PARIS TRIP: DAY 11: Paris (Gay Pride Parade)

Paris, Saturday, 24 June 06

(written on 13 July)

When I first started planning my trip in Paris, my main criterion was that it should include one of the long weekends that we have in Austria in May and June. Thursday, 15 June was one such holiday, and so that weekend could be included in my trip. Since the Gay Pride (or CSD) Parades are usually in June (most of the German ones have been moved to July/August this year because of the football World Cup), I had made sure that I planned it in such a way that I could attend the Parisian one. This was today.
[click on the photos to enlarge them; lots of photos in the full post...]

I woke up and updated my journal for a while. Christophe said he'd be going out grocery shopping and I was welcome to join him. Christophe is quite particular about eating Bio (organically grown) food and for that he wanted to go to a particular market which has a large Bio-food stall. But first he took me to two huge shopping complexes next door to each other-- the name and the location escapes me-- he particulary wanted to show me the beautiful ceiling of the first one. It was gorgeous and I really regretted not carrying my camera with me.

The market was huge and fun. I was tempted by all the cheese they had and mentioned to Christophe that I wanted to take back some cheese and it would be great if he could help me select some amongst the thousands of possibilities. He suggested we do that later, or on Sunday morning. The sole Bio stall in there was too expensive (Bio-food in expensive anyway, but here things seemed to be really high. So he decided to go to another market where he usually buys stuff from. We had wasted a bit of time so we took a taxi. This time the prices were more reasonable, and he bought a lot of stuff. We then went to a butcher's shop nearby, and finally walked back.

Renaud had gone out, Christophe thought to the gym, and was back soon afterwards. I had lunch with them. Greek salad (and ouzo) and then fruits.

Christophe works in a call centre and manages a big team. Their office was moving that weekend and he had to go in that afternoon to make sure that everything was ok, but that would be after the computer installations were done. So he didn't know when that would-- they would call him. That was a pity, as that meant that he couldn't go for the parade.

Renaud said that he was very tired from the previous week and wanted to get some sleep. But he would certainly go to the parade and would call me when he got there.

The parade had started at 1 pm, and it was past 3 pm. It begins at one end of Boulevard St. Michel and then through Boulevard St. Germain goes to Place de la Bastille.
I calculated that it would be somewhere in the middle of Boulevard St. Germain and took the Metro to Jussieu. My calculation was just about right-- I had reached the fag end of the parade. So I walked along taking photos, to the beginning where the first float was just about reaching Place de la Bastille, and then walked back, and again towards Bastille.

The parade and the crowds of participants and onlookers were huge as I had expected.

I bought a rainbow flag from a very cute guys selling flags and other stuff one could wear. Unfortunately I didn't take his photo...

There were lots of interesting groups like "Association of Gay and Lesbian Parents and Future Parents", an association of sportsmen, a group from the French gay television channel "Pink TV" and so on.

There was a sizable group of people carrying banners saying that they were parents or family of homosexuals.

This was really fantastic... they should try to have such groups in the Vienna parade as well.

As usual, there were beautiful and interesting costumes.

Lovely guys.

Some of whom had climbed up on traffic lights or on top of bus stops.

There were guys who were were bent on doing a strip tease on the streets.

I realized that Renaud had called, and left a message, but I didn't hear my mobile in the din. His number doesn't show up, so I couldn't call him back.

He said he'd be in Bastille, but there were so many people there, that I couldn't find him. He called a few times, but each time I missed it.

The centre of Place de la Bastille has a huge column surrounded by a wall and grilled fence. People were all over the over the wall and on the steps leading to the column. There was a stage high above on one side of the square, and there was a lot of singing and music and huge crowds were dancing. There were some young guys on the fence around the column who were dancing and stripping. There was a particularly cute guy, who came very very close to "baring all" during this.

Around 8 pm (when the stuff on the stage ended), I called Prashanth. He and his partner had had their farewell party picnic (they are leaving for Hongkong in August, or is it September?) that afternoon on the quay near Place St. Michel, and so hadn't come for the parade. Since tonight was the last opportunity to meet up, he had suggested that I call up after the parade and we could meet up.

We met up near the Hotel de Ville at 8:30 pm.

Funnily enough, a gay couple that I had contacted through Couchsurfing (who wanted to meet up during the parade, but we couldn't because of bad planning/coordination) were walking by in a group, and apparently saw me waiting there and recognized me. They stopped and looked at me, but didn't say anything because I didn't respond. I don't remember this at all, and of course didn't remember what they looked like, so there was not question to recognizing them among the thousands of people I saw walking by that day. The whole silly episode could have been avoided had they given me their mobile number as I had requested instead of giving me their landline. Anyways, probably I can meet them when I visit Paris again for the conference in September if I have enough spare time from the conference and lab activities.

Prashanth and I went to this place that I had been the previous Saturday (on his recommendation)-- I have forgotten the name again. This time the place was quite packed. There were a lot of people dancing. We were sitting at the side and once when Prashanth had gone to the loo, I was probably gyrating a bit and a black kid dragged me to the dance floor and said I shouldn't be shy and dance properly. I am usually hesitant to dance, but when I get down to it in a gay environment, I do end up enjoying it. The kid was from Canada and was here with his sister. Prashanth came back and also danced.

Interestingly, while in a bar, I saw this kid come into the bar with an lady in her 50s, probably her mother. They just sat for a while, had a drink or two and left. It was really nice to see that. She had probably participated in the parade too to support her son.

Prashanth's friends were having dinner somewhere and were supposed to call him when they got here. But they seemed to be having an endless dinner. We were hungry too, so we went out and ate in a nearby shop-- I ate a quiche and an extremely sweet pie that I couldn't finish.

We strolled a bit and then his friends arrived. Jean-Philippe and Marc, an Italian guy (Andrea?), and another couple, one of whom (Mathieu) was extremely cute. There was the endless discussion/debate of where to go and what to do, and around 12:30 am people decided on a cocktail bar. I never got the name, but the name means "Stories" or "Floors" as one pays for the drinks in the ground floor and goes up to any one of its floors.

A straight couple, I think a friend of the Italian guy, joined us. The guy had blondish longish curled hair, and was very gorgeous. Both Prashanth and I agreed that he was gorgeous, but Jean-Philippe didn't. Apparently he only finds people with black (not just dark) hair attractive.

At around 2:30 pm the rest of the gang wanted to go dancing, I would have joined them, but since Sunday was my last day, I didn't dare. Jean-Philippe is not into clubbing, so he went back home. Prashanth went to the sauna, presumably "on the prowl" and I waited for a taxi.

I wasn't getting to see any empty ones at all, when a Vietnamese (as I learnt later) guy walked up to me and asked me whether I was looking for a taxi. He offered to drive me back for EUR 15. I frankly didn't have much of an idea about the geography and I agreed. Christophe later told me that it was way more than a taxi would have charged me and that I could have easily walked back. Well at 3 am in an unfamiliar city the night before I leave, EUR 15 is ok, I guess.