Flea market. Paris, about 1936.

Source:
Paris en Images, copyright Gaston Paris / Roger-Viollet (RV-219235):
Click here to view source.

Gaito Gazdanov's Paris / 27

Business

But, in France, everything is “business”: pederasty, pimping, fortune telling, burials, gathering cigarette butts, the work of the Institut Pasteur, conferences at the Sorbonne, concerts and literature, music and the sale of milk products.

One day, arriving with my passengers at a celebrated brothel in rue Blondel – thousands of men from all over the world, from Melbourne to San Francisco, from Moscow to Rio de Janeiro, from Tokyo to Washington, knew its address – I met a seller of pornographic cards with whom I was familiar, as I was familiar with most of the nocturnal professionals of Paris:

“How’s business going?”

He answered indignantly, “My friend, how do you expect it's going? Yesterday I was arrested, and the day before too. Two days in a row, the same story. Don’t talk to me about business!” [192]