Paris: A top ten best gay place in the world

Surfing the net looking for a place/country to go on holiday (and of course checking out their gay laws and the existence of gay scene. As can be expected, very little visible gay scene when gay sex could lead to whipping or even death!), I happened on the site of the Independent (UK) that listed best and worst places to be gay. Paris is on the list of the 10 places (along with cities such as --obviously -- SF and Sydney and New York. The list continues to Mykonos, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Barcelona, London). Funnily enough, for Paris the article mentions the two neighborhoods that I have lived in (did live in and currently live in): le Marais and Pigalle. If le Marais was described as elegant in the article, Pigalle was said to be risqué and seedy! I like better the distinction made by a French gay magazine (Tétu) of ghetto (i.e. Le Marais, where the gays are proud and want to be among gay people and identified as such) and non ghetto (i.e. Pigalle, where they gays are discreet, may be even married men, do not want to advertize their gayness or do not see themselves as gay and maybe even anti ghetto). In Pigalle it is indeed surprising the number of married men or men who do not think of themselves as gay who have offered to have sex with me (being a polite person, I could hardly refuse, could I?). Indeed if one is nostalgic of the debatable good old times (when being gay was borderline illegal but tolerated, when being gay means almost that you’re an outsider, when being gay meant being a diva or admirers of divas, when fabulous meant something, when sex was everywhere, when condom was not necessary), I suppose Pigalle would come the closest in Paris.
The article also mentions some of the worst places to be gay where it could lead to death, public lashing (certain countries in the Middle East or Africa, for example)
or even years of hard labor (Jamaica, which surprised me a lot)! Now, the idea of laboring next to muscled men might appeal to some of you, but the idea that you cannot just leave when you’re tired puts sort of a damper on the whole thing doesn’t it ?
Interesting to note that while many countries progressively decriminalize homosexuality, certain recently submit ted laws to their parliament to criminalize it (because no law concerning homosexuality exists there and the church or religious leaders actually ask the government to put interdiction of homosexuality in their laws).
Gay guides also list laws about homosexuality in different countries, though you still have to take these with a grain of salt. If many Asian and North African countries are listed as not tolerant, this may indeed what the formal law says but does not necessarily reflect the attitude of the people there. I have been in places where homosexuality is supposedly illegal and ended up meeting so many gay people or at least people who have taken me to their house and not to have tea either. There is the law and, luckily, there are the people. You may not see bars like in NYC or Paris or SF, but if you’re discreet (even the gays you meet may not understand your need to express yourself….) and patient (in any case, don’t expect to spend the same 5 minutes to find someone to sleep with as in SF. Generally, a conversation to reassure that there is no misunderstanding about what you both like i.e. men is a necessary prelude), you will probably find a kindred soul.