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.