Guide of the gay Marais: my itinerary through its history and the LGBTQI+ life of the neighborhood

Our stroll to discover the gay district of Paris begins at the edge of the Marais, in the shopping street of Montorgueil. On January 4, 1750, workers Jean Diot and Bruno Lenoir were arrested here for the “crime of sodomy”.

After a six-month long trial, they are strangled then burned on July 6, 1750 on the Place de Grève (today place de l'Hôtel de Ville), thus becoming the last people in France to be executed for homosexuality. This plaque, affixed in 2014, pays tribute to their memory. Four years later, it was vandalized twice by an opponent of homoparenting, the "LGBT lobby", and the organization of " Gay Games " in Paris. This act bears witness to the challenges that still exist in the fight for equal rights and respect.

Strolling towards les Halles, push open the doors of theSaint-Eustache church to admire the famous Keith Haring's "The Radiant Child" triptych . This genius American artist completed this masterful work, in bronze and white gold, just two weeks before his death on February 16, 1990, taken by AIDS at only 31 years old. Among the nine copies created, one was offered according to his wish to the City of Paris by the Spirit Foundation founded by John Lennon and Yoko Ono. The choice was made to install it in this church, in homage to thecommitment of this parish to AIDS patients. This bright and vibrant triptych radiates love and hope. It is an inspiring and emotional stop.

Until the end of the 1960s, the site of the current Forum des Halles housed a huge wholesale market for fresh food products, installed under the famous Baltard metal pavilions. This "belly of Paris", lively day and night, has also been a space for meetings and fantasies, attracting many men fascinated by the workers of the Carreau. Some of these "strong men of the Halles" live there a virile and uninhibited homosexuality, for financial needs or for pure pleasure. The surrounding streets (including that of the "Vertus" or Saint-Denis) thus shelter small prostitution businesses (female and male) in furnished hotels, back rooms of wine bars and restaurants... not to mention the urinals of the rue des Prouvaires, of the Tonnellerie and opposite the church of Saint-Eustache. At the hotel of Saumon, at Saïd's, the "uranists" meet legionnaires, spahis playing quiet belote while waiting for the customer...

Much later in the 1980s, the Halles district, completely transformed with the Forum, evolved to become one of the high places of Parisian gay life with the opening of many restaurants, bars and nightclubs. The Banana Cafe (formerly the Broad Side) or theAmazonial (this link to book your meal there) are among the last survivors of this period. The influx of homosexual clientele in the district (8 metro and RER lines and night bus from the neighboring Chatelet helping!) transforms some old cafés or brasseries, which go from a clientele of "strong Halles" to a more cheerful and colorful clientele. This is the case of the "Bon Pêcheur" or the terrace of the "Père Tranquille". In January 1977, the opening of the Centre Pompidou creates a link between the Halles district and that of MaraisModern art galleries are opening and attracting a new audience.

Going up rue Saint-Martin, pass the porch of theSaint-Merry church. This pastoral center involved in the LGBT movement regularly hosts events of theDavid and Jonathan association, a movement that has been bringing together and supporting gay Christians since 1972. In a Catholic Church that has never been very kind to LGBTQI+ people, this Parisian place of worship practices open-mindedness. But certainly not as much as the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, who sometimes have permission from their Mother Superior to leave their convent of Paris, Paname or Protestants. I hope you come across these nuns in cornets at certain parties where they perform promotion of “multiversal” joy in a provocative way, but always with a huge dose of humor, self-mockery... and above all, charity!

After strolling past the Stravinsky fountain (a girlfriend!) and her Dazzling sculptures by Niki de Saint Phalle (a girl really not like the others), and admired the immense street art fresco depicting Salvador Dalí (a rascal!), take a well-deserved stop at Coffee Beaubourg. This brasserie attracts a chic and gay clientele, where you can meet both a trendy elite and young preppy gays who come to enjoy a neat decor and an atmosphere that matches their bobo lifestyle. Here, you come as much to see as to be seen!

Finally, at 63 rue Beaubourg, enter the LGBTQI+ Center of Paris and Île-de-France, a pillar of the community for over 30 years. More than 80 associations carry out various activities there, and its rich agenda is full of committed and friendly proposals. A treasure trove of resources not to be missed to get informed, get involved and meet up.

