1936 On the Continent

President of the Republic downwards, continuing the great tradition of the former Opera Ball. There is also the Bal des Quat’s Arts, the classic affair of the artists, which formerly used to be a rather hectic business but is less so to-day.
    And, of course, there is the national festival on July 14th, the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille, when the whole of Paris—literally—goes dancing in the streets and squares, the traffic being limited and diverted. On that day the people reign supreme, and they dance all day and all night with unparalleled abandon, until they drop from sheer exhaustion. That is still the genuine, the truly genuine Paris, which will probably continue for at least another century.
“Night Clubs”
    The night establishments proper, the Boites de Nuits, crop up afresh in Paris every season like mushrooms after the rain. Many of them go broke after the first season and are obliged to close their glamorous doors. Most of the
boites
have a more or less good programme of turns, some have special lighting effects, while others boast a famous host or a famous clientele or a good supper cuisine, or merely gaily decorated walls. Preferences and vogues change from season to season.
A Brief Directory
    It would be impossible to give even an approximately complete list of the
boites
, and we will only mention a few typical representatives of this kind of establishment. There is the Lido on the Champs Elysées, where you dine on the edge of a swimming bath and where you can indulge in a swim yourself or, if you choose, you may confine yourself to watching the water babies maintained by the establishment. Everything here is brand new, with many technical teasers.
    On the other hand Le Ciro, the Florida and the Perroquet are old established and famous, and still have distinguished clientele. On Montparnasse you will find the good old Jockey, chockful, noisy, colourful, cheap and amusing. The dance hall in the basement of the Cupole is more respectable in tone. The Viking has a decorous, preponderantly Scandinavian clientele, with an excellent Swiss cuisine. The College Inn and the Boule Blanche are quieter places with good pianists and a permanent clientele. The Cabaret des Fleurs, whose star is the famous Kiki, is cheap and mixed.
    In the Quartier Latin the better-off students amuse themselves at the “Gipsy Bar.” On Montmartre the most notable night establishments are the famous Russian
boites
, “caves,” and dance-halls, which offer good sentimental balalaika music. (But the waitresses are no longer grand duchesses and, according to some, they never were.
    Au grand jeu in the Rue Pigalle has recently become rather popular; it has a good programme of turns.
    So much for the
boites
; it would be useless to enumerate any more of them, as ultimately you will in any case follow the advice of a personal friend or of the all-knowing head porter at your hotel.
Naughty Places
    As the night advances and we become more and more enterprising as our spirits rise, we become interested in an aspect of Paris that is not mentioned in the guide-books, and which is referred to by old gentlemen with a wink or with a click of the tongue, an aspect that rises to the mind unconsciously whenever the name of Paris is mentioned.The Parisian’s attitude to the “secrets of Paris” is far more natural; he cannot understand why people distinguish between night clubs which are to a considerable extent populated by
cocottes
, and those no less traditional establishments which they inhabit completely. The visitor drinks his wine, champagne or cocktail at these places in the same manner as anywhere else, and he need take no notice of the peculiar functions of the house.
    To an Englishman this attitude may appear terribly frivolous and shocking, and from his point of view he is undoubtedly right. But the Frenchman, from his point of view, regards these traditional establishments of his capital city merely as amusing and
rigolo
, and as such harmless and natural. And this is proved by the fact that he not only talks about them gaily in novels or in company, but also likes to take his wife “on the spree,” just as he would take her to a
boite de nuit
.
    Thus, those who have a mind for this sort of adventure need not consider themselves as beyond the pale. Any Parisian friend will advise him, with the most natural manner in the world, where they may take their wives and where they had better not take them. If you have