Gay pride Paris 2010

This year’s gay pride in Paris took place june 26 (the date changes every year, so you have to check the web each time). As usual, the parade started in Montparnasse, going up towards saint michel crossed the river at the bridge Sully (Pont de Sully) and
finished at Place de la Bastille where there was a stage set up and a big crowd of people in all the cafés that surround this place.
I particularly liked this year’s gay pride that felt less commercial than the preceding years. Different associations always head the parade including Human Rights groups, organisations for the fight against HIV/AIDS, gay families and families of gays. There are also retired gay men and women. Couples that could be your gramps and granmas looking so ordinary they stick out like sore thumbs. I loved it. Instead of images of overmuscled men in leather string gyrating to the music on top of a decorated truck (there is one every year), the media should also show these regular people who look like everyone else including neigbors, families or whoever, but are gay!
There are also gays personnels from City hall, from the Police force, from the RATP which is the city transportation organisation (Homobus is what they called their float). The different political parties on the left (Partie Socialiste) and center were also represented though apparently missing is the gays from the right (apparently, cannot say if this is the truth, they boycott the parade because their political party, the right, has not kept the promise concerning gay rights. Only in France could a protest takes place as a non participation in a gay pride parade!).
Of course, there also a bunch of drag queens (always elaborately and fabulously dressed...what would we do without them?) and the sisters (don’t know if they belong to the order of Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence though).
The ambiance this year was really quite bon enfant and a good time I thought was had by everyone. Even the policemen (I guess there were policewomen but did not notice any where I was) who cound be found every so many meters and in different places in their vehicles seem to be enjoying themselves....
After a day like that, my friends and I decided to have a drink at La Chimère which is a nice little bar near métro Saint Paul. If you have a chance, go there and take a table outside (during happy hours, cocktails like in all Parisian bars are half price meaning about 7 euros). Try their melon or strawberry flavored Mojitos, mmmmmmm........Walking around le Marais that night, there are impromptu striptease in a street in front of gay bars and the streets Vieille du Tempe (near Central bar), Saint Croix de la bretonnerie (where the gay bookstore Le mot à la bouche is located) and rue des Archives (Open Café and Cox) were packed with happy people.

Le bal des pompiers: partying with the firefighters

A tradition that apparently started in the thirties (in Montmartre, which is a quarter in Paris near where I live now) Bastille Day is marked by a number of Bals des pompiers...meaning the ball (like party, so get your mind off the gutter for once) of the firemen/firefighters. These parties are highly popular and everyone can attend (for a fee, for instance for 6 euros you get in and get one free beer at the many stands that they set up in the caserne (caserne = fire station where firemen keep their trucks and stuff and where they sleep, eat and do whatever when they are on duty). The parties of certain casernes of Paris have become highly legendary that the queue to get in may snake several blocks away and 4 to 5 persons deep! This is the night when you could flirt with your heros (Parisian firemen are synonymous with heros) about whom you might have your wildest sexual fantasies (Generally, the firemen flirt with girls who flirt back that night in ways that would shame the most experienced gay man! But that is in public, in private, gay guys may just have as much as chance if not more lol).
My favorite is the one in the 4th arrondissement (rue de Séviggné) smacked in the gay area of Paris. After queueing for a while (and I mean it could be a very long while, but you could already admire the firemen who hang about assuring the security of everyone) and finally in the caserne, prepare yourself for body to body crowd either dancing, talking or just standing around admiring the beautiful caserne and the even more beautiful people who live in it (like many building in le Marais, the caserne of the 4th arrondissement is a beautiful old stone building with a big yard in the middle. This well-maintained building was even featured on a documentary on national television). On stage that is set up in the yard of the caserne, you might even see a group of firemen playing musical instruments and sing (No, you would not probably buy their CD, but for one night we indulge and applaud the heros on stage especially since they are feasts for the eyes!). Other bands may take over and give a real showto party goers. In another part (there is a smaller yard right after the entrance), there is music with DJ. The best moment comes much later usually. Around 3 am, certain firemen would go up on stage and dance to the piped in music and they might even do a striptease for you ! The night I went, they did strip off their shirt (not their pants, or the mystery would cease to exist I guess) while dancing like real disco queens or kings. Funnily, they never forgot to shout «This is for the girls» (just before they take their shirt off). But of course, many of the spectators are gay men from the hood or from all around Paris that come to this caserne because it is in the gay area. These men (ok, including me) would be the ones shouting «Take it all off !» the whole time the firemen are on stage. You should know that Paris’ firemen tend to be young, beautiful with a body to die for (they are, unlike the rest of France, REAL firemen who belong to the military corps I think).
The party would last all night, and the pompiers would by then be found on stage, behind bars (serving you drinks with a smile) or maybe snogging some girls (don’t know about boys, but again, we are in public here, they would not have shown their interest, if that is the case, in public). There would also be soldiers, French and foreign, who might have participated in the Bastille day parade that day, still in their uniform and looking completely sexy and in search of sex.
So, if you happen to be in Paris mid july, reserve the 13th or the 14th to attend these balls..
For those interested in history, as I said in the beginning the balls started in the Montmartre area of Paris....apparently the pompiers used to invite family and friends to the caserne on the 14th of july...there was food and orchestra etc which apparently attracted non relatives, neighbors or friends who started knocking on the doors of the caserne...this way, began the tradition of le bal des pompiers....
At the ball of this year, the caserne at rue Sévigné decided to do away with admission fee (you instead contribute however much you want) and since I went in the night of the 14th the line was actually shorter than usual (many people work on the 15th I guess. The ball in this caserne is held both the nights of the 13th and the 14th). Still, the ambiance is just great. You see people of all ages. For the first time I even saw a transvestite there (conversing with a very good looking fireman no less). Marines, legionnaires and other military units from France and other countries could also be found there having fun, drinking, dancing and ........

