GS Club sits in a narrow street in the old centre of Poitiers. It opened in January 1992 as a women's bar, changed hands two years later, and spent the following three decades as the gay club of the city. The name shortened along the way, from Le George Sand to GS, and the flyers still carry both.
The crowd has broadened since the early years. Poitiers is a student city and the floor fills with queer regulars alongside people who simply came for the late set, which is roughly what the club now says about itself: open to everyone, in a spirit of respect. It keeps a safer-space policy and puts it in front rather than in the small print.
This is a proper late club rather than a bar, and the night starts once the rest of the centre has shut. Entry is free and there is a cloakroom. Resident DJs work house and pop, with drag shows on the bill through the season.
