Troisieme Lieu (Third Place)

Troisieme Lieu DJs

Troisieme Lieu (Third Place)

Location: 62 Rue Quicampoix, Paris, France

Opened: Around 2004

Closed: October 2012

Paris lost two lesbian bars last month: Troisieme Lieu (Third Place) and a neighboring bar-restaurant-club called Les Filles de Paris (The Daughters/Girls of Paris). According to this article in the French press, both were owned and managed by the same women partners (Les Ginettes Armees), who had been struggling with financial and tax delinquency issues. As a result, the authorities had been intent on liquidating these two businesses for the past year and a half. 

Very frustrating for me to get to the heart of this story, as my French is just good enough to understand that these places are closing, but too rusty to understand the details. Although you can obtain a translation, it's so garbled that it's really of no help. But fluent francophones are welcome to try. 

Troisieme Lieu (2010)

Here's what absolu living said about these places back in the day:

Les filles de Paris and the Troisième lieu are an excellent choice for a night out with your lesbian friends, and both venues double up with a lesbian bar and lesbian restaurant under the same roof. You can enjoy burlesque shows at the Les filles de Paris, while there's a simple rule at the huge Troisième lieu: eat, drink and dance!  The restaurant has large tables, which are perfect if you're with lots of friends. 

And here's the "editorial review" from BlackBook:

Rolls pre-club and party into one; you can grab a salad or tagine here before getting down to the weeklong rotation of house, techno, electro, or disco DJs. The crowd reflects the swirling mix of Beaubourg: black, white, hip, frump, chic, punk, straight and gay. Girl-loving girls love the "Happy Fucking Time" buy-one-get-one-free drink special.

The word from Time Out Paris:

Elaborate tartines, delicious desserts and strong drinks are the fare at this lesbian-run bar and restaurant. Opened by Les Ginettes Armées, organisers of renowned Sunday lesbian and mixed events, the Troisième Lieu’s music policy tends towards electro and house.  

Time Out also adds this:

Troisieme Lieu interior

Also known as ‘La Cantine des Ginettes Armées’ or the armed girls’ canteen, Le Troisième Lieu is a lesbian paradise, full of open minded girls on a mission to let themselves go. The house speciality: a pitcher of honey-flavoured Fargo beer. You can also scarf a meal here, though more to satisfy desperate hunger than to benefit from any Parisian gastronomy. In the evenings, lady DJs get going on the decks, which are set up at the back of a caravan, installed in the venue by we know not what means. The décor is kitsch, sparkly and colourful, including a table football set and G-strings hanging out to dry underneath the bar. A yellow-painted basement area serves as a dance floor – electro-house here, world music upstairs. The evenings also offer slide projections, DJ sets and concerts, and at weekends the fun goes on until the early morning, making Le Troisième Lieu a good bet for a drink after 2am. Guys and straight girls can get in, but on busy evenings the target clientele will always get served first. When things hot up it can get overheated and hard to breathe – and the bouncers aren’t always sympathetic to those heading out to gasp for air, thanks to protests of the grouchy neighbours.

Another view, Troisieme Lieu interior

And Lonely Planet:

Lonely Planet review for Le Troisième Lieu

Billing itself as la cantine des ginettes armées (canteen of armed gals), this kooky place for chic young lesbians – and, at times, for everyone else – is part bar, part club, part restaurant. There’s a large, colourful bar and big wooden tables at street level, with good-value meals available. The vaulted cellar below leaves space for dancing to DJs (house, electro) and rock/alternative music concerts. On the last Saturday of the month it opens at 2pm. Happy hour is from 6pm to 8pm.

And Cityseekr:

Le Troisième Lieu, also known as La Cantine des Ginettes Armées, is a prime hotspot for lesbian nightlife. This nightclub-cum-restaurant-cum-bar takes up two stories: the ground floor, tiled blue and white, is fitted with long picnic tables, kitsch decorations and a full bar: food and drinks are available to ginettes and their friends at all hours. The basement, dubbed the Sous Marin Jaune (yellow submarine), is a vaulted cellar-turned-dance floor that hosts, among other weekly events, the infamous "I Hate Mondays" dance party.  

In addition, the customer reviews at places like yelp and gaycities are enthusiastic with virtually no exception. 

And do check out their myspace page, which is very sharp. Clearly these "armed girls" fought very hard to survive.