Le Sphinx was a brothel, which was opened in 1931 in Paris. In 1946, France outlawed all brothels.
Le Sphinx was among the most expensive and best known maisons de tolérance in the Paris of the 1930's. Other famous brothels included:
After the war, Marthe Richard, a town councillor in Paris who had been a prostitute herself, campaigned for the closure of all brothels, and the "loi de Marthe Richard" was passed on April 13, 1946, closing the legal brothels in France. Roughly 20,000 women were affected by this law and approximately 1400 houses closed. [1]