Gay Paris seems to be an outdated phrase. People definitely used to associate the French with being fun and lively. The city as colorful,the nightlife exciting. Unfortunately, before we left for Paris this weekend, everyone was warning us about how snobby and rude the French can be, and all the things to watch out for so we don't get picked on by the locals. Definitely not gay tidings, but we had a fabulous time anyway, and found that yes, Paris is still quite a happy place.
We stayed in the Latin Quarter, which is in the center of the city, and known for its lively night-life. We arrived Friday night after a waay too long drive that sold me on the cost of trains. Staus suck. So does Paris traffic. Does anyone remember the Chevy Chase movie where they were stuck on the round-about? We did that. And when we finally did manage to exit, it was in the wrong direction and in a near-death stand-off with another car. awesome.
So Saturday morning we decided to start off on foot. Notre Dame was a short walk from our hotel, so we wandered in that direction taking pictures of the neighborhood and pointing out all the cool old buildings to each other. There were quite a few that we probably should have recognized and didn't. Such history! The cathedral was gorgeous inside and out. I almost cried (I know I'm a dork) it was so amazing. The scale and the stained glass and the extravagant carvings everywhere. From the Notre Dame it is a short walk to Pont Neuf, which I believe is the oldest bridge in the area, and very pretty. We took the bridge across to the Louvre, where I finally decided that for me, architecture = art. I took more pictures outside the museum than in, and most of the pics inside are of the floors and ceilings. I didn't realize that the Louvre was originally a palace, so there is marble, and frescoes, and gold leaf, and mosaic tile, and gorgeous moldings everywhere. The actually preserved a portion of the museum with Napoleon III's decor. I reminded Dan so many times to look up, that he finally started doing it to me. :) I did take some pics of Michelangelo's sculptures,the Venus de Milo, and I even took one very blury photo of the Mona Lisa that is just as enigmatic as the lady's famous smile.
After exploring inside, we walked down through the sculpture garden, to the Place de Concord, where a huge old Obelisk from Egypt sits. There is a nice view of the Eiffel tower from here, so we have several pics of Paris's two most famous phallic symbols together. We intended to walk all the way down to the Arc de Triumph, but we were exhausted from the day's explorations, so we hopped the metro home to get ready for dinner.
Dinner is the other reason for the title of this blog. Our friends Will and Andre are staying in Paris for the next few months, and they invited us out to dinner. Dinner was a quite tasty three-course affair at a restaurant called Le Gai Moulin, literally the Happy Windmill, but quite tongue-in-cheek because we were the only straight people in there and the host was flaming. After dinner we headed to a bear bar, which I have learned is a place where burly gay men hang out, so we could find a man for our friend Phil. Not only were we the only straight people there, but I was one of only three women in the place. I was such a novelty, that I had what I think is the strangest and most personal conversation I've ever had in a bar. It started when a man heard my voice, turned around and said, "Wow! A woman's voice! Are you real?" Since I am not imaginary or a transvestite, I thought it was safe to answer that question with "yes." He followed that question up with, "Are you bisexual?" I found this funny since there were not any women in the bar, and none of the men would be interested in me. I told him no and introduced him to Dan. His final question displayed just perplexing my presence was to him. He asked me how I felt about being with so many gay men. and No, he never asked for my name.
After our colorful evening out, we spent the next morning wandering through the Père-Lachaise Cemetary. We found the graves of some famous people, but the not so famous dead royalty definitely stole the show with their ornate family tombs. Ah to be a comte. After lunch we joined our friends for a bicycle trip through the city. We rented bikes to ride along the river to the Eiffel tower, but somehow we ended up on a couple of streets and circles....I got off and walked the bike through the big ones. Once we found the river, it was a beautiful trip, and riding the bikes was definitely one of my favorite things we did. I know I was grinning ear to ear because people kept giggling as they passed me. We parked and went up the Eiffel for some standard tourist pics, and then rode back to the bike shop just in time to beat the rain. Dan and I had a romantic dinner for two on the square (Mouffetard I think?) near our hotel, and then headed home the next morning. I'd go back! We only really explored a fraction of Paris, and we glimpsed on our walks and rides an exponentially higher number of things that were intriguing. If architecture = art, then Paris = beautiful.
