Maintaining safe spaces is paramount in a country like France, where assimilation is king and those who stray from the norm leave themselves open to side-eye, or worse. “People stare,” Jourdan says, when she and her wife show PDA. “But they don’t only stare at people in my community. They stare at people different from them. So if you dress in lots of colors, you have a wig, anything that is not how Parisians dress, they will look. So being gay is different from the average Parisian.” She mentions that on a recent trip home, “In three months in Paris I only saw one other lesbian couple kiss. For me, Paris is ten, fifteen, twenty years behind New York in terms of diversity and accepting difference.” She doesn’t think anyone should be worried when visiting the city, though. “Paris is safe, but I don’t think it’s as tolerant or open as cities like New York… In the scheme of things, in the world’s perspective, Paris is a very safe, accepting, tolerant place.”--Catherine Rickman is a writer and professional francophile who has lived in Paris, New York, and Berlin. She is currently somewhere in Brooklyn with a fork in one hand and a pen in the other, and you can follow her adventures on Instagram @catrickman.