Daily Flâneur: No Bling, No Fling

In honor of those fleeting Paris images and amusing factoids that just beg to be shared, I'm starting a new category of posts - The Daily Flâneur.

Here's a tidbit about the Lapérouse restaurant from this Sunday's NY Times:

In 1840, this former wine shop and bar was taken over as a restaurant by Jules Lapérouse, who had the brilliant idea of maintaining private rooms upstairs for married gentlemen to discreetly entertain the courtesans of Paris with Champagne, delicacies and expensive gifts. After an excellent, over-the-top lunch, ask the waiter to visit those notorious chambres particuliers, which still survive in the attic. They are suitably cozy, and the antique mirrors are covered with etched marks, made, according to tradition, when the astute filles de joie tested the authenticity of their diamonds by scratching on the glass.

Ah, those savvy courtesans...

The photo is the upstairs hallway - le couloir des salons prives. That a restaurant should have its own private brothel is no news to the French. As G. said: bien, oui - tu manges, tu montes.

Liberty, Equality, Gastronomy: Paris via a 19th-Century Guide
By TONY PERROTTET
A food-obsessed traveler uses the Zagat guide of the Napoleonic era to explore the culinary wonders of this city in the 21st century.