Midnight in Paris

Some game at the Chiquito bar

And so it turns out. I go at it, the nightlife of Paris. An leisurely adventure filled with clubs and electronic beats? Well not quite this time. As I have my humble but not unappreciated place to recooperate a bit outside of Paris, it's not easy to get in and out just without further adue. Just a few stops away from Versilles is a whole bunch of stops too many to make it back after hitting up the bars. But the bars are bars, French bars. Bars packed with soul and character. In fact as the clock strickes 04 I get to see quite a few of these characters in and outside the bar I'm chilling out in. Although a coffee isen't available on the meny a plate of fries and a beer are. Not the worst of companions for writing a bit in the night. One of the worst for staying in shape though

=(

Mr.Goodseed (Bongrain) A very french young man in so many ways

After my coffee with Charles Bongrain (goodseed if you choose to translate names) so close to fountain st. Michael that we could almost have been sitting in it it was time for me to head on to the party. The locale of the party was conveniently located at the beginning of rue du Menilmontant, a cozy little place called "Chiquito" would hold most of my night. Beers for 2.50 Mojito for 5 and "Monaco" for 2 are not a bad deal going out. Well at least not coming from Sweden. For those of you that are wondering why I'm even mentioning a "Monaco" it's because this drink is new to me. So from what I heard from my friendly bar-counter neighbour is that it's a sweet beer for girls, her words not mine. In it is fruity sweet syrup, carbonated water or tonic and beer. I could be mistaken on the tonic water. It could have been soda of some sort as well. I'll just have to try it next time I have a bar at my disposal. I'm a bit too afraid to order one at a random bar.

Sabrina the birthday kid and fille extraordinaire (on the left) and Métte also a fille extraordinaire (on the right) two dear Parsisian friends of mine =) 

The Party was in tribute to my friend Sabrina who's 31^st birthday is was. One year wiser and maybe one year closer to death, of age as much as of the unlimited alcohol that was at her disposal tonight. Seriously though, It was a good gathering with plenty of open-minded and social people. And to my delight with varying English ability. Varying as it present to me the opportunity to try out some french. A gift gently wrapped with the boxing glove of unpreparedness my face made out with tonight. It was still fun though and the crowd was a bit from everywhere to even a few Spanish words came to use =)

Tour du France, the intoxicated night version

Walking from no26 rue du Melimontant to place du République is an interesting experience on a Saturday night. Not only because my newly acquired friend tried to talk me into sleeping at a random girls place as a over night solution with the argument that I don't have to sleep with them. After all girls do it all the time(this reminded me about one of those episodes from "how I met your mom"). But rather the social interaction that takes place on the streets in between. Streets like Oberkampf definitively shows a different french society than the touristy one. If you've ever head of french kickers and hudlums, this is one place they might hang out. But it's not that it's shady, only shady. It's also busseling with life and people from clubs and bars. As we three musketeers walked our way onward I received the general explanation of the places and I do have to say that a slightly drunken tour of the quarters of the night is way more entertaining than most tours I've ever been on. And I've been on a few (Yes I have Asian family, but this is not why).

the bar of destiny where all stragglers show up in the dead of night

Reaching my bar of destiny a hounded meeters from the place du République I get to witness a range of interesting characters. Each one most certainly having a untold story of adventure, rise and decline. Well for some mostly decline I guess. One of the more noteworthy "dudes" grabbing my attention is this man in his mid 40's slightly drunk and trying to talk to women walking up and down the street. With slightly drunk I mean the type of drunk where hard balancing acts like walking all the way on a big rode which one has to all himself would be considered a pass. So stumbling up and down the road then. The maybe best part might be that he could't really utter any coherent words. Although it be so that my french is preposterously inadequate to determine this. Either way the shower of saliva would with no doubt plug the targeted ear and effectively block all attempted communication. After a second though the funniest part was probably when the repeatedly pretended to talk to someone on his phone after a failed attempt. And believe you me, they all failed.

All characters here are not remarked by excessive drunkenness, but this one was.

Fellow commuters waiting for the first train out to the burbs