At Roissy, there were three gates. The part of the building to which one could not gain access witho
At Roissy, there were three gates. The part of the building to which one could not gain access without passing through one of these three gates constituted what was called, not without some degree of childish playfulness, the main enclosure. The only ones who were permitted access to it were the associates or, more simply, the members of the Club. This closed-in area consisted of the ground floor. A few rooms on the ground floor were occupied by the girls that members of the Club brought there, as O had been brought the previous year by Rene. The other rooms on the floors above were occupied by Club members who were spending a short or longer period of time at Roissy. Within the confines of the restricted area the girls were only allowed to come and go accompanied by someone else. One could do with them as one desired. No matter what a member did with them, no matter what demands he made upon them, the price was the same. A member could come three times a year or three times a week, stay for an hour or for a fortnight, simply have a girl strip for him or flog her till she was bleeding, the cost of the annual member- ship was exactly the same. The cost of a member’s stay at Roissy was calculated the way it would have been at any hotel. The second gate separated this central part of the building from a wing they called the little enclosure. It was here, too, that the girls who actually lived in the community had their quarters. These girls, who belonged as it were to Roissy, were lodged in double rooms, in that each room was divided by a semi-partition against which, on either side, the beds were placed back to back. The doors to their rooms could not be locked, and the members of the club could enter them any time in the course of the night, during which the girls were chained. Finally, on the other side of the third gate, which, as you faced the main gate, was to the left, the second gate being situated to the right, was located the free and as it were quasi-public area of Roissy: a restaurant, a bar, small sitting rooms on the ground floor, with, on the floors above, the bedrooms. The members of the Club were free to invite guests to the restaurant and bar without having to pay any entrance fee. But anyone, or virtually anyone, could purchase a “temporary membership” which was very expensive but gave him the right to two visits. The only rights it gave him, in effect, as guests of members were allowed to use the bar, were to have lunch or dinner in the restaurant, to rent a room, and to use it with a girl of his choice. The money earned by the girls was divided according to fixed percentages: so much for Roissy, so much for the girl. Nor were all the girls paid on an equal basis: O learned that she would be paid double the base rate because she officially belonged to a member of the Club, and because she wore irons and bore a brand. Several other girls were in the same category as O. Its close proximity to Paris, its princely yet discreet atmosphere, the impressive buildings and park, the comfort of the installation, the excellence of the restaurant, the theatrical aspect which the costumed girls and the omnipresent valets gave to the place, the combination of freedom and security in any and all relationships, and last but not least the clear knowledge of what took place behind the gates, within the confines of the enclosure, provided Roissy with a large clientele, made up primarily of businessmen, a goodly percentage of whom, at least half were foreigners. -- source link
#roissy#november 2013