Le Sphinx

At thirty-one Boulevard Edgar-Quinet stood a luxury brothel that once defined the nocturnal life of the Montparnasse district. Opened on April twenty-fourth, nineteen thirty-one, Le Sphinx was designed with an Egyptian-themed interior and featured frescoes painted by the artist Kees van Dongen. It occupied the site of a former marble worker's shop, and its foundation connected directly to the Paris catacombs, a feature that provided a discrete exit route if needed.