The seedy gay side of Paris

"So what did you two get up to last night?" I ask my friend P, as we're sitting outside at a Parisian café early last Sunday evening.

P had split up from the boyfriend that he found late last year and had decided to visit Paris for Easter with a friend that he met on gaydar. It was a pure coincidence that myself and boyfriend number 1 were in Paris for Easter too, but when P had told me over lunch the previous week we decided to meet up for supper together while we were all there.

"Oh, you don't want to know!" replies P with a naughty grin on his face.

"We're not children you know," I laugh at P, "so if you've got a juicy story lets hear it!"

"Well, honestly GB, it was AMAZING!"

"Uh huh? What was so amazing then?"

"We were just wandering through the Marais looking for this gay bar, when a couple of British guys asked us if we knew where one of the other gay bars was. Do you think I look gay GB, I mean, if you just saw us on the street would you know?"

"Well P, the way you drool over anything cute in trousers probably gives you away!" I laugh. "Anyway, where did you end up?"

"Hmmm," says P, pretending to be offended. "Well, we ended up having a couple of drinks with these guys, and then they were heading off to this place called The Depot that they'd heard about. So we went with them and it was the highlight of the trip so far. I mean, it really was heaving with great looking guys!"

"Yeah," confirms the friend that P had brought along. "When you go in, you go down some stairs and at the bottom there's a sign indicating that the bar is in one direction, and cruising is in the other direction. Most of the guys were on the same side, and I'll give you a clue, the bar was pretty empty!"

"Honestly," adds P, "we don't have anywhere like it in London. There must have been two hundred or more guys there, all after one thing!"

"So it's better than that place in Shoreditch then is it?" I ask.

"Yes definitely, Chariots doesn't get as busy as The Depot. Perhaps it's because there are fewer venues like that here so everyone just goes to this one, I don't know. Anyway, let's just say that we both went back to the hotel very satisfied!"