When KZ was in town, she and her husband and I went to the Parc de la Villette to see L'autre défilé, a kind of fashion show-slash-spectacle with costumes from the Comédie Française and the Opéra. I hadn't been to the Parc de la Villette before; it's a huge space out in the northeast of Paris, along the canal that starts down here by Bastille. It hardly feels like Paris at all; large grassy areas, a huge turn-of-the-(last)-century-style exhibition hall, odd sculptures, including a dragon whose tongue kids can slide down.
The show itself involved about a hundred volunteers dressed up in the costumes: fairy costumes, court costumes from various eras, an eighteenth century dandy with a large ship perched on his wig, a fat suit. One fascinating scene had the women come out in their petticoats. This scene was only a little marred by the guy who came out naked and strutted around... yes, that was part of the show, not a random streaker!
The next event was the Fête des Vendanges, the celebration of the grape harvest. I went with a group called MEETin, an American website that gets people together to do fun things in various cities. We went deep into the 11th to find a kind of block party going on, hosted by a wine bar. They had a brass band, playing the gamut from polka to Fastball, and a wooden tub for kids to stomp grapes in.
Another night, JD and I went to the Louvre, on a whim. They're open some nights until 9:45. We went to see the Egyptian section... who knew that some of the mummy boxes look like super-deformed anime characters. The museum is beautiful at night. And even though there are a lot of other people there, you still get the feeling that you are sneaking around in the museum after closing hours. Then the pyramid is so beautiful all lit up at night...
Finally, last night I took a whole bunch of MEETin people to see my friend Jm's band. Soul and funk, and some African-inspired tunes as well. I don't know about you, but anything funk makes me feel like dancing... :)
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