Hotel Ritz Ladies' Bar

Fifty Million Frenchmen (1931)

Hotel Ritz Ladies' Bar 

Location: 15 Place Vendome, Paris, France 

Opened: The Hotel Ritz opened in 1898, the Hotel's first bar (the male-only bar known as Bar Cambon) opened in 1921. When the Ritz Ladies' Bar opened is not real clear, but it apparently began its life as the ladies waiting room next to to the Bar Cambon.

Closed: What is now known as the Ritz Bar (the bar that was formerly the male-only Bar Cambon) went coed in 1936.  The Ladies' Bar then became Le Petit Bar, and then Bar Hemingway. The Hotel Ritz (along with all its bars) closed for a two-year renovation project in 2012. 

This is yet another case of pure serendipity. I stumbled upon this story about the Hotel Ritz Ladies' Bar in an old newspaper article published in the Oelwein [Iowa] Daily Register, May 9, 1931. The context was the opening of a new movie, Fifty Million Frenchmen. This is some of what it said: 


When "steam room" is mentioned it brings to the average mind a picture of a Turkish Bath with sheeted figures wiping dripping brows in a dense fog. But to a Parisian, the steam room spells something entirely different--the ladies' bar!

Jed Kiley, prominent figure in Paris night life, owner of Cafe Boulevardier, and more recently technical director on Warner Bros. production "Fifty Million Frenchmen," showing at the Galaxy Theatre, Sunday and Monday, coined the phrase. He called the ladies' bar a steam room because at the cocktail hour in Paris, it is so hot and bothered with cigarette smoke that it resembles a steam room. The name stuck and from then on the women's salon of the bar was the "steam room."

An exact duplicate of the Ritz bar in Paris with its accompanying steam room was built on the Warner Bros. lot for the making of this rollicking farce adapted from the stage play of the same name.

Bar Hemingway, the former Hotel Ritz Ladies Bar

From what I can tell, the men's bar began in 1921. It was initially known as the Cambon Bar because the entrance was just inside the Hotel's Rue Cambon entrance.

Colin Peter Field explains the rest:

Just opposite the bar was a very small 'salon de correspondance' with lovely wooden walls. This became the ladies' waiting room, where ladies waiting for their husbands would while away the 'minutes'. (Ladies, at this time, were not allowed in the bars.) In 1936 the principal bar was transformed to receive both sexes, and at the same time a second bar was created. This was 'Le Petit Bar', over which Bernard 'Bertin' Azimont was to preside until his retirement in 1975. The little bar was to become Ernest Hemingway's favourite haunt. He had discovered the Ritz Paris in 1925 after meeting Scott Fitzgerald in the 'Dixies Bar', a drinking hole for ex-patriot American artists and writers. The Dixies no longer exists, but Le Petit Bar, now known as the Bar Hemingway, continues to thrive.

A Frenchwoman invades the male-only Ritz Hotel Bar (1931)

If you watch the first few minutes of 50 Million Frenchmen, you get a rare glimpse into how these various male and female spaces functioned within a high-class hotel of that era. I'm not going to summarize the whole film, but it begins with an American man managing to steal a Frenchwoman's money. She tracks him down to the Ritz Hotel bar, which is obviously male only. She barges in anyway in order to confront the man. The men within the bar treat her with utter derision and contempt. We later see a small sign by the entrance which states that ladies are not admitted. However, we see gentlemen passing in and out of the so-called Ladies Bar with no problems at all. In fact, there are at least as many men in the Ladies Bar as ladies. 

This conforms with what many women observed during that time period. And it's the same double standard regarding boundary enforcement that we still see around womyn's spaces today. 

La Villette

Parisian seamstresses at the
House of Worth (1907)

La Villette

Location: Paris, France

Opened: 1907

Closed: ?

It's kind of peculiar to find information about Parisian women's hotels in a Spencer, Iowa newspaper. But that's where this article showed up (though it originally ran in the New York Sun). From the Spencer Clay County News, March 21, 1907:

PARIS WOMEN'S HOTELS
          ___________

Another Home for Business Girls at
Low Prices Opened--Run at a Profit .

From the New York Sun

Another women's hotel of the cheaper sort has been opened in Paris. It is called La Villette and has been built and is to be managed by the Societe Philanthropique.

This is the society's third venture in the women's hotel line. The first was opened in 1902, with funds bequeathed by the Baroness Hirsch de Gereuth and Dr. Margolin. It was such a success that the society began a campaign for funds for the new enterprise.

