Maison de Tolérance

Frenchmen would love looser laws to bring back brothels more than 60 years after Paris shut its famed “maisons closes,” according to a campaign stepping up to legalize them. An MP from President Sarkozy’s UMP party, Chantal Brunel, is spearheading the campaign after she was appointed last month to head the national watchdog on sexual equality. She argues that crime would be cut and sex workers would benefit from “sexual services centers” similarly to those in Amsterdam and some of France’s other European neighbours, The Times reports. “The idea is not to go back to the situation before 1946. I propose that we should consider the creation of places where the purchase of sexual services would be possible with medical, legal and financial protection,” Ms Brunel said. Her idea is supported by a recent national poll by the CSA agency which found that 59 per cent of the French public approved the reopening of regulated brothels. The measure was supported by 70 per cent of men polled and 49 per cent of women, with only 13 per cent of women opposed to it.