La Fete de la Musique

So it seemed like the entirety of last week was some sort of buildup to what is here in France, and now like over 50 countries worldwide, the biggest festival of the summer. Its a music festival (hence the title) and people were really talking it up and everyone where I work checked with me nearly every day to make sure that I was going to be here in Paris for it and not off on some excursion. One of the first times the head of the Experimental Nuclear Physics division here at the CEA stopped by my office to see how things were going, in response to all I told him, he said that it sounded good...and then said that I was not to miss "La Fete de la Musique". So I had what I would say are normal expectations. I have been to music festivals (ie Burlington Jazz Festival) so in my mind I just scaled it up to fit the size of the city and I had what I thought would be a pretty fun night, but nothing out of the ordinary.


So on Friday night, Marouan and I went to Orsay to meet his cousin and my friend Hassan to go to what we thought would be the Orsay festival on Friday. While we were waiting at the gare Orsay, Marouans friend (Im pretty sure Marouan literally knows everyone in Orsay) Amine stopped by and talked with us for a bit. It was great and I learned a few phrases in Verlund which is like a slang version of french that is spoken "on the street" . The basic concept is to reverse the spelling of the word but usually doing so adds some sort of vulgarity to the meaning so I dont think I will try to speak it at work. Although it was fun to learn for a bit, along with some other things that I would have never learned in the classroom. :) When Hassan and Marouans cousin finally arrived we walked into Orsay but to our dissappointment, there was no festival, so instead we went back to Marouans apartment and watched the Euro match. (Honestly, the Euro cup has taken a large role in my stay here this month and it seems like every night there is a game, there is always much conversation about it at work and everyone has their opinion of why which team will win or lose. and the drama surrounding the French coach is pretty high right now for some reason and it seems like the news reports are very foreboding, but i cant understand them all)

The next morning I woke up early and took the bus to Massy and went to the train station there to buy my ticket to go to Lyon (this weekend) to visit my friend Flo. And the funnest part for me was that I did it all in French. It was very fun, even though im pretty sure the lady knew I was not French. Ive since been informed by Franck that I have an "American" accent in French. I never really thought about this before but it makes sense. Its weird for me to think I have an accent. anwyays, I then went into the city and picked up breakfast at a small boulangerie (again, I echo that these little boulangeris are amazing and what they make is out of this world, especially when it is fresh). I then went to Montmartre and Sacre Coeur for the morning because we had decided to meet "in front" of Sacre Couer. I think that this area of Paris is becoming one of my favorite parts, in tandem with the Latin Quarter. They are both so full of life and Montmartre especially with all of its artsy people and little boutiques and cafes. Its just so robust (I think that would be a good word to describe it). Sitting down at a cafe, I started talking to two women (mother and daughter) from South Africa. They were really nice and gave me some tips on tours to see the city because I have yet to take an organized "Hey, Im a tourist, " type tour of the city. I then went to meet Hassan "in front of Sacre Coeur" and ended up waiting for nearly an hour before deciding to call him, only to find out that to him "in front of Sacre Couer" meant at the bottom of the hill about 800 yards away. So we decided to meet up at the Adidas store on Champs Elysees. (However, waiting in front of the cathedral was great because there was a guy who was juggling (football) standing on a pedestal and he was absolutely amazing, Amazing! So I just sat and watched him the whole time). This (the Adidas store) is unmistakable but when I got there, I found him on the other side of the road. I guess his conception of "meeting" at a place is to be far enough away so as to confuse the person enough to think you are not there. So we walked around and finally found a place to eat before Hassan showed me the way to cross the Etoile to get to the Arc de Triomphe which is surrounded by a huge roundabout which I thought you just had to make a mad dash across. We walked around a bit more and popped into a few shops (not buying anything on account of the fact that the cheapest shirt I saw, which i would never be seen wearing, cost nearly 100 euros.

We then took the metro to the Trocadero station and got off to walk to the Eiffel tower. I can guarantee you that if you ever go to Paris, this is the stop you want to get off to walk to the Eiffel Tower because it gives the most spectacular view the entire way. By this time it was getting very hot and so we took our time wandering about because we were to meet Marouan at the Eiffel Tower at 7:30. On the opposite end of the plaza, near the Ecole Militaire, we found a volleyball tourney going on. One entire side of the huge park was covered with sand and an entire stadium had been erected opposite the Eiffel Tower. It was the most bizzare sight I have seen and felt very out of place here. Inside, we watched a match with America vs Brazil (America won and it really put a marker on me as American by the way I was cheering seeing as how the rest of the stadium seemed to either be from Brazil or just cheering for them) Outside, there was free stuff! Sweet! So I got the chance to share the art of getting "les gratuits" with Hassan, something that seemed to be very astounding to him.

We walked back and met Marouan at the Eiffel tower with his brother and cousin, although I think I must have looked like a crazy person shouting his name across the seas of tourists and locals crawling about. We walked back up towards Tracadero, stopping to watch some sort of African dancing troupe, which considering the amount of people gathered around, was fairly anticlimatic. We then took the metro down to Porte d'Auteil because Marouan swore that that was the best venue with the biggest stars. Although when I asked him who they were, he didnt seem to know, only that they were big stars. When we got there it looked like the cattle were being herded in to some corral, most of them drunk, some still on there way. So we waited for what seemed like forever, squiched up against each other, making new "friends" with every pulse of the crowd. Finally we got into the stadium and walking for a long while found ourselves as close to the stage as we could get.......and we were (no joke) 1km away still. It was quite ridiculous. And the music wasnt even that great I dont think. Just poppy type bobblehead stuff. So after about 2 songs, I left and decided to go down to La Sorbonne in the Latin Quarter (Jacques had recommended this area). And he was right. This was definitely the place to be. People were everywhere. Everywhere! Crossing the streets (which had seemed to dissappear except for the few cars every once in a while) people would move from one band to the next, a group literally on every corner (no joke) and then more. More! Music was everywhere. It was unbelievable. And it was bizzare because each group had a different style and genre they were playing. So I grabbed a bite to eat and then a drink to go and started walking around from group to group, sometimes stopping for a bit, sometimes not. But it was great. It was literally like one huge party going on in the city and everyone was in on it, everyone! From the baby strapped to a moms back I saw, to the child dancing with his parents, to the swarms of young people, middleaged and seniors, and people who I thought would have gone to bed by 7pm. Everyone had the same energy and seemed to be enoying it all. I walked around a bit more and found my way across the Seine past Notre Dame and on the other side of the river I heard a badn playing Red Hot Chili Peppers. (That was also bizzare. You would hear American music being sung quite well and I would swear the vocalist was American but then when they would finish it was always, "Merci, tout les mondes") So, I stopped by this band and started to listen when this man next to me started talking to me. He said his name was Saib and he was there with his friend Sebastien and his mother (who Im pretty sure was like 84 - it was 2am by this point) Yah de yah de yah, and then he asked me to go get drinks and essentially was trying to pick me up. Um, what? It was a fairly bizzare experience to say the least and for me got awkward fast so I did my best to tell him that "J'aime les femmes" and left as soon as I could. I stopped for a bit to collect my thoughts and rest at the Pompidou centre before walking all the way down towards the Bastille and arriving there at about 3:30am. By this point, the music had started to let up and the streets had essentially turned into places for all the people (many drunk) to walk for the night. But there was no sign of any of them stopping any time soon. From the bastille, I walked all the way back to St Michel along the Seine (not curling up to nap along any bridges this time, dont worry) and took the train back at 4:30, getting back to my room at about 6am just in time to see the sun start to rise. Nuit blanche numero 2, mais cette fois c'etait tres bien.