Naughty Paris

Before y'all start snickering, Le Slow Club is simply a dance club. And who doesn't love to dance?! Good Girls on the town are always looking for clubs with a sexy atmosphere, good crowd and music that practically carries you onto the dance floor. Le Slow Club (130 rue de Rivoli, 1st, M° Pont Neuf) has just been taken over by a hip, young management team who will be sexing up the schedule a bit (no worries, there will still be at least one night per week with a sultry live orchestra for the "slow" dancing we all love).

Miss Carolyn and I went out for a girly night on Wednesday near Place de la Madeleine. Unfortunately Le Passage Bar (part of Senderens Restaurant) was closed for a private event, so we went to to the "Le 30" Bar of Le Faubourg Hotel across the street from the Buddha Bar (with a long detour into the the sexy new Eclaireur boutique next door).

"Le 30" is a typical luxury hotel bar, low lit, big sofas in front of the fireplace (a roaring fire was going when we arrived), live pianist, decent drink list, quiet and not too smoky.

Well if the Religious Right and their Christian Coalition didn't have enough reasons to hate France (and good thing, too; we don't want them here), the Paris Tourism Office has given them another. Check out their guide to Naughty Paris: http://en.parisinfo.com/show_exhibition/rub6098.html

This is why Carolyn and I have written our own Naughty Paris Guide. Their's sucks. Aside from two or three decent places, they're mostly the same garbage you find listed in Pariscope (which are also paid for, BTW). And they started to mention the libertine clubs in the intro but then got all coincé and failed to list any. Hmph!

Good Girls to the rescue! We'll get this all sorted out in no time. ;)
Heather

Thanks to Jennifer K. Dick for sending news of this contest along. If any of you can write in French, this is for you (and I'm not translating it, because if you can't read in French, you sure as hell can't write in it!)

L'association kacophonie_ère a été créée en décembre 2005 pour promouvoir la jeune création contemporaine à travers de évènements ponctuels, thématiques et pluridisciplinaires. Notre prochaine journée aura lieu en juin sur le thème de l'Erotisme, et mêlera arts-plastiques, théâtre, cinéma... Des conteurs se relaieront pour lire des textes tout au long de la journée, textes que nous souhaitons issus d'un concours de nouvelles ouvert à tous, dont voici l'annonce. Concours de nouvelles sur le thème de l'érotisme, organisé par l'association culturelle Kacophonie_ère.

Les nouvelles doivent être d'une longueur de 1 à 10 pages dactylographiées (Times New Roman, police 12, interligne 1,5). Deux nouvelles maximum par participant. Les noms, prénoms, adresse e-mail et coordonnées des participants seront lisiblement inscrits. Le concours est ouvert à tout auteur francophone. Les nouvelles doivent être envoyées en pièce jointe à l'adresse mail suivante avant le 10 mai 2006 : kacophonie_ere@yahoo.fr Toute nouvelle envoyée après la date limite ne sera pas lue. Les nouvelles sélectionnées seront lues par des conteurs lors d'une journée culturelle sur le thème de l'érotisme organisée au mois de Juin par l'association Kacophonie_ère.

Pour en savoir plus sur l'association :http://kacophonie-ere.hautetfort.com ou kacophonie_ere@yahoo.fr

Former ballet dancer Toni Bently shocked none too few souls with her erotic memoir, The Surrender, "a witty, intelligent, and eloquent exploration of one woman's obsession that will be sure to leave readers questioning their own desires." I can hear you all demanding, "What obession?! Do tell!"

In a word, sodomy.

[Okay folks, no more reading this blog from your work computer!]

Let's all go to her reading at the Village Voice (6 rue Princesse, 6th, tel 01 46 33 36 47) on April 6 at 7pm to not only hear a reading from this bold and beautifully-written memoir, but also to get a peek at who else shows up. My guess is that everyone will be dressed like college professors and ask really academic questions; let's go mix it up a little, ladies!. ;)

The author will be introduced by her French editor, Mark Parent with Editions Buchet-Chastel.

