In Life of Pi by Yann Martel, he writes that Piscine Deligny-“Paris’ oldest pool dating back to 1796, was an open-air barge moored to the Quai d’Orsay and the venue for the swimming events of the 1900 Olympics.” It has a fascinating history, but came to a sad end when it sank to the bottom of the Seine in 1993. The dance pole on a tiny stage in the back, the carpeted floor, the basement lounge, and the unmarked door that leads out to a courtyard, all feel like remnants of an earlier era. Everybody came–gay, straight and the undecided.” It was dark and small, and although it no longer exists, the piano bar just across the street still does. Located on Rue Saint Anne near Opera, it was, says Drake “homosexual in its inclinations and yet radically removed from the clandestine gay clubs of the Rive Gauche … But the greatest innovation of Le Sept was that it was defined by glamour, not homosexuality. Rue Saint Anne was lined with gay clubs, but Le Sept was a game changer for the gay community. Discussing the gay scene during this time, Drake says that “there were pockets of homosexual life and men cruising all over Paris, but Saint Germain in the 1950s was known for its folles, the name used to describe camp gays of the moment…” 4. Le Fiacre was a small, but famous, gay nightclub on Rue Saint Sulpice on the Left Bank that got so crowded, the party would end up on the streets in the summer. Le Fiacre, a Gay Nightclub (Rue Saint Sulpice)
Le Bœuf sur le Toit in the 8th Arrondissement off the Champs-Elysées was their favorite because it had been a “cult piano cabaret bar of Cocteau, Picasso and Chanel after the First World War.” 3. Drake writes that “both Yves and Karl were steeped in nostalgia,” yearning for the Paris of the 1920s and ’30s.