"Go and enjoy yourself!": Rare French erotic guide to Parisian nightlife

A rare and apparently unrecorded edition of a Parisian sex tourism guide, with multilingual text, circa 1900.

This edition of a French guide to sex tourism in Paris—complete with English and German translations—offers a candid and sometimes comically mistranslated glimpse into the late 19th-century Parisian underworld.

Despite the cover’s claim, it does not include Spanish, and the German translation suffers from memorable errors (e.g., “Junggeselle” misspelled as “Jungersellern”), reminiscent of early 2010s Google Translate.

The text invites the reader to explore the pleasures of Montmartre:

“Why? The answer is simple. One only needs to look at the army of girls trying to fascinate men of all conditions for a good time together. It is almost impossible to pass by and resist, and why should you resist? Go and enjoy yourself!”

The guide references Cabaret Bruant, “fondé en 1895,” suggesting it was published sometime after that year. Its final page includes an illustrated (possibly fictional) ex-libris for Alfred de Musset, featuring two lesbian couples, an echo of the erotic illustrations found in similar publications of the era.

The guide also features a publisher’s catalogue listing other “ouvrages amusants,” such as Les 32 vraies positions, alongside the present guide.

Sex tourism boomed in Paris in the second half of the 19th century, prompting the publication of many guides to aid tourists. This guide is a rare and fascinating artifact of fin-de-siècle Paris, where hedonism, commercialized desire, and printed ephemera collided. Scarce in all editions, it remains unrecorded in institutional holdings.