London vs. Paris

[Guest Ruben]

Why does London have so many excorts while Paris seems to have very few?

[Guest Esc_Tracker]

>Why does London have so many excorts while Paris seems to

>have very few?

 

Because prostitution is illegal in France while it is legal in the UK.

 

Because most of the relevant web sites are in English.

 

Because the pound is absurdly high,leading many Paris based escorts to work in London part time. (They avoid the outrageous rents by staying with friends for a few days at a time.)

[Guest Thunderbuns]

>>Why does London have so many excorts while Paris seems to

>>have very few?

>

>Because prostitution is illegal in France while it is legal

>in the UK.

 

Is it really? - I never knew that - are you sure?

 

Thunderbuns

[Guest JH]

Yes prostitution is legal in the UK; it's soliciting for paid sex that isn't.

 

Guess that makes me one of the few upright, law-abiding citizens amongst this board of criminals :-)

[Guest Thunderbuns]

>Yes prostitution is legal in the UK; it's soliciting for

>paid sex that isn't.

 

I must be having one of my blond moments again - not quite sure what you meant here. Are you saying that it's the John who is considered a criminal?

 

Thunderbuns

[Guest Esc_Tracker]

No, it means that you can't accost people in the street and offer or ask for sexual services for money.

 

The legal regime in the UK is the same as in Canada. Prostitution is legal so long as:

 

1. You don't solicit (as above)

2. You don't live off the avails of prostitution (i.e. pimping), or

3. Do not offer sexual services for money in a common bawdy house (i.e. do not share an establishement with a fellow prostitute for the purposes of selling sexual services).

 

If you let yourself be approached by prospective customers without harassing the public, perform your services in the privacy of your own home or that of your client (hotel rooms normally count as a home for these purposes so long as it isn't a brothel), then you are not breaking the law in the UK or Canada.

 

People are so used to watching US cop shows that they tend to think US laws apply throughout the English speaking world. They don't (even if most of them seem to be filmed in Canada these days).

[BgMstr4u]

Why the difference in escorts? Let me make a stab at it, as one who visits both places regularly.

 

The cultures of the two cities are very different.

 

London is vast, sprawling, dynamic, full of young people, genuinely multicultural and multinational, full of entrepreneurial energy, and a huge tourist magnet for a vast population (half the globe?) which speaks at least some English. It is a linguistically inclusive place, where making a stab at being understood in English will usually get you where and what you want. I think this is an ideal environment for escorts, as well as many other entrepreneurial types. In Europe, if you want a good time sexually, London is definitely the place to be now -- even more than Amsterdam

 

Paris is large, but much more centralized. Control and restraint is a parisian thing, so there is not as much open and obvious advertizing of gay life in general. While there are lots of people there from all over the world, it is profoundly monocultural. If you don't speak French pretty well, you are shut out of many experiences, and shunted into the tourist cash extraction machine. Ordinary gay life in Paris is quite open, but I have always found gay life in Paris more private than in London, less commercial, less easily entered into by the casual touristic type. There are, I am told, wonderful discos and clubs in Paris, but I am not a dancing type and prefer classical music, so I haven't found them. I go to Paris for food, art, design, to see the sights, to visit friends, but not for casual encounters. One place to check out, however, is the Vagabond, a bar/restaurant near the Opera, at which I have met several obliging north african and portugese lads (whose French was not perfect either).

 

But this is only my experience. I am sure others have other experiences and rationales.

[+ Charlie]

I would agree with this analysis. London gay life in general is multi-cultural; however, although Le Marais is as openly gay a neighborhood as any in London, it is effectively closed to non-French-speakers. The insular nature of French society means that the escorts don't advertise in any other language, and basically confine themselves to a domestic market, so there are far fewer of them (or at least fewer than are visible to us).