weee woonnnnnn
Just got back from François Hollande’s victory rally at the Bastille. I went to a results rally near Saint-Germain at 8, and it was amazing to see the thousands of people who were all together to support the same thing. I got chills when I heard the crowd cheer together for the first time.
When it was announced that he won, everyone started popping champagne and jumping around. People started shouting “To the Bastille!”, what a uniquely Parisian exclamation. And to the Bastille we went. A lot of the crowd just walked there all together, taking over the neighboring streets. I opted for public transportation as I had poorly chosen my shoes and, let’s face it, am really lazy.
The bastille was even more crowded than Saint-Germain. There was a huge stage set up and some French singer was going to perform at 11. I didnt stick around much longer as my feet felt like they were on fire (fun related anecdote, on the way home a guy was smoking on the metro, lovely, and burned my thigh.)
The atmosphere tonight in Paris is infectious. You can’t help but feel hopeful for the five years to come…
silencio
I wrote this at 5:45 AM so it may not make sense, but I had just gotten back from Silencio, Paris’ latest and coolest nightclub.
And I am not a club person.
It’s owned/created by the American director David Lynch (of whom I had no idea before coming to Paris). My friends and I have been planning to try to get in for months now, and tonight was the night. When we got up to the door they asked where we were from and we replied “New York.” The THREE bouncers and the manager appraised us decided we could come in, despite the fact that we didn’t have a membership and hadn’t been invited to that night’s party. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any ID on me so I ended up taking a half hour metro ride back to my apartment, giddy/impatient at the prospect of actually gaining entrance. I was back at the club at 1:30 and they let us right in. Oh my god was it worth it. It was one of those once in a lifetime experiences that I knew that I needed to have while I was young and in Paris.
When my friend Nathan and I were past the door and descending the two stories to the club, I grabbed his hand right away, bursting with excitement. We were here. The hardest club to get into in Paris. There were so many wealthy or fashionable or just plain cool people in the club. At one point I told a guy that I loved his leather print studded shoes and he casually said they were Louboutins. I met another guy working at Armani in Milan who was in Paris to interview with Balenciaga. We stayed until 4:30, dancing the night away (and me trying unsuccessfully to score free drinks, Heinekens were 10 euro, people). I couldn’t believe that we had been allowed in, and when we finally left for the night, the British manager by the door said, “Goodnight, New Yorkers.” WE WERE THE REPRESENTATIVES OF NEW YORK AT SILENCIO. On a Friday night nonetheless. Honestly I can die happy now, I don’t care how superficial it is. Getting into Silencio was number one on my Paris bucket list.
best compliment about my french skillz ever:
- my couch surfing host: "i forgot you're american"
- me (trying to be all french and nonchalant): "really? thats cool!"
- me in my mind: OMG OMG OMG I'VE MADE IT OMG OMG
A few weeks ago my band had our first ever open mic in Paris. We had been practicing for weeks but our schedules hadn’t really allowed us to take the music to the people. We went Au Ptit Bonheur La Chance (roughly translated to, To Random Fortune) in the 5th arrondissement (near the steps of Midnight in Paris!). The crowd was really receptive and friendly. The MC was actually the same guy from the first open mic I did at Pop In, he has this great dry sense of humor. We don’t have a band name yet so we were signed up as “Nick, Natalie, and Dominique”. When he introduced us as such, he added “It’s not a joke.” We only played two songs but it was the perfect amount for us to dip our toes in France’s open mic scene. One of the performers was like a french jack black (jacques black??). His chef d’oeuvre was a song that consisted of one line: “Fuck you…myself.” which crescendoed into him crooning “I’m really sad” over and over again. During this point some guy walked in and the two just made eye contact and started laughing really hard. I l loved the vibe at this open mic, a lot of people knew each other so it seemed more like we were playing at a party. Next week we may play at the Highlander…hopefully by then we’ll have a name.
Correction, we now have a band name: Château Rouge!