Modern life in France

France is a very modern country there is no doubt about it. It is also a very old country. All you need to do is look around and you see how far back France goes in comparison to the US or Australia.
Buildings date back to when the north American continent was still largely non white (like, I guess Red). When I was looking for apartments, I actually visited buildings that go back to dates unimaginable to those coming from the new world. A few of the buildings I visited used to be what they call here hôtel particulière or private castle that has been divided into apartments. In one fo these buildings in le Marais, I came across the widest stairways I have ever encountered in an apartment building (many tend to be narrow, especially when elevators were added later on, which took up the spaces occupied by these stairways previously). The lady visiting with me explained that this was to accomodate ladies in flare skirts that I guess used to visit the then grand if now not well maintained building. I could imagine these ladies with their hair piled up high, lifting their long skirt that flared from wall to wall climbing to attend soirées!
In many old buildings in le Marais which, despite the presence of several hotels particulieres, was apparently also for workers, you would see small toilets (I mean small, you’d better not be fat to fit in these toilets) in the stairways between floors. These go back to the time when apartments don’t have individual toilets and residents used these outside toilets. Nowadays, these generally non used (but may still be useable) toilets serve as places for illicit sex for some residents or places you could bring that someone you just met on the street you find exciting and dangerous for quickies ! Same thing for showers (one of the apartement in my building only has a sink and no shower)...this is probably why there are still public baths, not to be confused with hammams or sauna, everywhere in Paris (where for a fee you could take a shower I guess...have yet to visit one). It’s no surprise then that you would find a toilet in unlikely places in apartments (including in the closet like the apartment I occupied long ago) as these are added later.
One of the things that may also amuse you are the keys to your apartment. These are seriously ancient medieval looking keys which are large in size, heavy and look like they were made by someone pounding the hard metal into shape by his brute force!
So, don’t be surprised if you just got off the most modern airplane that is partly French (the Airbus A380) and walked onto a futuristic terminal building (CDG 2) only to find yourself in a hotel that have the toilets in the hallway or are handed a set of big old clanky keys. On the other hand, you may find yourself in a 17th century building accessible via keycards too! There was much discussion about whether the modern pyramide would go with the ancient buildings in the Louvre museum....but in fact this combo modern and historic could be found in everyday life in France.

The modern and the ancien that seem to coexist are also found in non physical institutions....Banking in France is another institution that still combines modernity and archaic ways. When you see French bank/credit cards, they will have chip cards, unlike American cards. These are very practical as you could pay everywhere and anywhere (apparently more) securely with your PIN. However, if you would for instance, activate an internet access to your account, you would still have to print the form and send it via snail mail. They will then send you your access code, again via snail mail (The code, like PIN for your cards, often cannot be changed which pose a challenge to remember all the different codes/PINs). Once, I noticed charges that appeared on my card statement that I never made. I notified my bank via telephone. This, however, had to be followed by a registered snail mail letter that is, get this, written by hand! Add to that a police report that you have to join to your handwirtten letter (When there were weird charges on my Australian cards, I simply called them and the disputed charges disappeared right away.). In banking as in many administrative things, sometimes ‘that is how things have always been done here’ primes over convinience and reasons....