Gay Paree 2024 Day 1

 

First time going back to Paris after 11 years. Bob stayed the summer there at Julie and Josh's house that's still there in the 13eme arrondissement so he's already there. We got Ryan to come with us and he's never been. Ryan is a party boy and we ruined the trip before it even started by having so many drinks at the airport and the enabling bartender even told us we can take to go drink so we did and were drinking at the gate. So we ended up drunk and got on our red eye flight and woke up hungover on the tarmac in Paris.

i ended up sitting inbtwn a Hassidic jewish dad and his daughter and I was like we can switch seats and he said no thats ok we prefer it this way. So they'd periodically be talking to each other over me but i was just passed out most of the time thanks to the gummie i snuck on. They were going to Israel. This is august 2024 and the genocide in palestine is still rippin' and things hadn't escalated in Lebanon and surrounding countries yet.

we made it to the house after our red eye flight, the beautiful papillon house that i lived in for a year in 2012. We took a 2 hr nap and rallied

a huge cassoulet

the smothered veal sits atop basque potatoes and theres cheese and ham. Chez Gladines in the always awesome Butte aux Cailles neighborhood next to the house.

we purposely went 4 days after the olympics were over so we didn't have to see the city so crazy. The olympics being over combined with it being the end of august when Paris is empty left us with empty streets sometimes. The special olympics would be happening the next week so they still had all the machine gun toting security dudes around Paris so that meant no pickpockets which was awesome, so that was a big benefit. Do we wish we could have seen paris in full force in normal times yes, but it was really nice not having to be on alert all the time

Pantheon

this corner on Ile st louis, at Le Saint Regis

Marionette studio on ile st louis

Bertillon icecreams

Obligatory shot at Notre Dame which was ravaged by fire and is being restored

crossing over to Ile de la cite to Place Dauphine which previously i loved and would see people playing petanque here. Its the most picturesque place to play and is hidden and protected kind of from tourists. This time i thought maybe there's somewhere that lends out balls and there were 2 places at least. Ma salle a manger lends them for free if you buy drinks, and La Rose de France charges 5 euros a person. We ended up playing here 2 days and it was arguably the best time we had. There are regular players we saw both times. There's guys going around trying to recruit someone for their team. There's young and old playing together. The sun dappled horse chestnut trees that light up with pink flowers in april, the community vibe, the bartender going out to play, and finest playing surface around make Place Dauphin a Paris dream if you like petanque.

after several bottles of wine and in high spirits we went 100 yards over and down to the tip of ile de la cite which was previously my fav spot and a great sunset spot too. Secret is out and there were a lot of people there with the same idea but i still love this spot.

La Palette in the 6th, more wine and charcuterie and fromage boards

back in the neighborhood at butte aux cailles ryan tries his first and only Ti-Punch which appears to be strong rum with sugar and lime and is kind of a punishment but is a big thing here.

we did so much stuff on the first day and every day actually. somehow we didn't have a mosquito problem this night but there would be several nights it would plague us and the last thing you want to do is wake up in the middle of the night, drunk and have to hunt mosquitos in the room. They don't use screens in the windows in france and there's no AC. All you can do is spray and pray. And ya gotta remember to spray of course.