Blanche and Pigalle
From Paris Hotels Reviews
From place de Clichy in the west to Barbé-Rouchechourt in the east the hill of Montmartre is underlined by the sleazy boulevards de Clichy and de Rouchehourt. The pedestrian zed centre of the boulevards was occupied by dodgem cars and other tacky sideshows for most of the twentieth century, but Montmartre’s upward mobility seems to be dragging its shabby hem along with it. The traffic-choked roads have now been “civilized”, at the Paris, planners put it, with bus and cycle lanes, and lots more greenery. It remains to be seen whether or not they will be recolonized by the sophisticated strollers, or flâneurs, that defined them in the late nineteenth century. At the eastern Barbés end, where the métro clatters by on iron trestles, the crowds teem round the Tati department store, the cheapest in the city, while the pavements are thick with Arab and African vendors hawking watches, trinkets and textiles.
At the place de Clichy end, tour buses from all over Europe feed their contents into massive hotels. In the middle, between place Blanche and place Pigalle, sex shows, sex shops and prostitutes – male and female – vie for the custom of solitaires and couples alike. It’s an area in which respectability and sleaze rub very close shoulders. One of the city’s most elegant villas (private streets), avenue Fronchot, leads off place Pigalle, itself. In the adjacent streets – rue de Douai, victor – Massé and Houdon – specialist music and hi – if shops jostle with exploitive “hostess” bars.
Perfectly placed amongst all the sex shops and shows in the Musée de l’ Erotisme at 72 boulevard de Clichy (daily 10am – 2am; €8; ⓦwww.musee-erotisme.com; M° Blanche), testament to its owner’s fascination with sex as expressed in folk art. The ground floor and first floor are awash with model phalluses, fertility symbols and intertwined figurines from all over Asia, Africa and pre-Columbian Latin America. The European pieces tend the satirical or plain smutty, with lots of naughty nuns and priests caught in compromising situations. The rest of the floors upstairs are devoted to intriguing temporary exhibitions. A few steps west, the photogenic Moulin Rouge still thrives on place Blanche. Once Toulouse-Lautrec’s inspiration, it’s now a mere shadow of its former self (see Pigalle Cabarets).
