Gay Paris Guide

My Gay Paris: Fast, Free HIV Testing In The City

When you’re planning a visit to a romantic city like Paris, we’re sure HIV is the last thing on your mind. But if you’re visiting the Marais, chances are you’re here to go out and have a few drinks, which can of course sometimes leave you doing something that you worry about the next morning.

There are plenty of other places online offering tips to help keep your sex life safe (and sexy, for that matter), but we do like to tell you what’s on offer in Paris. And sometimes that can mean you want to get a HIV test—without waiting around.

If you’re a visitor from out of town, you likely won’t have your own doctor here in Paris, or time to visit a clinic for a test, where the results can take up to a week to arrive.

Luckily, though, there are two locations close to the centre of the Marais where you can get tested at the weekend, and have the results in just half an hour.

Checkpoint

The first is a specialist centre called ‘Checkpoint’ just a few minutes’ walk from the Marais, open to men who have sex with men aged at least 18 (that should cover most people reading this blog!). On Tuesdays and Thursdays you need to make an appointment (by calling ahead of time, so you’ll need some French), but on Mondsays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, you can show up whenever you like. Staffed by a specialist team, you’ll need to give a drop of blood and then wait thirty minutes to receive the results as well as personal advice based on the outcome of your test.

WHAT: Checkpoint HIV Testing Centre
WHERE: 36, rue Geoffroy l’Asnier — métro : Saint Paul
WHEN: Mondays 8 am to 12:30 pm, Wednesdays 1 pm to 10 pm and Fridays and Saturdays 12 noon to 6 pm; by appointment Tuesdays and Thursdays

Figuier Testing Centre

This is one of a network of free, anonymous HIV testing centres run by the City of Paris, with other branches found around the city. It’s open six days a week for appointments, but even then, you don’t need to give a name if you’d prefer to remain anonymous. If even that is too much hassle, then you can show up in the afternoons, but be warned, it can get busy.

WHAT: Figuier HIV Testing Centre
WHERE: 2, rue du Figuier — métro : Saint Paul
WHEN: from Monday to Friday, from 1:30 pm to 6:30 pm; by appointment at other times

For more info about both centres, including contact details, you can read this page on gay blog VeryFriendly.fr (in French).

Posted on February 20, 2012 by Sam| Leave a comment

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Gay Paris Guide

My Gay Paris: Paris Goes Crazy For Designer Burgers, Part 1

Despite its German origins, the hamburger is a fundamentally American meal. Indeed, a simple beef patty slung between two pieces of bread and served with a generous helping of fries is one of the most quintessentially American dishes you can get, and French tourists generally can’t wait to try the real deal when they visit.

Of course, opinions vary as to whether including cheese, bacon, or salad or any one of a number of other extras adds to or detracts from the overall effect, but it’s a simple, down-to-earth comfort food that is now loved by fans the world over.

It might not fit with the idea of classic French haute cuisine, but burgers are popular here too. In fact, they always have been: the presence of pricier, classier alternatives, only seems to drive the French ever more willing to indulge their junk-food cravings with a Big Mac.

Labour of Love

A new type of burger craze is sweeping the capital, though. A handful of high-end restaurants have sprung up in Paris offering a much classier type of burger. These aren’t thrown together production line affairs, but a real labour of love, often made by chefs who manage to combine their love for the American burger with French savoir-faire and the best local ingredients.

Over the past few months, a couple of new joints have opened up offering (almost) nothing but ‘designer’ burgers, while other restaurants, keen to keep up with the trend, have also added burgers to their menu. There are so many places you can try a quality burger that a recent article by French newspaper Le Figaro covered the trend their list of favourites ran to a dozen venues.

Here are a couple of our favourites you can try:

Le Camion Qui Fume — various locations

Not a restaurant per se, but a New York-style food truck, with burgers costing around 8€. You’ll need to look online to find out where it’s stopping, but it makes regular visits both to the place de la Madeleine and outside the Point Ephémère, one of our favourite places to drink and dance in the city.

Blend – 44, rue d’Argout

Not too far from the Marais, the chefs here aren’t afraid to straying off the beaten track with some recipes, adding spinach to their burgers, making their own ketchup or offering fries made with sweet potatoes.

Le Floréal — 150, avenue Parmentier

This place doesn’t just do burgers, it’s also a lively bistrot and trendy bar where the neighbourhood’s coolest cats come to see and be seen. The end of the bar extends beyond the front door leaving a mini streetside terrace that is absolutely heaving in the summer. You’ll probably want to enjoy your burger a table inside!

Posted on February 17, 2012 by Sam| Leave a comment

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Gay Paris Guide

My Gay Paris: Iconic Paris Lesbian Bar Le Troisième Lieu Set To Be Shut Down?