Hotel at Rue Saint-Sauveur in Paris (1907)

These were provided in 1903, when Jaques Stern died, leaving 1,000,000 francs ($200,000) for the purpose, and in October, 1904, the second hotel was built in La Roquette quarter. It had seventeen large and ninety-seven small rooms. It cost 356,000 francs, or $76,200, and every room in it has been continuously occupied since it was opened, with a waiting list.

The new hotel is of about the same size and cost about the same amount. The two Hirsch endowment buildings, on the opening day of the second, sheltered 217 women and young girls working for their living, including saleswomen, clerks, governesses, and holders of small government situations. It is said that even society women without escort have found shelter there for brief periods.

A special point is made of having the hotels nicely decorated and prettily furnished so that they may be attractive to young women for other reasons besides their moderate prices. They all have ample bathing facilities--not a common thing in cheap French lodgings--and roof gardens, where boarders can enjoy themselves in fine weather.

One of the larger rooms cost at the rate of 20 cents a night; one of the smaller ones 12 cents. A bath costs 4 cents, a douche 2 cents. In the restaurant the price of portions varies from 3 to 6 cents; the fullest meal that can be made up, including soup, meat, vegetables, and sweet bread and wine, foots up just 17 cents.

Both of the older hotels are not only paying their expenses: they are making money. The society hopes in a year or so to build another one.

The Societe Philanthropique still exists, and still provides housing for a wide variety of "people in difficulty"--everyone from seniors and persons with disabilities to students and "young workers" and "mothers and children in situations of rupture." There are around 20 residences in all. 

But none of the housing today seems to be dedicated to young working women. 

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.

Garage for Women Only (Paris 1926)

Woman and Car (1926)

Garage for Women Only

Location: Paris, France

Opened/Closed: 1926

Note that this Parisian woman-only garage predates its London counterpart by a good three years. Although to be perfectly fair, this article only states that this garage is "being constructed," so it was obviously not yet complete and ready for business.

From the Rochester Evening Herald, July 17, 1926:



Garage for Women Only Is Proposed In Paris

By International News Service

PARIS, July 19--A garage for women only is being constructed in one of the most aristocratic quarters in Paris. The growing number of women who drive their own cars has brought about the necessity of such a building.

The ladies say they prefer to park their cars where there are no men. The mechanicians [sic], cleaners, etc. will be of the fair sex, but very likely wearing men's clothing.

Of course the comforts will include manicures, and a very modern hair-dressing parlor where Madame may "make over" her beauty when she returns from the promenade.

The London garage projects an almost earnest quaintness by comparison with its "solemn" dedication ceremony and Victorian amenities (i.e. ladies' writing room). By contrast, the Parisian garage comes across as aggressively chic and modern, and oozing all the glamor trappings of the New Woman (i.e. manicures, hair-dressing parlor). In some ways, it's almost TOO over the top. The Parisian garage seems less like a sisterly business endeavor than an erotically charged encounter between a high maintenance femme customer base and a score of overall-clad butch "mechanicians" (the London garage accounts totally play down this aspect of its operations).

If we pick up this vibe, we're not necessarily imagining it. By the 1920s, Paris already boasted a well-developed lesbian subculture. In addition, these were the years when Le Monocle, one of the oldest lesbian nightclubs, opened for business. And Le Monocle was defintely a butch-femme kind of place. So it certainly appears that this garage may have been one of the many lesbian-oriented "specialized same-sex establishments" that opened in Paris during those years.

And how many newspaper readers in Rochester, New York picked up on all this over their morning coffee?

Ladies in the Brothel Dining Room

Ces Dames au réfectoire (1893)

Ladies in the Brothel Dining Room

Location: Paris, France

Date: 1893, by Henri Toulouse-Latrec

When I search for Lost Womyn's Space material, this painting called "Ladies in the Brothel Dining Room" by Henri Toulouse-Latrec has the habit of surfacing again and again. Finally I threw in the towel. I figured this painting must be trying to capture my attention for a reason, so I decided to find out more about it.

I'll grant that Toulouse-Latrec had a fascinating sense of color and composition, but as a man he was something of a sleeze. He definitely had this creepy obsession with prostitutes and lesbians, which kind of repulses me. And frankly that repels me from taking a greater interest in his work.

But heck, maybe Toulouse-Latrec was on to something here. Maybe turn-of-the-century Parisian brothels did have dining areas that were just for the women. Might be interesting to investigate further, since we see only women in this painting. Is this a kind of womyn's space, if only an eating space for women trapped in prostitution?

