WHY IS PARIS THE CITY OF LOVES AND THE CAPITAL OF ROMANTICISM?

Nestled in the heart of its old stones, mysterious and romantic as you wish, of an incomparable monumental beauty, Paris the lover never ceases to defend its envied title of capital of love in all languages since it is the lifelong owner of a French "I love you" that is meant to be eternal. With Saint-Denis as patron saint on the Butte Montmartre and Sainte-Geneviève as patron saint on its mountain, and it is tradition that says so, today's Paris, modern and Olympic, nevertheless remains in our memory the Paris of Love and Pleasures, the romantic Paris, the Paris of Arts and Letters so radiant throughout the world. A beautiful quartet that makes many people jealous...

Left bank as well as right bank, from the Champs-Elysées and the Eiffel Tower to the Ile Saint-Louis via the Louvre, from the Grands Boulevards to the Quays of the Seine, from the Buttes Chaumont to the Latin Quarter and Montparnasse via Notre-Dame and the Marais, The somewhat magical and tragic Paris of the great courtesans of the Second Empire, like the Paris of the Belle Epoque and the Roaring Twenties, left such an imprint that Paris will always be Paris, the city of love.

Paris, a global meeting place for all lovers.

Paris with Pigalle and the Bois de Boulogne has never competed with the slums of Al Capone's Chicago! On the contrary, our beautiful capital has a very beautiful story to tell: its tiny green island of Gallic Lutetia with its fishermen, sailors and boatmen, the Paris full of romanticism , the Paris of the Belle Epoque and its Roaring Twenties. For two centuries, Paris has established itself as the heart of a world in search of a love like no other, a love à la française.

The courtesans of the Second Empire are obviously no longer there to lay down the law during the day on the Champs and in the evening at the Opéra Garnier; nor are there the shady nights of the cabarets of the time of the Occupation without memories. It is more beautifully in the free loves of Saint-Germain-des-Prés of the post-war and on their base of loves in all directions that Paris has made a very nice reputation for itself on the heart side.

Paris was not built in a day: since Caesar made Lutetia his headquarters, the Seine has bubbled quite a bit on each side of its banks according to floods and territorial disputes, but Paris has stoically remained Paris with its mysteries that have caused so much excitement, its dramas that have made it suffer and grow, its “Parisian nights” that have been so widely seen around the world!

Sex in Paris has obviously changed its face: the hot streets of medieval Paris have disappeared, anonymous love affairs and brothels have lost their former aura. There are no more major scandals in the dressing rooms of theaters and concert cafés, but Paris still smells of love and is still as desired.

The Pont des Arts has not lost its padlocks and the Place des Abbesses keeps a tender and jealous eye on its world-famous “I love you wall”.

Let's not hide behind sex, our desires and our fantasies: Paris, the capital of love? Why not? But this reputation is very confused, distorted and rather sulphurous, and has forever forged the image of the Romantic and erotic Paris of a bygone era: no one can ignore that the artistic movement of Romanticism is intimately linked to our capital and that the latter has naturally become the heart of a "French romanticism" that has never died out.

With time and this extraordinary charm that Paris exerts on tourists and walkers from all over the world, has not romantic Paris become Paris of love? In a completely different register, and a little darker this time, no one can ignore that our capital has always been one of the hubs of prostitution in Europe, morals in France being reputed to be freer than those of its neighbors.

Pigalle, an emblematic district of “Paris by day and night”

Who killed Pigalle and what are the real reasons? Good question! The red light district of Paris during the Belle Epoque, in turn a “comfortable but spendthrift” haunt of artists, writers, prostitutes and pimps, thugs and bobos, has today a completely different face in its tiny space of a single square, three streets and a stretch of boulevard. Memories, memories! Who didn’t sing about Pigalle, so popular and sought after by any visitor in need of love! It was really slumsy in Pigalle in the past and a certain generation of young Parisians from the 80s are still here to testify! Pigalle was undoubtedly a disreputable, dirty neighborhood, but for a very long time it was an endearing neighborhood due to its poverty that was constantly bubbling over, so much was the mutual aid of each other. It is equally obvious that Pigalle and its “milieu” that was too dubious to be honest were soliciting hard to better bait the customer in search of sex, sex that was not systematically there and that reeked of scam all around the “girls’ bars” with their neon lights, each one more sparkling than the last.

