Palmire Louise Dumont (4 March 1855 – 4 February 1915), generally known as Madame Palmyre or Palmyre, was the manager and owner of two early gay bars in Paris in the 1890s–1900s: the lesbian bar (The Mouse) and the mixed Palmyr's Bar. She was an iconic figure in creating the culture of "gay Paree" in Montmartre during the Belle Époque.
Dumont was born in Béthune to a working-class family with long ties to the brewing industry. They moved to Lille, where she worked in a textile mill until she was around twenty-two years old. After leaving the mill, she may have been a sex worker before moving to Paris around 1880, where she began to manage restaurants and bars. Her first establishment was reportedly near the Place de l'Opéra. Around 1897, Dumont took over management of , turning it into one of the most famous clubs for lesbians and wealthy patrons. In 1909, she opened Palmyr's Bar across the street from the Moulin Rouge. The bar prospered and was expanded during her ownership.
Dumont and her French Bulldog became featured subjects in lithographs and sketches created by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec in the 1890s. The two bars that she ran catered to gay and lesbian clients and were frequently discussed in court and police documents, as well as in literary publications and memoirs. As an entrepreneur, she hired entertainers and hosted events that not only provided entertainment and employment for members of the LGBT community, but also helped create tourism and commerce which benefited the Parisian economy. Dumont's work as an entrepreneur was instrumental in the social history of lesbian Montmartre, and her businesses are studied to understand the establishment and development of lesbian and gay businesses in modern Paris.
Early life
Palmire Louise Dumont was born on 4 March 1855, in Béthune, France, the oldest child of Louis Dumont and Virginie (née Buissart). She came from a working-class background that included a long line of tavern keepers and brewers. She had family members on both sides of her family who were brewery workers, including her father. Her mother was a dressmaker, and both of her parents were able to sign their names. After 1865, the family relocated to Lille, as her sister Laurence Irma was born in 1865 in Béthune, but her other sister Adèle Julia was born in 1868 in Lille. Dumont began working in a spinning mill. She earned only 18 sous (a sou was 1/20th of a franc, or approximately the equivalent of 8 1/2 British pence) for a day's labor, and in later life remembered her poverty during this time. She left mill work in 1877; some literary sources indicate she may have been a sex worker for some time.
Early career
By 1880, Dumont was living in Paris, as she became one of the first members of the French Bulldog-Owners Club, which was organized that year. Francis Carco in his book (Montmartre at Twenty) noted that Dumont's first bar in Paris was situated on near the Place de l'Opéra. Art critic and poet both wrote literary works describing a three-month drinking binge in 1888 which involved Dumont, the courtesan Lucy Jourdan, the artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and another friend, Armande Brazier (also known as Armande la Borgne), who would later operate the lesbian bar (The June Bug) on . Other evidence that Toulouse-Lautrec and Dumont became acquainted early in her time in Paris comes from a portrait he made in 1892, which according to scholar Leslie Choquette may depict Dumont.
La Souris
Homosexuality had been decriminalized in France during the French Revolution, and a law of 1880 opened free trade to businesses selling alcohol. The loosening of restrictions resulted in a rise of business opportunities in the entertainment sector for gay and lesbian business owners at the end of the nineteenth century. Patrons of bars and entertainment venues could not be arrested for homosexual behavior, but they could and were targeted for public obscenity, corruption, solicitation, or failing to register as a prostitute with the state. Some brasseries (a type of restaurant that served simple food and alcoholic beverages, especially beer) also were involved in prostitution; in the Montmartre neighborhood, some were targeted at lesbian clients. One such establishment was (The Mouse), located at 29 Rue Bréda (later Rue Henri Monnier) in Pigalle. As early as 1890, it was known as a lesbian meeting place. Jules Davray and other writers noted that the clientele treated the establishment like it was their home and expressed themselves freely while there. The brasserie repeatedly had new management during the 1890s.