Status Updates From The Secret Paris of the 30's

[On a gay dance hall]:
One piquant note: once in a while one would see butchers from the neighborhood - rather common in appearance, but with hearts full of feminine longings - forming surprising couples. They would hold hands -thick, calloused hands - like timid children, and would waltz solemnly together, their eyes downcast, blushing wildly.

[An] army of artisans, artists, and decorators-and even ethnographers and archeologists-labored to give [the Chabonais] a luxury unparalleled at the time. No bordello had ever had such a wealth of chandeliers, tapestries, Venetian mirrors, rooms with 'themes' (...). The Japanese Room was given an official price at the 1900 World's Fair as an example of French refinement and taste.

"Nowadays, [the prostitutes'] main tools are the telephone, the address book, the automobile, and nude photographs of themselves in seductive poses."

Informative and wonderfully written.