Wednesday was low-key, dinner at my local hangout L’Autre Café and drinks on rue Oberkampf.
On Thursday night, we started the night with dinner at Chez Justine. Grapes happened to call to see what I was up to so I invited him to join us… all very innocent of course. He’s insane and managed to dig himself into a hole a million times talking about politics, cultural differences, gender differences… so we had a great time with him. Afterward, Grapes left and we went to meet up with Eva & Julien to check out their friend perform at a bar nearby. Then we went to a party in Bastille called ‘From Brooklyn to Paris’. The most absurd thing ever: a random New York DJ spinning old-school (?) hip-hop for a bunch of French folks who think they’re Williamsburg hipsters. The party was in an old graffiti covered warehouse-type space and they put up a big projection screen to rotate a slideshow of “New York City”—which really was just shots of the run-down, graffiti and trash filled ghettos—that’s NYC in their eyes. But the contrast of American hip hop culture mixed with the scooter helmets that were scattered all over the place was a riot—they may be New Yorker wannabes, but its still France after all!
On Friday night we hit up Favela Chic for dinner… it’s a Brazilian spot and the food was really good. Shelby’s friend Nicole and her boyfriend met us there (they’re currently starring in a show about the life of Josephine Baker, pretty cool) and we all headed out around midnight when the crazy party people started making their way in. Nicole suggested we try Impala, an African restaurant/lounge on the Champs Elysees. It turned out to be a really great spot… you walk in and immediately feel like you’ve stepped into a different era. Its dark, hot, sexy, there are tropical plants all over, the waiters are all tall, dark, handsome, well-dressed Africans—and the music makes you feel like you’re been transported to an exclusive bar on some fancy resort in the middle of Africa. I loved it.
The thing that made me laugh though was that everyone in the place was white (keeping with the fancy resort theme I guess!), there were maybe 4 other black people there besides us. Eventually we had to get up and start dancing—we were the only people dancing but there’s something about a congo beat, you just can’t sit still for too long. Then Joseph, who’s a professional tap dancer, put on his tap shoes and started this freestyle tap dance, it was pretty hot. And the DJ indulged me for about 30 minutes and played my commercial pop favs—JT, Beyonce. We left around 3am, grabbed crepes from a nearby deli and made our way home. Shelby had a 5am flight back to Italy the next morning, so it was just Vanessa and I for the next couple of days.
On Saturday, Vanessa took me to Le Rhumerie, a West Indian restaurant in Saint Germain des Pres. The best rum drinks you’ve ever had and the food was delicious—fritters, fried plantains, paté.... I think we were going for the island vibe this weekend :o)
Speaking of which… Vanessa is headed to Puerto Rico for a week… about 10 of her friends rented a house on the beach and they’ll be ringing in the New Year sipping piña colada’s under the hot Caribbean sun. And Miss Shelby is off on a fabulous vacay with her hubby Nicco to the Seychelles, an island in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Africa… yes, we are all ridiculously jealous.
Here are some pics from their visit.
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