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What do you get when you mix a group of liberal minded 21st century ladies, a warm evening walk, and Paris France's Pigalle sex shops? A frickin' good time, that's what.
This ladies only group took a walk of the Paris France's Pigalle sex shops to bring you a review of what to hit...and what to miss.
I was party to a Paris city walk not of the usual kind. This one consisted only of women who were going to tour the sex shops of Paris' famous Pigalle neighborhood. Montmartre was always known as a place of follies, fun and diversions, and the name Pigalle is actually coined after the slang term for this area that arose during WWII, "Pig Alley". Soldiers frequented this area for some amusement of an alternative kind. Tourists now flock in droves to this part of Paris to see the overly-priced Moulin Rouge and the bohemian Montmartre hill. We saw many of these tourist groups on this evening, one consisting of high school girls gawking and giggling at the sex shops they were passing.
Our group consisted of no gawkers or gigglers though; only confident beautiful women that would put sex-in-the-city to shame. Everyone was gung-ho and ready to enter every sex shop we came across. Our goal on this evening? Why, nothing short of compiling a list of cool, clean, non-sleazy, and women-friendly sex shops in Pigalle.
We had a great time while testing these shops out. One lady on the tour decided to ask questions of the shop keepers to see how they would reply. In one shop she asked him (in perfectly clear and good French) whether he had any erotic movies that were of a higher quality, tasteful, without dirty nasty drug addicts and other B-rate sleaziness in them. He replied yes, and promptly led her to a section of DVDs. The section? The "Gang Bang" section. Clearly he didn't understand. She then went on to re-explain how she wanted a high quality erotic movie, one with clean beautiful people and perhaps a decent story line, nothing weird or too nasty. He nodded and took her to a new section. What section? The Drunken Sex Orgy Section. Clearly not all the shopkeepers thus give the best advice.
After some researching and asking people we learned that the best and most highly rated pornography director and producer in France is Marc Dorcel. Apparently this producer's erotic films are a notch up from any old run of the mill porn. The group member who found this out said, "They must have huge budgets, among other things." So should you be in the market for some high quality porn, take her advice and seek out the 'Marc Dorcel' productions.
Another thing we learned is that you can haggle in these shops. Don't take the price as it is; ask for a better one. One girl in our group found some erotic DVDs she really wanted, but they were 45 euros each. She haggled the price with the shop keeper until she walked away with 3 DVDs for 60 euros!
Overall, if we didn't like the place then it's not listed here. Why waste your time? Listed here you'll find the places we liked, and that fit our criteria. We rated the shops on a scale of 1-4 starts, with 1 star being nasty sleaze-ville, and 4 being super cool, clean and lady friendly. This article will only contain those rated at 3 and above, unless a 2-star had something specific that didn't seem to be found in many other places.
Our list of criteria was pretty straight forward, and consisted of the following main items: 1) the shop keeper (Sleazy? Eyes you up when you enter? Helpful? Etc) 2) the appearance of the shop (Smells bad? Clean? Organized? Room to move about? Etc.) 3) items on sale (Good quality? Good variety? Organized? Etc.) 4) patrons (Who else is shopping there? Creepy sleaze-bags, or nice looking normal people and couples? Etc.)
Admittedly we entered some pretty dark, dank, dirty, smelly and scary places. So stick to our recommendations! In this list you'll find that different stores specialize in different things. So depending on what you're searching for one or another may most suit your needs. Now without more ado, here are our recommendations, lady to lady:
| Store Name, Address | Rating | Notes |
| Sexy Souvenirs a Pigalle | 2 stars | This was mid-rated place as it was a bit small and not so well organized. That said, it was a great place to pick up bachelorette party gifts and little sex souvenir trinkets. Basically a lot of sex novelty items which aren't necessarily found everywhere. They also had a small DVD collection of pornography, and did have the titles organized into binders so that you could more easily find a title you were specifically looking for (yet, this begs the question: who goes looking for a specific title? ) The shop keeper was totally hands off and didn't harass us in the least, but did answer questions nicely when prompted. One of the group members laughingly noted that this sex shop was conveniently located below a hotel too, depending on what your needs might be. |
| Rebecca Rils | 4 stars | This was one of our favorite places. Big. Well organized. Clean. Normal people milling about shopping. A ton of variety in what they were selling, from leather whips and ball-gags to erotic comic books. A nice clothing collection of leathers, latex and fantasy wear. Toys, gadgets, oils and other sex accessories were well organized and easy to view. They even had the new vibrators that work in tune to your Ipod! (I believe these are called Omibod!) A large collection of erotic books, comics, mangas and gay interest. A good DVD selection too pricing between 9-30 euros depending, with a section of classy erotic movies that would appeal to women. This store was more of your typical mainstream sex shop, and perhaps not offering some of very extreme varieties of toys and items that some might desire, but the choices and varieties shown were by far good enough and the entire store was very girl friendly. |
| New Girl's | 3 stars | This was a great place to stock up on your erotic outfits. One can get sexy lingerie, vinyl, latex, dancer shoes, bustiers, cat suits, and fantasy outfits. It was clean and well organized, and the shop keeper was nice and non-harassing. There were normal-looking people shopping here. There were little gadgets, movies, and other such sex accessories too, as this place mostly focused on just erotic clothing of all kinds. |
| Fantasy Librairie Érotique | 3 stars | A very nice erotic book store, with a selection ranging from self-help sex advice to graphic books to comic books, and more. It was clean, air conditioned and organized. There was a back room with a nice selection of underwear and some gadgets. Upstairs there is a nice selection of DVDs ranging in price from 19-39 euros. |
| Galactica
| 3 stars | Another great place to stock up on erotic clothing. A nice selection of vinyl, latest, leather, and other erotic outfits. It was clean, air conditioned, soft music was playing, and it was well organized. The shop keeper was helpful and pleasant. Not a lot of gadgets, DVDS, books or other such items. Though the selection of whips and leather accessories was not bad. |
| Vidéo Star 51 | 2 stars | This wasn't the cleanest or well organized place, but it wasn't terrible either. What it did have was a massive erotic DVD collection, and ones that you could haggle over the price for. One of our party members managed to get from 1 DVD for 45 euros to a deal of 3 DVDs for 60 euros! All she had to do was tell the store keeper that they were hugely overpriced, and she would be willing to get quite a few if he just adjusted the tag on them. There were sections for every possible sexual preference, fetish or needs imaginable. This place also had a few gadgets and toys, though not the variety you'd see in a couple of the other shops listed here. They did have, though, a set of vibrators with special names, including: The Titan, The Power Stallion, The Hot Torpedo, and The Super Satisfier. Seems there is one for every taste in existence. The funniest part of the shop was the large snack vending machine in the corner. I guess if you're hanging about for a while you might get peckish and want a little bite to eat; we mean from the candy in the machine of course. |
| Sexodrome | 4 stars | You will not miss the Sexodrome. It's a massive 4-5 storey building in which every floor is some kind of erotic theme, and it has a ginormous sign across the face of the building. When you enter the main entrance you'll walk into the sex shop. From there you can veer towards the massage area or dancing girls, or you can just shop on the floors that have the massive varieties of all things erotic. From clothes, to oils, to books, to gadgets, to vibrators, and much more, you won't believe the choices and selection. Normally I've only seen the ever popular 'rabbit vibrator', but here I think that every animal in existence was represented as some type or shape of sex toy. Be sure to head downstairs to see what they have too. It's very impressive. It's clean. Finally, overall the clientele and workers were non-intimidating people, but for the resting erotic dancers (and attitude to go along with the outfits) chillin' at the front door's main counter. |
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