Gay Pride in Gay Paris

Gay Pride is not what I would expect from "Gay Paris."

The parade and festival in San Francisco are very well planned and the festival offers a variety of entertainment, several dance floors, food, shopping and good people-watching. In Paris, the parade was rather dull. Admittedly, I did not see much of the parade as it moved very slowly and I arrived a bit late. As I walked along the parade route for about an hour, only two contingents passed. Oi.

Gay Pride in Paris is where "fashion-trash" (kudos to Ariel for this expression) meets ghetto. It's only fair however to put this into perspective. In San Francisco we have Gay Pride, Halloween and the Folsom Street Fair. Paris has one event where all of the elements seem to collide. How would I describe this? Well, only photos can tell the story.

This is a test. Please select one of the following for each photo.
a) Gay Pride
b) Halloween
c) Folsom Steet Fair
d) All of the above

Along the way, several spectators found seats a la Velib - the bicycles that are available to rent all over Paris. I thought it was very amusing to see every bicycle seat occupied, and as I took this photo, the guy with the beer began to yell "nous sommes normale." Apparently, even "normal" people love a parade!

I found this t-shirt to be particularly amusing, especially at a gay pride parade in Paris. It's a political statement, right?

Check out this little guy with the matching hair and shirt. Hmmm.... maybe it's time for me to try a new hair style.

The parade ends at Place de la Bastille, the most famous monument in Paris that does not exist. The streets were closed off and there was one stage and thousands of people.

But, it seemed to me that many of the people were there for the music and for the party. Many were from "les banlieues" or as a New Yorker would say the "B&T bridge and tunnel crowd." These young suburban kids were here to dance, drink and maybe even get into a fight. [You may remember that a couple years ago around December, there were several days of rioting in the banlieues and hundreds of cars were burned. Today, some of these kids were in Paris.] Somehow, Gay Pride wasn't seeming very gay. Gay Pride - it's not just for homosexuals anymore!

Beer by the cartload (presumably for sale.)
How old are these kids? Is there a legal drinking age in France? At least there are some paramedics on hand.

But wait, we're not in San Francisco! Are we?

As usual, there were plenty of police and firemen/paramedics around. However, there was less tear gay that at the previous "manifestation" I attended.

Walking around the Marais that evening with Ariel, Phillipe, Gregoire and Sophie was a bit more entertaining. Since it was crowded and smokey on the streets, as everyone was outside on this warm summer evening, we headed inside for some fresh air. L'Amnesia is a cosy bar with a very small dance floor (probably about 9 feet by 12 feet) in the basement. I love this place where the bartender also serves as DJ and plays very danceable music.

I finally arrived home at about 2:30. Time to write my blog posting. Just kidding. It was time for bed. Bonne nuit.

Fete de la Musique

Each year on the 21st of June, Paris (and now all of France and several other cities around the world) celebrate La Fete de la Musique. From the website, I did not get a good sense of the size of this celebration. Each "arrondisement" or neighborhood had about three-to four musical events listed. Including the suburbs, there must have been more than 120 musical performances. But, walking around the streets, it became clear that for every official performance, there were dozens of other "impromptu" performances.. Within a one block radius of the Pompidou Centre, there were at least seven bands, DJs, and other musical perfomances. Jazz, classical, African, middle-eastern, "pep-band?", classical, pop, dance and more could be heard throughout the city.

I met up with Ariel, Renaud and Joker. We ventured past city hall, Notre Dame, Isle de la Cite and the Marais.

Although we did not go to any of the large concerts, we did see small groups singing traditional French folk songs, young people playing drums, and a little band playing 80s retro as we walked along the Seine river.

Everyone in Paris - locals and tourists were out on the streets. I doubt anyone was at home on this hot summer evening. Although I took more photos of the spectators than of the performers, with all of the dancing in the streets, everyone was a performer to some degree.


As the sun set at about 10:00 pm, the lighting and clouds made for a "picture perfect" photo.

Passing by the Pompidou Center once again, as Ariel and Renaud headed home. I continued to wander around until about 12:30 AM when I was exhausted and decided to return home.
The first full day of summer started with a bang. I don't know what the temperature was during the day, but at about 9:30 pm I saw a thermometer-clock indicating that it was 29 degrees celcius, or about 84 degrees farenheit. I did not sleep well, even with a window open and the fan on, as my bedroom was about 80 degrees even at 1:30 in the morning. But, my apartment is very quiet and the silence was music to my ears.

Got Cream?

As I sit here eating a banana and Nutella crepe, I'm wishing I had a dollop of whipped cream to top it off. Inspiration: "creme chantilly."

Destination: Chantilly, about 40km north of Paris. Co-voyageurs: Anne, Kym and Luca. Quick re-cap: Anne - friend of Pat Mandel from San Francisco; Kym - friend of Anne; Luca - originally from Italy but living in France for the past 12 years.
Luca coordinated our little adventure to the Domaine de Chantilly. Some of us are lucky to have our own homes or an estate, but how many people do you know who have their own domaine? Well, the princes of Conde, cousins to the Kings of France, had their domaine, which even included a little hamlet that was the inspiration for Marie Antoinette's domaine at Versaille.

The chateau has two buildings, the Petit Chateau built around 1560 for Anne de Montmorency (interesting because I live on Rue de Montmorency in Paris) and an attached renaissance style grand chateau. Though left in ruins after the French Revolution, the chateau was rebuilt 100 years later by the Duke of Aumale, son of King Louis-Phillipe. [Note to "self": research how and why there was a king in France after the revolution. Wasn't the revolution about ending the monarchy? Oi.]

There is something a bit odd about many of these photos. What do you suppose it is?
I loved the entry into the chateau, and was particularly impressed with the staircase railing. Yeah, a bit odd to be so obsessed, but it really is quite ornate and well-designed.

Something very unusual indeed. What makes these photos different?


I'm considering painting the ceiling of my living room like this. It would be nice to have a little color and to be able to look up and see a Greek myth hovering above. [Yeaaaah, right.]
Speaking of Greek myths, there is a series of about 40 stained glass windows, not religious in nature which is unusual, depicting the story of Cupid and Psyche. It's one of those "short-guy with wings gets babe with big breasts" stories. All of the windows were black and white, with only hints of yellow. The entire wall of stained-glass windows was quite impressive.

Of course, every Domaine must have a garden. I think I would be fine with about 1,500 acres too.
We came upon a little restaurant where we enjoyed lunch, and of course we indulged in a strawberry tarte with Creme Chantilly. You knew that a pastry and creme Chantilly had to pop-up somewhere in this story. Yummmm.
Did you notice that the photos of the chateau do not include hordes of tourists? It was wonderful to go to Chantilly on a Monday afternoon. It is possible to find a few places without busloads of people with cameras. A truly enjoyable afternoon.