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.