Editorial Disclosure: Independent editorial — Ali attended Théâtre ChoChotte as a paying guest during her SHA Paris Study Abroad trip. €45 entry for women, €60 for men, €100 for couples.

I said this last year about the BDSM demonstration in Prague. I take it back. What I saw in a basement in the Latin Quarter of Paris on my first night of the SHA trip is the most erotic thing I have ever witnessed in my life.

And I want to tell you about it.

The Context — And Why I Almost Didn't Go

I was in Paris with the Sexual Health Alliance — our annual Study Abroad trip, a week of educational and cultural immersion in a city with a relationship to intimacy unlike anywhere else in the world.

We do organized group activities during the day and then in the evenings, we're free to explore in smaller groups. I always do my research before I travel — specifically looking for erotic activities, sex culture experiences, and anything that falls into the pleasure travel category. That's just what I do. It's why I went to Cinéma L'Amour in Montreal, why I did the red light tour in Tokyo, why I spent evenings in Pattaya just watching.

When I Googled "erotic activities in Paris" — which is exactly what I do in every new city — live erotic theatre was one of the first things that came up. Théâtre ChoChotte was top rated. Latin Quarter. I read the reviews. It sounded interesting.

I was also skeptical.

My point of comparison was the live sex shows in Amsterdam's red light district — those big theater spaces where you buy a ticket, sit with a crowd of tourists, and watch two people have sex to music on a revolving bed while everyone stares at their phones. Cold. Transactional. You leave feeling nothing except mildly uncomfortable and slightly ripped off.

I did not want that experience again. And I told the group as much: "Manage your expectations. I have no idea what this is going to be like. It could be great. It could be total sh*t."

They wanted to come anyway. About fifteen of us went on the first night.

Descending Into a Very Horny Speakeasy

The address is on Rue Saint-André-des-Arts in the 6th arrondissement — the Latin Quarter, one of the most beautiful and historically rich neighborhoods in Paris. You'd walk right past the entrance without knowing it was there. A discreet sign. A narrow doorway. A staircase going down.

We descended into a basement.

My first thought: oh, sh*t. This is cool.

It was tiny. Maybe 20 to 25 people maximum. Dark walls, carpets, a pole in the center, velvet seating all around the edges — couches, chairs, intimate little nooks. The lighting was exceptional. Dark but warm. The kind of lighting that makes everyone look beautiful and makes everything feel like it's happening slightly outside of normal time.

No bar. No alcohol served. Which I actually loved — it meant nobody was getting drunk and acting like an idiot. The absence of it made the whole atmosphere feel safer and more intentional.

There were maybe three or four men already seated when we arrived. Later, some couples came. The vibe was calm. Anticipatory.

We sat down. The music came on.

And then a woman came down the stairs.

What Live Erotic Theatre in Paris Actually Is

I want to be specific, because this is not what most people imagine when they hear the words "erotic theatre" or "strip show."

Théâtre ChoChotte, in the purest tradition of French striptease, celebrates an eroticism rid of the taboos of bourgeois seemliness — sensual, funny, provocative, sometimes poetic, and always elegant.

Each performance runs about 15 minutes. Each performer choreographs her own act. Five girls rotate acts in a small downstairs theatre, interacting with the audience. You can arrive and leave whenever you want. There is no beginning and no end — just a continuous rotation of performances, each one entirely different from the last.

The first woman came down the stairs in a white lace robe. She was pretending to read a book. A smutty book, from the look on her face. And then she put the book down, looked around the room at all of us, and started the most slow, deliberate, theatrical striptease I have ever seen.

This is not a strip club. Strip clubs have stages and distances and a transactional quality. Théâtre ChoChotte is the size of someone's basement. She was right there. She could look you in the eye. And she did.

She came around the room. She put her hand out to me to remove her glove. She worked the crowd — a little lap dance here, a lingering look there. And she was completely in control of every second of it. Not performing for us exactly — performing with us.

Then she took everything off. Full bush, by the way. All the performers had full bushes. Which was so refreshing — seeing women in their natural form, completely comfortable in their own skin, was its own kind of radical.

She got down on the floor. Legs open. Completely exposed. Touching herself. And we were voyeurs — not because she was unaware of us, but because she chose to let us watch. She was doing this for herself. We just had the privilege of being in the room.

