'Gay Paree' Tak On New Meang - CBS News

Contents:

• 'GAY PAREE' TAK ON NEW MEANG
• THE 10 BEST PARIS GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS PARIS
• PARIS GAY DISTRICT: LE MARAIS
• PARIS GAY SNAS
• PARIS GAY PRI

'GAY PAREE' TAK ON NEW MEANG

Paris tourism officials want to give new meang to the term "Gay Paree. "The French pal has always wooed visors wh s reputatn for fe dg and high fashn, and Paris ntually sh on s mystique as the land of love and, Cy Hall has a new strategy: sellg Paris as a leadg statn for gay travelers.

At the mayor's office and the tourism bure, which has fund a prs junket this week for journalists om Amerin gay publitns, officials ll the next ontier of tourism. "We want to create a gay iendly spir across the whole cy, " said Lrent Queige, one of the project's anizers at Cy Hall. "It's an entire marketg mpaign voted to gay tourism: promotns, brochur, media trips, Web s, tour packag.

THE 10 BEST PARIS GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS PARIS

Officials Paris say they are enuraged by a trend toward greater tolerance but are still battlg nservatism and Mayor Bertrand Delanoe, when elected last year beme the cy's first openly gay mayor and proudly led this summer's Gay Pri para.

Delanoe uldn't attend a meetg last month to gurate the gay-iendly tourism mpaign bee he was recuperatg om a stabbg attack by a man who said he disliked overall challenge for officials workg on the mpaign is to tweak the image of a cy famo for photographs like the 1950 Robert Doisne snapshot of a man and woman stealg a kiss cintally ont of Cy have only begun turng on the project, which is not to be publicly lnched until June 2003.

After nveng a meetg of experts on gay tourism last month at Cy Hall for an ial brastormg ssn, a marketg blz was born. Travel agents that ter to gay clients are planng package tours to ci wh summer ftivals like Gay Pri para, which last June drew a rerd half-ln people. Ias also clu disunt tours geared to the nightclub scene and other Paris is payg special attentn to the Amerin gay muny.

PARIS GAY DISTRICT: LE MARAIS

An outdated gui lled Gay Friendly France is beg revamped for circulatn at French tourism offic the Uned Stat as of June 2003. The Maison la France Los Angel is workg wh Amerin tour operators and helped anize this week's fully paid trip to France for gay media on the theme of gay is hardly the first European pal to target the gay tourist.

Berl, London and Lisbon among others have geared marketg toward gay and lbian visors, particularly the Uned Stat, for years.

"We're not dog discreetly, " said Natascha Kompatzki, a spokwoman for Berl's tourist office, addg that gays are "an important group" for the German pal.

PARIS GAY SNAS

Berl's mayor, Kls Wowere, is openly gay and marched Berl's Gay Pri para this and Berl, like Paris, have proment gay districts, which are featured on their tourism Web s along wh listgs for gay-iendly hotels and those ci have a natural advantage, said Remi Calmon, a spokman for France's 600-member Natnal Unn of Gay Bs. "`The French are not always -- how shall I say this -- the nict people, " said Calmon, whose group is part of Paris' gay-iendly planng mtee.

Details of how to make Paris more people-iendly were still beg worked out, he ia that has sparked great tert was dreamed up the small Loire Valley cy of Le Mans, bt known for s 24-hour to s own missn to attract gay tourism, Le Mans Cy Hall has drafted a "Lbian and Gay Friendly Wele Charter, " which they mailed to lol merchants this fall. Signatori paste rabow-lored stickers their wdows wh the msage "Wele to Mans" and a sey face to let ctomers know they are gay iendly.

PARIS GAY PRI

"A wele sign for homosexuals? Tripadvisor performs checks on vised this bar on our honeymoon bee is the olst gay bar Paris. Fun night a gay bar paris!

Highly appreciated by Parisian "bobos, " the gay muny, the Jewish muny, as well as tourists, is one of the most historilly rich neighborhoods Paris.