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I really want to tweet about the history of Paris, but the tweets that get the most interaction are about my gorgeous cat. So I'm going to try something: let Clemmie tell you about the legacy of historic red light districts in the street names of Paris. Expect some vulgarity. 1/8
In 1256, sex workers were banned from within the city limits, so they clustered on streets just outside the walls. 2/8
These included the rue du Petit-Musc in today's 4th arrondissement. The modern name derives from the historic name "Pute-y-musse", which meant something like "whores loiter there". 3/8
The innocently-named rue du Pélican in the 1st arrondissement was once called Poil-au-con: "Hairy-Cunt Street". 4/8
But my favourite example is the road once known as "rue Tire-Vit", which meant something like "Fuck-Cock Street". 5/8
Legend has it that the young king François II was out for a stroll with his wife, Mary Stuart (commonly known in English as Mary, Queen of Scots). At some point she asked him, "what's this street called?" 6/8
Wanting to protect her innocence, Frank replied, "rue Tire-Boudin", replacing the word for penis with a word for a kind of sausage to render something like "Pull-Sausage Street". And from then on, that's what the road was called. 7/8
Unfortunately this story is poppycock, as the euphemistic name predates François's birth by over a century. But it's such a nice story that the street was renamed in 1809 in honour of the young queen: today it's the rue Marie-Stuart. 8/8
This went down well, so Clemmie will keep doing this https://twitter.com/bchadwickfrance/status/1319395406145589249?s=19