I was like: damn.

The Performance That Broke My Brain

We stayed for three acts. The third one was the one that still lives in my body.

Two women. A shibari show.

For those unfamiliar: shibari is the Japanese art of rope bondage. One person — the rigger — ties the other — the rope bunny. Done well, it is extraordinarily beautiful. Done at the level these two performed it, it is art.

One of them came out playing the flute. That's how it started. The other was the rigger. They had an obvious chemistry — you could feel it in how they moved around each other, how the rope bunny surrendered to being tied, how the rigger took her time.

The performance lasted 20 to 25 minutes. The rigger tied the rope bunny in different configurations, in different parts of the room. She tied one leg up so the rope bunny was completely exposed and open, and then she got down on her knees and went down on her right in front of a young guy sitting there whose jaw was on the floor. At one point they asked Gab and I to spread apart on the couch so she could sit between us, and then the rope bunny came and performed right next to us.

Gab and I looked at each other: holy sh*t. Where are we?

It was beautiful. It was erotic. It was artistic. It was elegant. Not tacky, not gross, not cringey. It was f***ing hot erotic expression at its finest and it was one of the highlights of my entire trip.

The Audience — And Why It Mattered

The single men who were there when we arrived were well-dressed and genuinely respectful. That was not the energy in this room.

That said: a friend who couldn't come with us the first night went back the next day by herself, on a Thursday afternoon. She arrived to find three or four men there alone. She felt uncomfortable and left quickly. I don't blame her. The group energy made it feel safe in a way that arriving alone to an unfamiliar intimate space might not.

My advice: go with people. At night. The evening crowd tends to be mixed couples and groups. That's when the energy is best.

Why This Is Different From What We Have in North America

We don't have this at home.

We have strip clubs — where the distance is built in and the transaction is made explicit. We have burlesque shows — which are theatrical and wonderful but rarely this intimate or this explicit. We have the internet, which gives everyone access to everything and thereby makes nothing feel special.

What Théâtre ChoChotte offers is something specific that I think only Paris could produce: a space where female erotic performance is treated as genuinely artistic, where the performers are trained and theatrical and completely in control of their own act, and where the audience is invited into something intimate rather than just shown something explicit.

Not a show you watch. An experience you're part of.

The French have a different relationship with desire than we do. Desire in France is private, but it's not hidden — it's intimate. There's a difference.

We also went to the Crazy Horse later in the trip. The Crazy Horse is extraordinary — polished, high-production, immaculate lighting and choreography.

But the Crazy Horse is a show. Théâtre ChoChotte is an experience. One you watch. One you feel.

I went back with Gab before we left Paris.

Practical Information

Théâtre ChoChotte is located at 34 rue Saint-André-des-Arts, 75006 Paris — in the heart of the Latin Quarter.

Open Monday to Saturday, 12:30pm to 12:30am. No booking required. The rotation of performers means no two visits are the same.

Pricing: €45 for women, €60 for men, €100 for couples (heterosexual couples only — a policy worth pushing back on, because a space this intimate and this female-centered should be more inclusive).

No alcohol is served. You can leave and come back the same day on the same ticket. Private performances available at extra cost.

Go at night. Go with people you're comfortable with. Go with an open mind.

🔗 theatre-chochotte.fr
📍 34 rue Saint-André-des-Arts, Paris 75006

💬 Is It Just Me?

Have you been to live erotic theatre anywhere in the world? Was it what you expected — or something completely different? And if you haven't gone, what's stopping you?

Submit anonymously → /is-it-just-me

The Details

📍 Théâtre ChoChotte, 34 rue Saint-André-des-Arts, 75006 Paris
🔗 theatre-chochotte.fr
💰 €45 women / €60 men / €100 couples
🕐 Monday–Saturday, 12:30pm–12:30am, no booking required
🔗 Sexual Health Alliance: sexhealthalliance.com

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About the Author

Ali Imperiale is a sex education student with the Sexual Health Alliance, a writer, and a traveler. She has visited 40+ countries and writes about sex, intimacy, and culture from wherever she currently is. The Nookie Nook is her shame-free, algorithm-free intimacy library.