What if you want to enjoy the local queer scene without punishing your liver and sleep routine? Paris-local Tahney Fosdike shows us how.
When away from home, I connect with a place the more I can express myself in it.
I’ll bypass tourist hotspots for something more local and closer to my identity. Maybe a cafe, a vintage shop, an art gallery – or a gay bar.
Gay bars are great. I hold dear memories of my fellow partiers on a sticky dance floor in Greece holding iPhones to their foreheads with the words ‘Bi’ illuminated on the screen. They handed their phones to me and I displayed mine. We danced together until 6am.
But I can’t party until the wee hours often – and in 2024, gay culture still feels relegated to nightlife. Most travel guides only add to this, recommending gay bar after gay bar after gay bar for queer travellers.
Want if you want to enjoy the local queer scene of a city like Paris without punishing your liver and sleep routine?
As a queer local in Paris, these are my top picks for enjoying the best of the city’s queer scene in the daytime.
The neighbourhood of Le Marais, in the 4th arrondissement, is known as Paris’ LGBTQIAP+ hotbed.
If you’re not sipping vino at one of its queer-friendly bars, you can spend your day dipping in and out of shops along Rue Sainte-Croix de la Bretonnerie or at small businesses like Atelier Grenade in the nearby 10th arrondissement, run by lesbian jewellery artist Caroline Sabotinov-Tuernal.
For quiet browsing, you could also scoot over to the 11th for Violette and Co, a feminist, lesbian and LGBTQIA+ bookstore and cafe, as well as Mots Bouche, another bookstore specialising in LGBTQIAP+ themes.
Hungry?
For a giggle, grab a bit at Legaychoc, a small bakery with baguettes, pastries and sandwiches in the shape of … eggplants. After ticking off a boulangerie, as every visitor to Paris should, you’ll eventually need something more hearty, so head to Marais’ queer favourite Cafe Voulez Vous or check out the menu at lesbian-owned Dirty Lemon Bar for a feed.