Before continuing our walk towards theHôtel de Ville, a stop is essential at Duplex Bar, located a stone's throw from the LGBTI Center, at 25 rue Michel Lecomte. Founded in 1980, this iconic bar is today the last of the pioneering gay establishments of Marais still in activity. The high walls of the Duplex regularly serve as a setting for temporary exhibitions, showcasing artists. A notable event in the history of the Duplex is also the birth, in 1984, of theassociation AIDES, first French organization to fight AIDS, in an apartment on the 3rd floor of the building. For many years, the bar hosted the first information meetings bringing together doctors, lawyers, patients and visionary activists engaged in this essential struggle.

The descent of the street of Temple is the opportunity to locate at number 44 the head office of National Union of Gay Enterprises (SNEG & Co) founded in 1990 by several French LGBT drinking establishment, sauna and cruising operators. When the AIDS epidemic was raging, the The association's showdown with the public authorities allows its members to distribute condoms and prevention documents, without fear of verbalization or administrative closure from the authorities. Lobbying that saved lives! A stone's throw away at 2 rue des Blancs Manteaux, the current SECTOR X has taken over the location of the mythical Zinc Piano from the 1980s-90s: a pioneering cabaret for LGBTQI+ life in the neighborhood.

If today 12 rue du Plâtre welcomes the LESBIAN BAR ELLES, you should know that this is where the very first gay bar in Marais (The Village) opened its doors at the end of 1978. A real revolution for the time since the establishment opens onto the street and offers low prices. The immense success of the Village does not fail to trigger petitions from neighbors unaccustomed to these new type of visitors… The impetus given by the Village for the opening of other bars, on the other hand, signals the definitive decline of the rue Sainte-Anne, considered elitist and expensive, but definitively launches the Marais gay. Thanks Joel Leroux!

In the Cathedral Notre-Dame who faces theHôtel de Ville on the island of Cité, the activists Femen in 2013, they held a topless happening and shouted " Pope no more, homophobe get out " right during this heated debate. In this same place of worship, the activists of Act Up Paris, some of whom dressed as drag queens, organized a parody of a gay wedding in 2015, to the great displeasure of the Church of France...

In août 2018, village of the 10th Gay Games » is organized on the forecourt of the Town Hall. These "worlds of diversity" manage to bring together more than 10000 participants from more than 90 countries, of all genders and sexualities! This is an absolute record in the history of this event...and a thunderbolt in the world sports bodies that until now have been so uninclusive. The FIERE foundation values ​​this heritage. Also, seven years after the Gay Games, the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games have never known so many openly gay athletes.

After crossing Rue du Roi de Sicile, the climb up Rue Vieille du Temple takes us to the former location of the Words in the Mouth bookstore formerly located at 6 rue Sainte-Croix de la Bretonnerie from 1983 to 2019. This institution of the Marais gay, driven out by the real estate boom in the neighborhood, has since been replaced by a shoe store dealing in pink money. Shock and sadness for the "old" gays of the Marais…I’ll give you the details his story in this article dedicated to LGBTQI+ bookstores and books – Until 2010, this bookstore was the complementary neighbor of the iconic bar "Le Central" (also the first gay hotel in the area!) located in 1980 at the end of Rue Vieille du Temple. A jewelry store has taken its place…

Old Street of Temple cross the Rue des Rosiers invested since the end of the 19th century by the Ashkenazi Jewish community. The two gay and Jewish minorities share a story of opprobrium and persecution which partly explains their peaceful cohabitation. Also, during the terrorist attack on the Goldenberg restaurant in 1982, the traders of the two communities consolidated their solidarity to think about the safety of their customers from often common enemies.

Before joining the very commercial and trendy rue des Francs-Bourgeois, you can take a little detour on the place paying homage to Ovida-Delect (1926-1996), Parisian transgender woman, deported resistance fighter and poet.

Coming back to the street of Francs-Bourgeois, go past the Hall of Blancs Manteaux which brings together LGBTQI+ events throughout the year such as the Spring of the Associations organized by theInterLGBT in April or the Sports Forum of the LGBT+ Sports Federation in September.

Back at 25 rue des Francs-Bourgeois, a peaceful break is essential Garden of the Hôtel-Lamoignon dedicated to Mark-Ashton (1960-1987), British equal rights activist.