So I started digging around, and it soon became clear that I was barking up the wrong tree entirely. Despite Toulouse-Latrec's track record for general sliminess, it turns out that this painting apparently has nothing to do with a brothel at all. The original French name of this painting is Ces Dames au réfectoire, which roughly translates as Ladies in the Refectory. And what is a refectory? According to Merriam-Webster it's a dining hall (as in a monastery or college).

So what we see here is an excellent example of the patriarchal politics of translation. Some (male?) translater/art critic assumed that if all these "unescorted" women were eating together in the same dining hall, they must be...whores! And therefore, in some huge leap of the imagination, the dining room must be...in a whorehouse! 'Cause naturally, that's where we find whores, right? Such is the Misogynist Mind as it struggles--mightily--to make sense of the world around it.

Pure. unadulterated. bullcrap.

Lesbian Cafe Society of Fin-de-Siecle Paris

Two Women Waltzing by Toulouse-Lautrec

Le Brasserie du Hanneton
Location:  Rue Pigalle, Montmartre, Paris, France

La Souris
Location: Rue Pigalle, Montmartre, Paris, France

Cafe du Rat-Mort
Location: Place Pigalle, Montmartre, Paris, France

Fascinating article about turn-of-the-century lesbian cafe society.


Lifting the veil on Paris's lesbian café society

By Clea Caulcutt

Decades before the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered) movement, lesbian women in Paris carved out a space for themselves in the shadow of the Butte Montmartre. Several women owned cafés that catered for an almost exclusively female and lesbian clientele.

With its red curtains and discreet façade, Le Hanneton must have looked at first like any other Brasserie de femmes, a bar for men seeking female company. But Le Hanneton was a place where there was female company but where men were less than welcome.

“You'd enter a small room with low ceilings and red curtains which reminded one of brasserie de femmes. But there, they are not seeking men but seeking each other,” writes the 19th century Guide des Plaisirs à Paris (Pleasure guide to Paris).

Le Rat-Mort

“In the evening, members of the stronger sex were rare. Masculine women in charge of the place dine tête-à-tête at small tables. They then offer each other cigarettes, sweets and kisses.”

Such cafés, including Le Hanneton, La Souris and, to a lesser extent Le Rat-Mort, were an important development in lesbian history according to university lecturers working on the late 19th century.

Unlike some private salons for lesbians in the 18th century, these bars were public places, open businesses that were discreet, not secret.

“It’s an important cultural precedent,” says Leslie Choquette, lecturer at the Assumption College in the United States. “I think it is clear that they did create a space for themselves, a subculture.”

Both Le Hanneton and La Souris were managed by women and attracted women authors and artists. Mme Armande managed La Brasserie du Hanneton, rue Pigalle. Mme Palmyre, who appeared in several drawings by Toulouse-Lautrec, headed La Souris, in Pigalle.

Author and researcher Nicole G. Albert describes Mme Armande and Mme Palmyre as prominent lesbians in charge of maintaining order in a café where the clients were said to be quite rowdy. However, many descriptions of these brasseries were written by men for male readers, with a touch of voyeurism and prejudice. Albert says 19th century sources must be handled with caution.

Le Hanneton and La Souris were nonetheless places where women mingled from both ends of French society.

“The upper bourgeoisie and the aristocracy would not necessarily be seen there, but you would find women who had at one point belonged to that type of milieu,” says Albert. “Social boundaries were blurred. Lesbians from very working-class backgrounds and women of wealthier backgrounds who had chosen a more marginal existence, would mingle.”

However, it was not possible, according to Albert, for lesbians to lead a double-life, to be integrated into bourgeois society and to frequent such places. Women at the time were defined according to their role vis-à-vis men as wives, mothers, prostitutes, and so on.

Homosexuality was seen as perversion, and in the case of women, an offshoot of prostitution. But while male homosexuality was severely punished, and repressed by the police and courts, lesbians were more likely to be repressed in medical institutions.

“If you were bourgeois woman and you were found in a lesbian relationship, you could land up locked up in a sanatorium if your husband had anything to with it,” says Choquette.

In the light of the prejudices of the time, it appears unlikely that women would be able to open bars catering for lesbians.

None of the reports filed by the French vice squad of the late 19th century mention Le Hanneton or La Souris.

According to Choquette, the police at the time were more interested in seeking out prostitutes working without a licence. There were no laws condemning female homosexuality, unlike male homosexuality.

Were Le Hanneton and La Souris so avant-garde that the authorities did not even register their existence?

