One-Two-Two

One-Two-Two
The building in 2020
Location in Paris
General information
Type	Hôtel particulier
Architectural style	neoclassical
Location	Paris, France
Address	122, Rue de Provence 75008 Paris, France
Coordinates	48°52′27″N 2°19′35″E / 48.8741861°N 2.32641389°E / 48.8741861; 2.32641389
Completed	circa 1800
Technical details
Floor count	7

The One-Two-Two was one of the most luxurious and illustrious brothels of Paris in the 1930s and 1940s. The name was taken from the address, 122 Rue de Provence, 8th arrondissement of Paris. The numbers were translated into English to ensure that foreign tourists would be able to find the brothel and as a password for French people.

Opened in 1924, the "One-Two-Two" closed its doors in 1946 when the Loi Marthe Richard prohibited brothels in France. The building is now used for various businesses.

The building had twenty-two decorated rooms. Forty to sixty-five prostitutes worked for 300 clients per day. It was open from 4:00 pm to 4:00 am and the sub-mistresses filtered the men at the entrance. The girls of the establishment had to have four sex-sessions a day at twenty francs each, excluding tips, and two sessions on Sundays. There was also a bar, a refectory for the girls, and a doctor's office.^[1]

There was also a restaurant, the Boeuf à la Ficelle ("beef on a string," named after a recipe of roast beef filet dipped in a broth of vegetables and spices on the end of a string). The waitresses wore only high-heeled shoes and a camellia in their hair. Guests were welcome for dinner and coffee and to smoke a cigar in a living room afterwards. They could chat with girls without the obligation to go further.^[1]

The establishment was not affected by rationing. Otto Brandl, one of the main officers of the Abwehr in France after September 1940, was involved in the Parisian black market. He and captain Wilhelm Radecke ran their black market operations from the One-Two-Two.^[2]

After the Liberation of Paris by the allies, Fabienne traded with the Americans. She wrote that there were very good people, but also racists. She didn't accept that one guy wanted to hit a girl because she was black.^[2]

Each room had its own women, highlighted on pedestals, with fitting outfits and lighting. The rooms were decorated like théatrical scenes of many periods and countries of the world. Some guests practiced "the journey around the world", which consisted of adopting positions inspired by the Kama Sutra, in the rooms of different countries, thereby making a world tour of erotic pleasures.

The main rooms were:^[3]

• The transatlantic steamer cabin, with sea view, porthole, deck chair.
• The pirate room, which included a four-poster bed that would mechanically swing like a boat in a tempest whilst jets of water, hidden in the walls, would drench the occupants for the ultimate experience in leaky boat sex.
• The Orient Express room, an exact replica of a cabin in the famous train. This included the shaking and bouncing effect of being on a train and included a railway soundtrack. As an option, you could demand an intrusive conductor to enter the room and join in the festivities.
• The hay loft, with real straw.
• The igloo room.
• The tipi of the Indians of America.
• The Provençal room.
• The country room.
• The Egyptian chamber in the style of Cleopatra.
• The Roman chamber with the orgy ambience of triclinium.
• The Greek chamber with antique columns.
• The Renaissance room with the courtesans of King Francis I of France.
• The mirrored gallery, like a small version of the Palace of Versailles with huge swiveling mirrors.

The rooms on the upper floors were devoted to BDSM pleasures. As Fabienne Jamet said: "The closer one got to the sky, the closer one got to Hell.":^[4]

• The torture chamber of the Middle Ages, with shackles, chains and whips.
• The torture room with crucifixion staging, where handcuffs replace the nails to tie the victim to the cross.

• Brothels in Paris – Venues for indoor prostitution in Paris, France
• Le Chabanais – Brothel in Paris (1878–1946)
• La Fleur blanche – Brothel in Paris
• Prostitution in France

• Fabienne Jamet, One Two Two – 122 rue de Provence, Olivier Orban, 1975.
• Editions Galerie Au Bonheur du Jour | Décors de bordels, Nicole Canet Entre Intimité et Exubérance, Paris-Province 1860–1946, Ed. Nicole Canet, 2011

• One, Two, Two : 122, rue de Provence is a 1978 French film directed by Christian Gion. The film chronicles the eventful daily life of the establishment.

• "Le Chalet de l'arête: Le One Two Two". Le Chalet de l'arête (in French). 23 October 2012. - Includes interior photographs
• "One-Two-Two Rue de Provence". Invisible Paris. 6 April 2009.
• "The One-Two-Two: This innocuous-seeming building is actually the remnant of a major wartime brothel". Atlas Obscura.