Vers le Sud by Laurent Cantet, Lady Bar by Xavier Durringer, Paradise: amour by Ulrich Seidl⦠These films, among others made over the last two decades, have featured the sex tourism of Europeans on different continents.
In fact, sex tourism is almost exclusively viewed as a practice of travellers from Western or industrialised countries toward emerging countries β the Caribbean and South-East Asia in particular. The extension of the French and European rail network, the improvement and development of the Parisian hotel industry, and the Universal Expositions made Haussmannian Paris one of the main tourist destinations of the time. However, in the second half of the 19th century, the cultural tourism celebrating Parisian heritage sites and the cultural and intellectual offer of the capital was gradually replaced by recreational tourism oriented towards leisure.
Parisians are joyous and Paris is the city where people enjoy themselves. In the second half of the 19th century, the construction or rather the literary and dramatic amplification of a Paris of pleasures and its busy, exciting and carefree Parisian life had very real consequences, which can only be understood as part of the influence of French culture of the time. French authors were massively read and translated, while plays created in Paris were performed in a large number of capital cities.
To help them discover Paris, a whole series of tourist guides were published in the second half of the century. They do not hesitate to advise and warn their readers of the risks they may incur. If you are too weak regarding the fair sex, carefully refrain from carrying a lot of money and leave your values at your hotel. Foreign clients were in fact highly sought after by both public girls and prostitutes.
Usually coming to Paris for a short period of time, determined to have a good time and not very familiar with the prices and fares normally charged, the women hoped for high profits, or even an unexpected rise in social status at the hands of extremely rich and sentimental gentlemen or flamboyant foreigners.