Welcome now to the Museum Carnavalet, an institution entirely dedicated to the history of Paris. The woman of letters Madame de Sévigné (1626-1696), born in the neighboring Place des Vosges, lived for more than 20 years in this private mansion. These letters leave a brilliant and very lively picture of the society of her time, served by an exceptional vigor and freedom of style. She reveals between the lines the loves of the inhabitants of Marais, including the homosexual adventures of some that the aristocratic circles of the 17th century knew how to tolerate. The collections of this museum are absolutely exceptional and the association Paris Gay Village and organizes guided tours on LGBTQI+ themes. In this museum, you will find a reconstruction of the Marcel Proust's bed room, a giant of French literature, a keen observer (and actor!) of gay life in the 19th and early 20th centuries (for this, reread “Sodom and Gomorrah” from In Search of Lost Time).

Let's meet now in the heart of Marais aristocratic, on the Place Royale, built in 1605 under the reign ofHenri IV and renamed in 1792 " Place des Vosges » by the revolutionaries. From the 14th to the end of the 16th century, its location hosted the Hôtel des Tournelles, the residence of many monarchs (Louis XII, Henri III, Catherine de Medici…) before the court favored the Tuileries Palace.

One Sunday in 1578, it was here on the site of the horse market (future Place des Vosges) that the " Duel of the Minions » brings the district into the great history of bloody duels...and of Marais Queer! Let's set the scene: Henri III (distant cousin of the 4th Henry) is a king of great refinement who particularly appreciates being surrounded by cute people, noble effeminate courtiers, made up, powdered, perfumed, with a sulphurous reputation and exuberant clothing styles (earrings, extravagant strawberries and all the trimmings…real drag queens before their time!). Some “ cute bunk beds " have the privilege of sleeping in the king's bedroom, if not in his bed - as the king's political opponents, many of whom were in this period of religious war, assert. This restricted circle of favourites then knows, thanks to its royal protector, a dazzling but very jealous fortune. This is how useful sleeping arrangements were said by the good tongues of the Catholic League, the King's enemy... The great preciousness of the mignons at court in no way prevents them from being tough war leaders, if not big brutes, on the battlefields. On 27 April 1578, this "Duel of the Minions" involving six of them turns into a real carnage. The reason? Political differences blown out of proportion after a (heterosexual) sleeping affair. The system of minions at court then shatters and Henri III has difficulty recovering from it. Popular memory has seized on the thesis of the supposed homo or bisexuality ofHenri III (still unproven, even by historians with strong gaydar) while on the other hand putting under the carpet his reality as a lady-killer...

Since 1825, it has been the equestrian statue ofanother king of France with morals also mocked which sits in the heart of Place des Vosges: Louis XIII (1601-1643). After adolescent passions for rough soldiers, coachmen (including the aptly named Saint-Amour) and dog handlers, the King's first serious love was for Albert de Luynes (for a time governor of the prison of the Bastille) which exerts on him a real sensual fascination, even a hold that only death abolishes. You understand better why the consummation of the marriage of Anne of Austria and Louis XIII, which occurred on January 25, 1619, four years after the celebration of their wedding, was a real affair of State... 

Their marriage turns into a fiasco although he ultimately gave France (after 23 years of barren marriage) its greatest King: Louis XIV (1638-1715)… but also his brother Philippe d'Orleans. This youngest of the siblings is dressed and raised as a girl by Anne of Austria so as not to overshadow the Sun King. Once an adult, "Mr. Brother of the King" enters with his extravagant finery and behavior into the annals of history as the biggest "crazy twisted woman" French royal families… With him, the most gay-friendly court the Kingdom of France has ever known definitively abandons the hotels of Marais to favor Versailles and the Palais Royal for inverted loves. This is the beginning of the end of the Marais aristocrat…

To finish on the Place des Vosges, a little nod to Francis Bacon who from 1974 to 1987 set up his workshop-apartmentt at 14 rue de Birague behind the Pavillon du Roi.