Times are tough in Paris like everywhere else, but now we’ve heard that not just one but two of our favourite bars are currently threatened with closure. The Troisième Lieu (the ‘third space’) and its neighbour Les Filles de Paris (Paris girls), both under the same management, are in trouble with the French tax authorities who are demanding the payment of back taxes after problems with their financial affairs in two of the past four years.

The matter will ultimately be decided by a specialist tribunal, but the owner admits that the two businesses are already feeling the strain given the current financial climate, with prices up and fewer customers keen to come out and party.

If the Troisième Lieu does go, it will be sorely missed not just by lesbians, its core customer base, but also by the huge number of fans, gay and straight alike, that enjoy the laid-back, welcoming atmosphere where everybody is welcome.

Popular during the day as a place to chill out, meet friends and enjoy affordable food in the centre of the Marais, both bars get more rowdy later on. In rue Quincampoix, a quiet side street a couple of minutes’ walk from the rest of the Marais, some of the neighbours might not be sad to see it go.

The same isn’t true of the local community, though, which is rallying round to support the bars, a valuable resource for local lesbians, but also the Paris gay community more generally. In the words of one regular interviewed by a French newspaper, an Internet petition has been started in the hope of convincing the authorities that the Troisième lieu is not just ‘an ordinary pub’, but a meeting place that isn’t replicated anywhere else. The much less lively scene to be found in neighbouring lesbian bars seems to prove her point …

If you’re in Paris soon, then call into the Troisième Lieu and give it your support while you still can!

Posted on February 16, 2012 by Sam| Leave a comment

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Gay Paris News

My Gay Paris: Sarkozy and the issue of gay marriage

At first, it seemed like gay marriage would be not a central topic of the upcoming presidential campaign. Indeed, the stances of each major political party are well-known. The main challenger of Nicolas Sarkozy, the socialist candidate François Hollande, supports gay marriage and adoption, even if during the primary, he seemed not confident that the reform would be easy to do. He later clarified his stance and fully supported the quick implementation of the reform if elected to the presidency.

The right-wing UMP is not in favor of further gay rights. Not much has been done for the right of the gay community during M. Sarkozy’s term. But a few weeks ago, things could have been changing. Indeed, the newspaper Libération revealed that the president was now in favor of gay marriage and that he would defend that opinion during the campaign. But the president’s party and officials then dismissed that idea. Being in favor of gay marriage would be against a significant proportion of the party base. But some party members, MPs and ministers, mostly younger, defend gay marriage. One right-wing MP recently came out, and is now the only officially gay MP. Nicolas Sarkozy, during his successful 2007 campaign, promised a civil union for gay people which would have given them the same rights as straight married couples. That has never happened. Nicolas Sarkozy recently said in an interview that he was totally opposed to the redefinition of marriage.

Not surprisingly, Marine Le Pen, the extreme-right candidate, is against gay marriage and adoption but, in an interview she gave to gay magazine Têtu, says she is not opposed to civil union such as the one already in place (the Pacs). François Bayrou, the centrist candidate, has a somewhat compliated approach of the subject. He favors adoption, but he is against gay marriage as such, which he doesn’t want to be called marriage, but civil union.

The current campaign is a lot about the economy and the financial situation. But still, the issue of gay marriage and adoption is an important subject for a lot of people, especially in gay Paris, and that could influence their vote.

Posted on February 15, 2012 by admin| Leave a comment

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Art de vivre in Paris

My Gay Paris: How to celebrate Valentine’s Day in Paris

Valentine’s Day, or Saint-Valentin, is pretty popular in France.

When it comes to that subject, for gay people, there are many options :
- You are single. In that case, if you’re claiming to be opposed to Valentine’s Day, it could just mean you long for that someone special… On the other hand, there are other single guys who logically seek a partner, so that they can celebrate Valentine’s Day properly, among other benefits.
- You are not single but you don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day. In that respect, a significant proportion of gay people, both single and non-single, claim that Valentine’s Day is an heterosexual celebration, and that they shouldn’t be part of this.
- You are not single and you celebrate Valentine’s Day. That’s the most classical configuration. We all know that Valentine’s Day is used for commercial purposes. But then, in our capitalistic world, everything is, that’s the point! Should we refrain to spend Christmas with our relatives because it’s supposedly only to sustain our economy? It’s the same approach that you can take to enjoy Valentine’s Day, as a true celebration of love.
Basically, no one is really neutral when it comes to Valentine’s Day, because it is about the touchy subject of love.

So then, if you wish to do so, how should you celebrate Valentine’s Day in gay Paris?
If you look for someone, the easy option is just to walk around the Marais, to have a relaxed evening in the most popular bars. If you are not putting too much expectation on this, then something might come along.

If you are already with someone, going to a restaurant is what everyone does. Valentine’s Day is about doing what everyone does. So let’s enjoy one the restaurants we have recommended! Going to a classy hotel bar and enjoy a cocktail could also be a laid-back option, a tiny bit more original. Above, the bar of the Intercontinental Hotel.

Posted on February 8, 2012 by admin| Leave a comment

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