According to Albert, the authorities were in denial when it came to female homosexuality. It was a criminal offence to write about lesbian sex, but French authorities preferred to turn a blind eye to lesbian meeting places.

“The courts condemned authors who wrote about lesbians and their physical relations because they feared the visibility it gave lesbians more than the so-called vice itself,” says Albert.

According to this source, Le Rat-Mort had been around SINCE AT LEAST 1886, and was "popular with artists and writers by day and a lesbian hangout at night." The artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec  (1864 - 1901) frequented both Le Rat-Mort and La Souris, and had a "troubled fascination" with the lesbians who dwelled there. Many other French (male) writers and artists had something of an obsession with lesbians and these bars as well--but that's another story.

Painting: At the Moulin Rouge: Two women waltzing
Jan Sedlák, Henri de Tolouse-Lautrec, Odeon, Praha 1985, Photo of Le Rat-Mort

Chez Moune



Chez Moune signage

Chez Moune
signage

Chez Moune

Location: 54 Rue Pigalle, Paris, France

Founded: 1936

Closed: Converted to a (straight) "hipster" place in 2008/2009

Here is what appears to be an older review of Chez Moune at navigaia:

Located in the attractive Pigalle area, Chez Moune is Paris' lesbian cabaret. The all female cast provide a diverse and entertaining show, including dance, comedy and song. The staff are also exclusively female, and Saturday nights are reserved exclusively for ladies. Thursday night is karaoke night, and you can be assured of a lively atmosphere. Entry is free for ladies, and drinks are reasonably priced - do you need any more convincing?

Chez Moune patrons

And this is a later review at partyearth, which just revels in Chez Moune's new (distinctly non-lesbian) "hipster" cachet:

Opened in 1936 by Madame Moune as a lesbian ladies-only club in the heart of Pigalle’s red light district, Chez Moune was converted in 2008 to a late-night dancing den for eclectic, stylish hipsters and fashionistas. An embellished Chez Moune emblem above a small doorway points patrons toward a steep staircase, at the bottom of which they pass through a set of swinging doors and into a dark and grungy space. The décor of black and mirror tiles and big gold frames is sparse and manages to convey a raw cabaret chic. This devil-may-care vibe is also embodied in the single sheet of notebook paper tacked to the wall that serves as the venue’s only drink menu. A simple bar and a wall of long couches lead to an elevated stage and DJ station and a small dance floor, where a mix of artists, hipsters, and alternative types create a youthful, whimsical, and dance-happy atmosphere. On occasion, the DJs are accompanied by theatrical and musical guests that help evoke the club’s burlesque history, making the vibe all the more intense and reminiscent of Berlin’s underground club scene.

This review from paris.unlike is also enthusiastic about the new (basically straight) Chez Moune:

If you are searching for a club ambiance similar to the one of Polanski’s “Blue Parrot” in the movie Frantic, Chez Moune is the place to go. Founded in 1936 by the infamous Madame Moune as a “Cabaret Lesbienne” with a strict girls-only door policy, it’s now a very popular spot for fashion week soirées and other hipster parties.
The slightly faded glitz and glamour of the cabaret is also a trademark of its neighborhood, Pigalle, the red-light district in-between the 9th and the 18th arrondissement. Other local hangouts in the area sport adventurous names such as “Lorelei” or “Schätzle”—each with their own mysterious-looking mademoiselles perched in the dim lighted window displays. So if it’s girls, boys or just a good time that you are looking for… you will be sure to find it in or around Chez Moune.

We see the same sentiment at redvisitor:

Located in Paris' cutting-edge red light district just south of Pigalle, in the shadow of the Moulin Rouge and amongst the area's sex-shops and hostess bars, is the legendary nightclub, Chez Moune. Founded in 1936 by Madame Moune as the city of light's original lesbian cabaret, it was taken over in 2008 by La Clique, the team behind cult Paris nightspot, Le Baron. No longer a female-only venue, the art deco building now plays host to a hip mixed crowd who move on from the buzzing Sans Souci bar just across the street at around midnight to come and party here into the early hours. Formerly patronised by iconic songstress Edith Piaf, today the club draws in the hipsters with fashion week after parties and cutting edge music more towards the electro end of the musical spectrum. Entry is free, but have no illusions, this is still one of Paris’ trendiest clubs and the door policy is strict: only those who fit the bill are granted admission into the long narrow club space decorated with flamboyant gilt and red velvet aplenty.  

