Le Marais — Paris's Gay Quarter

When gay venues began moving into the Marais around 1980 — Le Central and the Hôtel Central on rue Vieille du Temple among the pioneers — the district was cheap, crumbling and unfashionable. Within a decade it was the nerve centre of French gay life. The scene consolidated along rue Sainte-Croix-de-la-Bretonnerie and rue des Archives: Le Cox, the Open Café, and the bookshop Les Mots à la Bouche became institutions, and through the AIDS-crisis years the quarter was where French activism, mourning and nightlife shared the same few blocks. The city later painted the rainbow crossings that now mark the corners permanently. What you see today: still the densest LGBTQ cluster in Paris — bars, cafés and shops within a ten-minute walk of the Centre Pompidou — layered into one of the city's most beautiful historic districts. Gentrification has pushed rents up and some venues out, but the crossings, the crowds on a warm evening, and forty years of continuity keep the Marais what it became: the capital's queer home ground.