Party in Parts

i all hope you are all well, I do look forward to seeing my friends they make my life better and I hope I do the same for you!!

I thought of this piece of history while I was looking up a picture that Van Gogh had painted. I was surprised to read that he had a museum where he shows Paris prostitution with paintings, it is worth a look!!

1804 Napoleon ordered the registration and bi-weekly health inspection of all prostitutes. State controlled legal brothels (then known as "maisons de tolérance" or "maisons closes") started to appear in Paris and in other cities and became highly popular throughout the century. By 1810, Paris alone had 180 officially approved brothels.

By law, they had to be run by a woman (typically a former prostitute) and their external appearance had to be discreet. Prostitutes working in the maisons, or any woman arrested twice for soliciting had to be registered as such. Registration involved having their name on a national register, and agreeing to abide by the regulations and twice weekly medical examinations. This pattern of regulation rapidly spread throughout Europe, partly aided by the Napoleonic occupations.

Among the most expensive and best known maisons de tolérance in Paris were:

• le Chabanais (opened 1878 and favored by Prince Edward, who had himself made a special "love seat" there),
• le Sphinx,
• la Rue des Moulins,
• le One-Two-Two(opened in the mid-1920s and soon became the top address)
• Hotel Marigny was the best known brothel for male homosexual clients; it opened in 1917 near Opera in the second arrondissement
• More sordid brothels, the maisons d'abattage, offering quick and dirty "services", were popular amongst the lower-class.

Kristina: Paree the place to be but for you it is with me. Hot croissants anyone? Xx