Aux Belles Poules

The facade of the building at number thirty-two rue Blondel still wears a faded sign with the name Aux Belles Poules. In the early twentieth century, this address housed one of the most famous brothels in Paris. Men paid a fee at the door to enter a velvet-draped salon where women entertained guests beneath gilded mirrors. The house kept its license until nineteen forty-six, when Marthe Richard successfully lobbied the French government to outlaw all such establishments across the country.