One of the easiest ways for GG's (Good Girls) to practice being Bad is to read up on the great French classics. It goes without saying that if the novel was banned in the US it's probably a good read under the covers. Bonus points if the author is a woman. Here are a few must-reads that are either set in France or written by French authors:

- The 120 Days of Sodom and Other Writings by Marquis De Sade.

Well, pretty much anything by the Marquis De Sade!

- Little Birds, erotica by Anaïs Nin.

Pretty much anything by her, as well!

- Tropic of Cancer by Anaïs's lover, Henry Miller.

- The Lover by Marguerite Duras.

- The Flowers of Evil by Charles Baudelaire.

- The Story of O by Pauline Reage. O, baby! Better than the film, trust me.

So what are your favorites? Anyone....anyone?

To celebrate International Women's Day all month (the actual day was March 8), two galleries in the chic Golden Triangle district of Paris are hosting a joint exhibit, "Rendez-vous avec une Femme", celebrating mothers, wives, dames, godesses, Venus, madonnas, sirens, and Eve in all her incarnations. On display are both famous and anonymous women in glamorous contemporary photographs by eleven photographers: Danièle Buetti, Vanessa Beecroft, David LaChapelle, Olaf Martens, Constantino Ruiz-Lopez, Erwin Olaf, Nathalie Bermudes, Perou, Nazif Topcuoglu, and Sarah Lucas). Through March 31.

Galerie Alder, 75 Rue du Faubourg-St-Honoré, 8th, Métro Franklin Roosevelt.
Galerie Berin-Toublanc, 35 Ave Matignon, 8th, Métro Franklin Roosevelt.

The Musée Cernuschi (the Municipal Museum of Asian Arts) is hosting an exhibition of erotic Chinese paintings, Le Palais du Printemps, through May 7. Presented in a series that gradually introduces the spectator into the exotic literary atmosphere of China's Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, colorful and luxurious interiors and intertwined natural elements provide the erotic backdrop for the secret meeting of lovers...grrrrrrrr!

7, avenue Vélasquez, 8th. Métro Monceau or Villiers.
Open Tuesday-Friday, 10am-5:40pm. Entrance €7.
Tel : 01 45 63 50 75

The French seem to have more of an affinity for Les Maitresses, or mistresses, than their Anglophone counterparts. Who knows if they actually "cheat" more than Americans or Brits, but they certainly love talking about it. Novels, movies, television shows -- it's all about his "cinq à sept" (more on the vocabulary in a future post) and her "amant". Ah, oui! Les femmes too! The battle of the sexes is fought on different grounds here in France, home of égalité.

Not that every French person will openly say they have (or are) a mistress, but it's seen more as if it's a fact of life than a moral issue. After all, mistresses are nothing new. One of the best-known in French history is Madame de Montespan, mistress of the one and only Sun King, Louis XIV. And lucky for us, she had enough free time to write, in her own words, a memoir on what it was like living the charmed life in the Palais de Versailles at the height of the French monarchy.

In the prologue by the English translator:

The cynical Court lady, whose beauty bewitched a great King, and whose ruthless sarcasm made Duchesses quail, is here drawn for us in vivid fashion by her own hand, and while concerned with depicting other figures she really portrays her own. Certainly, in these Memoirs she is generally content to keep herself in the background, while giving us a faithful picture of the brilliant Court at which she was for long the most lustrous ornament.
It is only by stray touches, a casual remark, a chance phrase, that we, as it were, gauge her temperament in all its wiliness, its egoism, its love of supremacy, and its shallow worldly wisdom. Yet it could have been no ordinary woman that held the handsome Louis so long her captive. The fair Marquise was more than a mere leader of wit and fashion. If she set the mode in the shape of a petticoat, or devised the sumptuous splendours of a garden fete, her talent was not merely devoted to things frivolous and trivial. She had the proverbial 'esprit des Mortemart'. Armed with beauty and sarcasm, she won a leading place for herself at Court, and held it in the teeth of all detractors.