Needless to say, the jeune filles over at girlports were pretty glum about the changes to this old lesbian institution:

Chez Moune was probably the longest-running lesbian bar in the world, opened back in 1936.  But sadly, in summer, 2009 it was bought up by new owners who've decided they no longer want it to be exclusively for women.  It's been said that this will become more of a mixed venue, but we'll have to see if that means LGBT, or straight mixed with gays.

Katmandou

Katmandou ad

Katmandou

Location: 21, rue du Vieux-Colombier, Paris, France

Opened: December 1969

Closed: 1990s

The translation is a bit creaky, but this is how the opening of Katmandou was announced back in the day:

December 2, 1969 Elul Perrin will open with Aimee Mori "The Kathmandu" at 21 rue du Vieux Colombier.  From the outset, the lesbian club will stand out from other institutions for girls. First, it is exclusively women and men can, in principle, to enter. Next, Kathmandu is a fashionable club and to the ranks of the boy antique male costume of the other clubs. Here the girls are young, modern, in a miniskirt or shorts. They dance the jerk or twist the mind and more free of hippies as their mothers. Finally, if women are queens, they are not exclusively homosexual....Elul Perrine is not only a great figure of the night Paris but also a lesbian activist force.

Nadine Cattan tells us the rest of the story--in better English, thankfully!-- in her article on "Virtual networks and emphemeral centralities for lesbians in Paris:"

The recent history of lesbian places in Paris can be dated back to the opening of a women-only night-club in the early 1970s, the Katmandou, which was managed by Elula Perrin and Aimee Mori, and dominated lesbian nightlife until the 1990s. The exclusion of men, though never strictly enforced, allowed for a degree of lesbian visibility. Located on the Left Bank, close to the famous night-clubs of the 1960s such as Chez Regine and Chez Castel, it was a sophisticated place, patronized by relatively well-heeled women and celebrities, whether lesbian or not: the place was therefore quite exclusive socially. Despite spotless management, as the police itself was forced to acknowledge, the club was harassed by neighbours who found the presence of a lesbian night-club at the foot of their building unacceptable. New occupants of the building in the 1990s became even more hostile, and managed to have the place shut down by complaining of the "noise" (according to Elula Perrin, these new neighbours were close to political spheres of power). "Parents can now let their little darlings walk past the 21 rue du Vieux-Colombier, it has become a luxury leather goods shop. Middle class, sleep soundly (Perrin, 2000, p. 193).

Advertisement for Katmandou

Le Monocle

Lesbian couple at Le Monocle, Paris (1932)

Le Monocle

Location: Edgar-Quinet Boulevard, Montmartre, Paris, France

Opened: 1920s

Closed: Ear1y 1940s

During the 1920s, Paris "gained a reputation for the variety of its nighttime pleasures and for its free and easy attitude toward life in general." As a result, "many specialized same-sex establishments" opened. Among these was Le Monocle, which is credited with being "one of the first, and certainly the most famous of lesbian nightclubs." It was opened by Lulu de Montparnasse in the Montmartre area, which at that time was "the main gathering place for Parisian lesbians."

Young invert at Le Monocle, Paris (1932)

As Florence Tamagne further explains, lesbians during that time were often found sitting together at Montmartre's "outdoor cafes or dancing at the Moulin Rouge." As for Le Monocle, "All the women there dressed as men, in Tuxedos, and wore their hair in a bob."

Why the name Le Monocle? It seems that sporting a monocle had become something of a lesbian "uniform" in those days. Even the writer Colette observed that "mannish women" often affected a monocle and "a white carnation in the buttonhole."

Regarding the photograph pictured above by Georges Brassai, Henry Allen reported the following back in 1999:

Knowing events to come, you have a hard time not seeing degeneracy and horror when you look at "Lesbian Couple at Le Monocle, Paris," from 1932. A wistful woman in an evening dress cuddles against a woman in necktie and man-combed hair, identified later as Violette Moriss, a weightlifting champion who had a double mastectomy. During World War II, she collaborated with the Gestapo and tortured women prisoners. The Resistance killed her in 1944.

Bar at Le Monocle (Mid 1930s)

In later years, a bar called the New Monocle opened in the Montmartre area, but it was not the same establishment as the former Le Monocle. The New Monocle is apparently a swinger's club.

Classic 1932 photo by the great Parisian photographer, Georges Brassai, of a lesbian couple at the infamous “Le Monocle,” owned by Lulu de Montparnasse. Also "Young invert at Le Monocle, Paris" (1932)--also by Brassai.