Fête de la Musique

Originally uploaded by nonobstant

Last night, Nick and I went to La Fête de la Musique, a summer solstice party where the streets of Paris are filled with hundreds of musicians. It's great -- almost every street corner is stage for a different act, and you can spend all night wandering through the city, dancing and drinking. Nick and I saw a choir doing Carmina Burana at a medieval church, a band that was kind of like the French Raffi (complete with adorable little French munchkins bopping around to the music), two different salsa bands, a brass band playing "The Lion Sleeps Tonight," several DJs (including one whose set ended when the crowd chucked a can at the head of someone from his entourage, I think because they didn't like the Rage Against the Machine song he was spinning), and a stereo system blasting Michael Jackson remixes in front of a parking garage exit. When people tried to drive their cars out, the crowd would surround them and grind up against the doors and windows. Amazingly, no one seemed to mind. I guess everything goes during La Fête.

The best part was the dancing. Man, can French people dance! We wandered through an outdoor rave that seemed to be composed entirely of people who were, like, a hundred times cooler than us. Kind of like this girl. I have never seen people dance as well as these kids were dancing. It was like someone gave Justin Timberlake's backup dancers a whole bunch of ecstasy and set them loose to roam the streets of Paris. We were totally awestruck. We stood there for an hour or so, watching and drinking cans of beer from a corner store. It was the most fun I've had in Paris so far. I really wish Maggie had been there, since she spent our entire time in Europe looking for a good dance club. Last night, all of Paris was a dance club, Mag, and it was super cool.