the inevitable, and they present their resignation as the most stubborn country with their new exhibit, L’air du Marilyn, la Dieu de Cinema.

The exhibt is not well advertised, and is not centralized, but infact spread out secretly thoughout the Museum. The french are very proud of thier typically open european sexuality, so it is suiting that they chose the most sexy of american actresses to star in thier exhibition. Marilyn Monroe, with her idolized looks and classic beauty, once committed an act worthy of French approval, which was photographed, and is now her coined image.

This is how the exhbition works… The floor of Le louvre is booby trapped. They have these small vents, circulating the air at the exact angle necsissary to reenact la scene du boulevard… and WHOOPS!

I was minding my own business… a tourist not informed of the new exhibit, working my way through the crowd at the feet of Venus de Milo, when all of a sudden I pulled a Marilyn Monroe. My hair billowed off my face in a flurry of red waves, and purple skirts rushed up in the air to the height of my chest; my knees knocked togethor.With my hands full of maps and a notebook, I bent at an anlge as to protect my most covetted bits from view and pushed down my skirts, too little avail. Finally, stepping away from the secretive vent, I rushed from the hall and around the corner where I could breath the air of Humility.

Stars like me, we have to keep our heads after a crowd of multilinguals gets a good looks at your pink, frilled briefs… a recent purchase thankfully.

So women be warned.. Le Louvre offers a few seconds of stardom, Marilym Monroe style to all who venture through le Chambre de Denon wearing skirts or dresses. Now… where’s my Joe Demagio Souvenir? (After a display like that in Europe, probably following closely behind me ;D )

The Louvre's Shamed Lady

 

Les Puces- A Kind of Parisean Flea You Want

Most North Americans come to Paris for two things: museums and shopping. While le Louvre and Orsay may offer views of priceless artifacts and works of art, like La Jaconde; they are out of our reach, and almost unreal behind glass cases and multilingual crowds. Le Galeries Lafayette, for the shopping literate and loaded may seem like heaven, the average person can feel the burn of their credit card just by looking at the displays of Gucci clutches, D & G dresses and Hermes scarves. Despite days spent with the splendor and culture of the city of lights, most return home with a cheap model of La Tour Eiffel, a poster of La Jacondeand knock off prada bag from an aggresive street vendor. Perhaps the only place in Paris where one can bring home any of the decadent offerings of Paris, is Les Puces de St. Quen. Les Puces, or fleas, is the slang term for flea market here in French-town, and they know how to do them here!

These markets cover 7 hectares of land in the 18th arrondissement, in the North of the city. Here, one can find almost anything with antique status along with new designer furniture, art, clothes (both quality vintage and new), books and much more. There are 15 markets, each unique, that all combine in close quarters over the vastness of Les Puces.

From the metro Porte de la Chapelle, I came up staircase onto an already busy street. Past a few leather shops and cheap bag stores, Les Puces begins with stalls of new clothes, shoes, real lather jackets and nick-knacks, one quickly learns that this is only a mirage of the real markets. Most of these are items one could find in a mall, but here they are a fraction of the price and worth exploring anyways.

Past the tent city, the real Flea Market emerges, first with a thick ring of Behemian style clothe shops, kiosk cafes and more leather. This first row holds many gems down the way, with smaller, less expensive versions of the vintage and antiquities stores inside.

For the lover of all things pretty, the shopping for your petit tresorcan now begin. Most of the antique stores specialize in either mascline items, or more dainty feminine peices. small glass cases at the front of the stores hold gloves, made of french lace from the 20’s, frilly fans with all the images and colours one could imagine, or delicate jewellry. The are tiaras, hats of every shape and size, silk scarves and  a version of most everything pretty dating back since the age chivalry. One store, in Machet Dauphine has so many accessories, both classic and retro, that you can ask for a specific kind of barret, and they will pull out an entire box! For a girly girl, or lover of beautiful little treasures, Les Puces has more to offer than you can Imagine.

Walking through the market, one can see amny a man pulled by cuff links through the stalls to the refurbished furniture section, all the while his eyes wandering over the items for the stronger sex. Pocket knifes ranging from the size of a cricket to the length of a hand, razors, old sporting goods, knives, swords, and even the occasional gun line the front of more masculine shops. Although many of these items are behind glass cases, one look at the vendor and a man can wrap his hands around the hilt of Napoleon era sword, or test the blade of ivory handled pocket knife. There are shops which have only world war memorabilia and some that have only hunting gear or taxidermy decor. Some especially intriguing items I saw were leather footballs and rugby balls that were in such good quality they looked nearly new!

Bookworms, beware the weight of your wallet! There are countless shops, both general and speacialed of literature. Most of books are french, but there are also many english copies. Comics and old magazines are another popular item. There is an erotic literatre in the bookshop square with items ranging fromXXX to classic playboys, wrapped in plastic covering. Pinup books and posters from the last half of the 20th century are widely available in mint condidtion here, for a man with a love of tasteful erotic art. Also, one with a love of music can find rare records in the huge bins, for as little as 50cents!

For women, another kind of lust… clothes, specifically vintage. Not, I-got-it-at-a-thrift-store-vintage, but Dior, Channel, Christian Delacroix circa you-name-it kind of vintage. Everything from dresses, to fur, to shoes, to accessories, you can find it, fresh looking and gorgeous on the racks and in the windows of almost a dozen stores. Forget Lafayette! You have les Puces.

The most spectacular part of the markets was indeed the furniture and antique pieces for houses. Old gold enamelled piano’s refurbished to look and sound like new, sets of chairs and sofa’s which look like they came right of of Pride and Prejudice, pottery you swear Marie Antoinette could have eaten off of, all sprawling in lavish stalls, literally for miles. Working record players, bedroom sets, mirrors, carpets, tapestries, all looking like they were stolen from an old forgotten palace in the french country side. Prices range from I’ll-just-put-it-on-visa, to can-you-put-that-on-hold-while-I-go-get-a-loan? For anyone with a love of practical beauty and design, you can take a leisurely walk down the stalls of Les Puces and oggle at the marvels nonchalantly flirting with your senses.

Some of these things may cost a pretty-euro, but if one is willing to search, or bargain hard with a vendor, it is easy to find great deal on something great. If one collects, an item, whether it be books, art or anything else, your knowledge of a subject can come in handy when dropped into a conversation with the vendor. He will think twice before blowing you off if he knows you are looking for quality, or a specific piece. When looking to get a big ticket item, don’t hesitate to ask for an experts opinion, especially in the main markets, as hey are on hand if you need them and are willing to wait a few minutes.

If you are someone looking to take in a bit of the real Paris, and take a little bit back home, visit Les Puces Saturday, Sunday or Monday… bring good shoes and a budget!

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