To end our stroll in the Marais gay, all at the Bastille !  Let's leave Place des Vosges for this, a cruising spot frequented by homosexuals and prostitutes at the end of the 19th century. Let's stop at 32 rue des Tournelles (near the restaurants that I recommend to you for your lunch or dinner!). This place is guarded by the police until 1914 for its Mont-Blanc Hotel, a furnished lodging formerly composed of around ten rooms for male couples... who notably flirted on the boulevard Beaumarchais or along Amelot Street.

In the 18th century, the prison of the Bastille  imprisoned for “outrageous debauchery” and “scandalous writings” Marquis de Sade who went down in history for his sadomasochistic writings. taking of the Bastille 14 of July 1789 then marks history as the symbol of the Great French Revolution, initiator of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen  and new freedoms to conquer. In 1791, although the revolutionaries had only associated homosexuality with the vices of the Ancien Régime, the lecherous clergy and the decadent aristocracy, homosexuality comes out on the sly, without any debate in the Constituent Assembly, from the field of criminal offences in France, This after centuries of repression based on the crime of sodomy. No more burnings at the stake!  A first in Europe! The Golden Sun cabarets rue de Lappe, the Franc-Burgundian on rue des Tournelles or even La Croix d'Or on rue de la Roquette can then continue to welcome their “sodomite” clientele without any worries…

Until the late 1920s, the district of Bastille is in the sights of the police. Street of Lappe, the interlope dancing of “Bousca” is under surveillance to transform itself from 22 p.m. into a dance hall for "aunts and inverts". To the sound of an accordion, thugs, sailors on leave, prostitutes and elderly gentlemen fraternize. To consummate their love, some treat themselves to rooms upstairs... or a mattress in the hold of the barge La Noïé docked on the harborArsenal. Unless they have already crossed paths during the day in the "steam baths" at 93 rue de la Roquette...

In the 1930s, however, the mood began to harden, war was not far away and theThe far right blames homosexuals (and Jews) for many of France's ills...

After'Golden age of homosexuality in Paris in the interwar period, the The following decades weighed down the acceptance of LGBTQI+ people in French society. Many of them still live in the closet and risk see their lives turned upside down by an outing in their family and professional environment. Except in a few privileged circles, clandestinity is regaining the upper hand through a hidden, even shameful homosexuality.

Le May 10, 1981, François Mitterrand, President of the République newly elected comes to celebrate his victory at Place de la Bastille. The gay community of Marais is jubilant because one point of its "110 proposals for France" finally plans to put heterosexuals and homosexuals on the same level equality in age of sexual consentOn July 27, 1982, the discriminatory provisions taken by Marshal Pétain under the Vichy regime were finally repealed.

Since the place of Bastille, symbol of freedom, is the crossing point or terminus of many Gay Pride organized in Paris from 1977. The fight for the PACS (Civil Solidarity Pact) was won in 1999, that of marriage for same-sex couples in 2013! In May 2025, at the foot of the July Column, the 3rd edition of the " Ball of Love » celebrates equality and LGBTQIA+ artistic and musical culture with a cheering crowd.

Since May 2025, the Port-de-l' gardenArsenal houses a memorial of great symbolic significance. Inaugurated on the occasion of the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, the monument To the forgotten!, designed by the artist Jean-Luc Verna, pays homage to the homosexual victims of deportation and, more broadly, to LGBTQIA+ people persecuted throughout history.

This striking 3-ton steel work—a monumental magic wand—blends mythology, pop culture, and politically engaged poetry. Here's what the artist says: The dark side of the star is the bodies that were burned, it is mourning, it is also a shadow that tells us that things can happen again. And the other side, the mirror, is the present, with the colors of time passing and the Parisian sky changing as quickly as public opinion can turn.».

Naked as a worm from the top of the July Column in the center of the Square, the Genius of the Bastille, also said the Genius of Liberty, still today observes with malice the advancement of Rights. From the summit of the July column, he seems to watch over like a guardian angel on the Marais, a neighborhood that remains today the sounding board for all the progress and future struggles of LGBTQI+ people

© Julien Dumarais - My Marais Paris

You would like to be accompanied by a guide to discover the Marais gay ? You are quite right! I cannot recommend enough that you follow the guided tours organized in the Marais (and many other districts of the capital) by the association PARIS GAY VILLAGEIt brings together passionate volunteers and experts on the subject with visits of rare erudition. Here is the program of their visits!

Professionals are also available to accompany you on your journeys.