The 70s would mark a first important turning point in the life of Pigalle: increasingly closely monitored by the “Mondaine”, the thugs, the “pimps” and the “marchands” of Pigalle who still weighed heavily resisted as best they could but ended up reluctantly leaving their favorite neighborhood. A world made of sex and shenanigans was disappearing from the Parisian landscape to the great displeasure of a whole human fauna who earned a very good living...

Pigalle and its jungle retained a monumental power over our imagination for a very long time and many films are there to testify to this. What do we have left of the hot nights of Pigalle during the Belle Epoque and Paris by night? Without a doubt, the smells of sex, cigarettes, champagne, perfumes...

Formidable, demi-mondaines or not, courageous, mischievous, strong and creative, in love, were all these classy women who were in the past the muses of love of Paris during the Belle Epoque.

Paris can say thank you for life to Hortense Schneider the singer, to Cléo de Mérode the dancer with legendary beauty, to Kiki de Montparnasse, to Colette the famous woman of letters who now has her own path in the heart of the Palais-Royal garden, to Sarah Bernhardt, to Georges Sand, to Joséphine Baker, to Coco Chanel and her No. 5...

Among many other equally legitimate female figures, they were the locomotives and muses of a Tout Paris that was built with fervor over the years... Respect for all these great ladies who single-handedly made “Tout Paris”! And to whom will be associated without excess Hélène Martin , the Empress of Parisian nights of a bygone past. Life is not completely white or completely black but perfectly white and black for everyone!

Paris on foot or by bike: our suggestion for a romantic stroll for couples.

What a journey we have come with the very small green island of Lutetia, which became the Île de la Cité in the 16th century, as the starting point of Parisian life! The first Parisians quickly fell in love with it. It is high time to go back and spend a long time there! What do you think?

Nearby, the Marais and Victor Hugo's house await you with open arms: it's not the Bermuda Triangle and all its mysteries, but we're not far from it! It's historic Paris that has a crazy charm and that will make you skid with happiness... The Templars have some big surprises in store for you...

Before going for a stroll along the Canal Saint-Martin , you will need to take a long walk around the Buttes de Chaumont with its 173 steps to climb and the same thing around Montmartre... without the steps!

A stone's throw from the Moulin Rouge, you will find a tiny museum, hidden behind the blue and pastel pink shutters of a house from the 1800s! Go and meet all these portraits of women in love! To catch your breath and hand in hand, from kiss to kiss, a magnificent circular garden full of flowers and greenery awaits you a stone's throw away...

Paris' romantic district par excellence, Montmartre is unrivaled with its small sloping streets that lead you straight to Square Jehan Rictus on Place des Abbesses and “the wall of I love you” , a great find by Frédéric Baron and Claire Kito! On this unusual wall, an incredible array of calligraphed declarations of love in all languages please! On the road, lovers of all kinds and from all backgrounds!

Last strolls, last detours: the cemeteries of Père Lachaise and Montparnasse! So go and visit all these lovers who are now resting in peace.

Don't forget to go and greet Oscar Wilde and his unusual sphinx: thrown in prison and sentenced to two years of forced labor for a "homosexual" kiss, Oscar can now sleep in peace. His admirers have long since avenged him by delivering "their multiple lipstick kisses" on the imposing winged sphinx that protects him in his eternal rest. A glass wall now acts as security. Many other famous tombs await you... and one of the most legendary tombs of Parisian couples, that of Héloïse and Abelard . They are the oldest lovers in Paris.

PARIS, LOVE, LOVE ALWAYS

Paris does not give up its culture, its loves and its know-how. The “made in France” and the “French Cosmetics” enjoy a phenomenal international reputation that does not weaken in the face of increasingly fierce competition outside of France. Paris remains for a long time, forever, an essential city that sends its brightest rays all over the world. Love of course! and with it in its luggage “YESforLOV” the first brand of intimate cosmetics at the service of the act of love.