it’s my favourite day in France. well I haven’t seen 14 juillet but Fête de la Musique is so cool. A huge celebration of music everywhere in the country. You get to see all types of music, all levels of professionalism, and it’s all fun. You get local bands, small groups, professional orchestras, singers, buskers, beggars, solo-ists, shower singers, everything. people playing on the streets, in bars, in cafes, in clubs, museums turned into concert halls, in municipal halls, in theatres. and the weather was so great. even the president’s palace had events. there was a choir in Tuileries but I wasnt there at that time, also a concert at Palais-Royal, lots of little bands everywhere. Almost all the cafes/brasseries have had signs up for days/weeks advertising their programme for the night.
i went down to Hotel de Ville to walk around, coz I didn’t feel like staying in the outer arrondissements. Actually there are lots of little stuff happening all over zone 1, but I just didnt feel very neighbourly. There are also stuff in the outer zones, but I didn’t feel so energetic. So I was walking around, there was this guy playing his guitar with his little amp, he sounded not bad. Probably just some guy who likes to play in his bedroom, but everyone’s welcome, and people will stop to listen to you, and respect you. Then I was sitting in front of Hotel de Ville, and this woman listening to her walkman starts singing out loud. She sounded terrible, terrible terrible. I had to get up and walk away. Then I walked around, was in a back street and I saw this little band playing in a half abandoned shophole with some friends listening, so nice. Then i got to Palais-Royal but it was too early. Then I went to Etoile and walked down but nobody was doing anything. So I went to Elysees and listened to this nice chamber orchestra and this fantastic brazilian band. Then I went to Chatelet and listened to some lousy tribesman and some little bands. Lotsy ppl hanging around. Unfortunately there is one big city and only one evening/night for me, so I went over to St-Michel. Wow I got out of the metro and the roads were full of people. Insanely so. totally wow. the band was decent, i heard a Kyo song. and the sunset was so so so pretty and everything was so pretty, and the girls were so pretty coz they all dressed up, and i’ve never seen the latin quarter so alive before. usually it s just old quaint streets, literary, quirky, ghosts of old authors. but today it was like full of ppl having fun. it’s like the biggest party after everyone just graduated from college, but it was like ten colleges and spread over the entire neighbourhood. i decided to leave this place for later in the night, since it looks like they’ll never stop. so i went over to trocadero. a decent number of ppl, cannot compare with st-michel, but the concert was not bad. it’s not huge huge, but it’s free and sponsored partly by the Mairie de Paris. You know, everytime something cool is happening in town, Mairie de Paris is there. they are the best parents ever. It’s quite amazing having a concert with this huge field in front of you. From Trocadero you can see all the way down the trocadero fountain to the Eiffel to the Champ de Mars, incredible sight. a nice place to picnic and listen to music. I saw a pretty violinist. so i left at 11pm and went back to St-Michel. It’s quite cool to see ppl blading and cycling home. Anyway I got back and started walking through small streets. Just follow the crowd in. So you’ve got these small narrow alleys with orange lighting and streams and floods and bottlenecks of people, and small bands every 20m or so, and pubs holding a dancefloor on the street and a DJ in the alley and lots of beer everywhere and it’s all MAD. totally MAD. i felt drunk even without drinking. i did treat myself to a crazy 4€ Cornetto from Amorino, since i didnt spend any money on alcohol. they make these rose-like cones with icecream. very enticing.
and i finally ended up in this narrow street with a totally crazy band of brass instruments. it was the funnest bunch of ppl i saw the whole night. crazy ppl dancing, playing games, climbing up and jumping down, and other stuff. i left at 1+am when ppl started getting drunk and the number of empty cans and bottles on the streets starting piling up too high