Party Like a Parisian

Paris is known to all as being the city of love, but for me it is a lot more than that - it is the city of joy, happiness and feeling grateful. During my whole time in Paris I cannot remember once that I was sad, unhappy or feeling down. Even when I was totally lost, having a hard time communicating with the French, almost loosing my baggage in the subway, dead tired of walking all day - not once did I feel the slightest tinge of sadness. It was all joy!!!
And maybe that is why it is known as the city of love - because love makes you happy. Be it love towards your family, friends, that special person who holds your heart, your children - or even love to life itself. When you love life, life makes you happy. And this was me in Paris. I just couldn't stop smiling and everything seemed golden, beautiful and great.

But anyways, continuing on with the story... After the Louvre me and Richi found our way into a nice little bistro where we had a nice lunch of bread, butter, omelet with fresh mushrooms and some nice hot tea. Before we knew it, it was almost five pm and we both felt full and tired. Outside it was pouring rain and the next few things we had put to do on our list were all outdoor sights. In the end we decided to go home and rest a bit until night came. And that is what we did...got ourselves a few good hours of sleep and woke up ready to put our next plan into action.
I got in touch with Jamie (the Chinese girl we had met the night before, whom we nicknamed "The Lipstick Girl" as she put lipstick on all three boys) and we set a time to meet up and from there she would take us out to a club so we could party!!!

Following the directions she had given us we ended up at none other than...The Moulin Rouge - the exact place we had been to the evening before. Next to it was a club where me and Jamie gladly entered for free while Richi had to pay 15,00 Euros. A VERY strange thing for me was finding out that here in Paris men are not allowed into a club without having at least one woman with them - or so, if a group of guys don't have at least one female company with them there is no way they will be able to enter the club and party. Crazy, no?!
 Entering we went straight to the bar where I was appalled at once when discovering the prices of the drinks... a simple cocktail wasn't cheaper than 11 euros a piece. A small glass of beer ranged 8 to 10 euros - the only good thing in all of this was that the water was for free!

After a drink and warming up to the place we went straight to the dance floor and that's when I experienced for the first time how crazy, mad and insane partying with Parisians can be. Well, it wasn't exactly only Parisians...as the night went on I must have met people from all over the world: Chinese, Italians, Spaniards, Africans, Americans, and the list goes on...
Another amazing thing is the music selection. They basically play EVERYTHING!!! From Indian music to Rap, Rock'n Roll, Samba, "Opa Ganam Style", Michel Teló, Latin Music, Arabic music, Pop - and of course lotsss of Techno and Dance music. While the men (many dressed in suits) and the women jumped on the chairs and danced on top of the bar me and Jamie went up on one of the two "mini stages" (located in the middle of the club) and danced our legs out. Much to my amazement (totally opposite from here in Brazil) the amount of men is a lot larger than the amount of women and being so the men are very forward and many will go up to you and ask you for a dance - even more so when they see you are a foreigner. At one point I stopped to rest a bit and saw a guy come up to a girl and ask her for a dance; she gladly accepted and there they were on the dance floor rubbing and smothering each other - I as a spectator was totally sure that something more would ensure after the song ended (at least a kiss!) and yet no, as soon as the song was over the girl politely left, walked back to her girlfriends and went back dancing on her own while the guy went up to another girl and...well despite not staying there to look I can only imagine the same thing would be happening again. My head was like...???!!!
Back on the dance floor I am when this Italian guy starts talking with me. He asks me from where I am (as it is obvious I am not French) and I tell him I am from Brasil.
- What country is Brazil in?
- No, no. Brazil IS the country.
- Huh? What's the name again.
- BRAZIL!
- I have never heard of it.
- You have never heard of Brazil?
- Where is it on the map? Show me, show me...
I just turned around and walked away. Someone that is THAT stupid should be in school and not in a club. Cracking up I tell Richi and we continue dancing the night away.
Soon after Jamie met a tall handsome Parisian guy called Clemont who joined our group in the drinking and dancing.
One thing though that I thought was veryyy annoying was that everyone would throw, break, leave on the floor their empty glass cups and so there was glass on the floor of the whole club. I had taken off my heels to dance but at one point I had to find other corners to dance as most of the main dance floor was covered in glass. It made me think why the managers of the club didn't switch to plastic cups instead?!!! But even the glass didn't stop my partying and drenched in sweat samba, hip hop, Latin dancing and even just grooving to the music continued.
At 5 am all of a sudden people start leaving the club - everyone at once. Why? Its about the time the subways start running again and here everyone either walks (yep, some even for 30-45 minutes) or catches the subway back home and we were no exception. In the subway everyone sat calm, quiet, poised and polite. Not one fight, drunk discussion, mean shoving or pushing - nothing. I had a hard time believing that those people were the exact same ones who were dancing on top of the bar, throwing their glass cups and going wild on the dance floor just a few minutes ago.

 Home. Bed. Sleep.

The Louvre!!!

Eager to get as much as possible out of our day me and Richi woke up early (considering the late time we went to bed the night before), had a quick breakfast and were out in the streets of Paris. This time we were on our own with no guides, local language speakers or help of any kind - just the two of us who were in this huge city for the first time in our lives.
Richi quickly learnt how to get around using the Parisian subway station and so off we went straight for the Louvre. The day before Vitor had sat down with me and written out a little "tour" we could do starting by the  Louvre and ending at the Eiffel Tower at night. It would be a long day but wasn't that what we were there for anyways?
Even the fog and rain that greeted us as we left the subway station weren't enough to dampen our excitement of the day we had ahead of us. We took a look at how much it was to enter the Louvre: 11 euros each; and then asked how much would be a Paris Museum Pass for one day: almost 40 euros each. And right then and there we did a big mistake: we bought the Paris Museum Pass.
Why was it a mistake? Well by the time we finally found where to buy the Paris Museum Pass (you buy it in a tobacco store next to the Louvre) and entered the Louvre it was almost 11:00 am - the Louvre is HUGE and packed out and before you know it three to four hours have gone by in a flash! After spending many hours in a museum your head is tired, your body can't stand being pushed and shoved anymore by people and your legs feel like they will fall off. Another museum is NOT HAPPENING!!!
And that is exactly what happened to us. Louvre took pretty much our entire day - and I can't complain as it really is magnificent! From the Egyptian tombs to the Greek statues followed by astonishing gold framed paintings of the Renascence Era - it is all a work of art! And of course you can't miss pushing your way through the crowd of people that surround her: yep, none other than the mysterious Mona Lisa. Though as soon as I found myself in front of her all I could think of was: "Geezzzz!!!" The painting is small, extremely well guarded and at least 100 meters in front of you surrounded by glass cases, and in my honest and sincere opinion there really wasn't anything all THAT special about it.
Now if you stop and pay attention to the paintings that surround Mona Lisa then yes, that is what I call a work of art! Looking at them I totally forgot the disappointment I had felt just a few minutes ago.

Well as they say, a picture is worth 1,000 words...so here go the pictures: