When in Paris Series Pt. 3
Welcome back you guys! I hope that you enjoyed both parts 1 and 2 of this When in Paris series. You guys have been able to come with me on my adventure to Paris and I hope that you are enjoying it as much as I have. We last left off when we were on the way back home that Tuesday. As we make our way onto the next part of the story, I ask that you fasten your seat belt because you’re about to take the ride of a lifetime. Are you ready?
When the next day came, we were expecting my house sister Emily to be getting in. On the other hand; Freddie our house father had to go meet up with someone who was interested in our Paris chapter. Instead of making Freddie go alone I decided to go with him, more so because I wanted to see more of Paris. It was a selfish thought that made me tag along but it was also bonding that I wanted to accomplish as father and daughter.
We were off, we walked down to Gare du L‘est to meet up with Sky. As we started to walk down Poissonniére we noticed that all the shops were wedding gown and suit shops. Then the prices of these pieces were jaw dropping. Which was a good thing because it was possible that we could find the effect that we needed for Sky. As we made it to Gare du L‘est early we decided to stop at the money exchange place which was only a block away. By the time we finished Sky had arrived. Once we all met up and gave our exchanges, we decided to walk back up Poissonniére to see if we could find a piece for Sky’s effect. After about 30 minuets of searching we decided to head to the next place.
We caught an uber to the next spot, and from what Sky told us the location we were going to was in the middle of the Pride (LGBTQA+) district. I actually got a little excited when I heard that. The crazy thing is that the store we ended up going to was near the mall that we went to the other day. I was excited that I remembered the area, I felt like a local. We spent about an hour and a half in this store trying to find the perfect fit for Sky’s effect. The category was body and let me tell you something…Sky had a lot of it. I was excited to get to see him walk the category after helping pick out his effect.
After we finished with Sky, he walked with us back to the closest station, but Freddie was still on the search for some overalls, so we didn’t head back home immediately. As we started to walk to the mall that we went to yesterday we happened to stumble across the mall that Freddie told us had all the name brand stores inside of it. We didn’t go inside because we were on a time schedule but on the outside of this mall, they had the most beautiful displays. Every single display was holiday themed and I loved the creative artwork behind each one. There was one display that creeped me out because the reindeer that was on the display looked too real for my liking.
As we continued our walk me and Freddie walked into about 4 different stores looking for his overalls. By the time we got to the second store I ended up buying this beautiful, thick, soft, knitted scarf. I had saw the same type of scarf when we went to Zara, but it was 25 euros. In this vintage store that we were in it was only 20 euros. It may look like it’s not a big difference but that 5-euro difference mattered to me. Plus, I am more willing to spend my money in a vintage shop than Zara. It is a sad fact. After Freddie was done looking around, we decided it was time to head back to the house so that we would be there by the time Emily arrived. Since we were near Châtelet Les Halles we just decided to walk there to catch the train back home. By the time we got back the apartment Emily was just getting there. The timing was actually perfect.
We waited for Emily to put her bags down, as soon as she was done, we headed back out to give her a tour of the neighborhood that we were in. We went to all of the same spots that we visited the first day we got there. The only thing that we different was that we walked further down Boulevard de Rochechouart. As we walked further down the street name changed to Boulevard de Clichy, and with the change of the street name so did our surroundings. It seems as though we had walked into “Sex City.”
I say “Sex City” because there were sex stores on each side of the street. There were also a lot of strip clubs, titty bars, and even more than that. Then if you walked down just a little further you would end up running into the famous Moulin Rouge. I can say this was the funniest walk that we had ever taken before.
When we got back to the apartment Emily had mentioned that there was a vogue class that was being taught that night. I was excited about the chance to go to the vogue class. The main reason was that this was my very first official class that I was attending. I usually just study the moves of people I see since I am not able to attend all of the practices that the house has since I’m living in D.C. Not to long later we head back out to go to the class.
Now let me tell you one thing about my past. When I was little my mother used to put me and my sister in all kinds of activities to keep us occupied and out of our neighborhood. So, when I was younger, I took ballet classes, I did figure skating, and I was also a-part of an all-star cheerleading and step team. I have history with the art of dance, but I have never taken a vogue class before and this was a fist for me to go to a class in a very long time. I was honestly very nervous, more so because in my head all I can think about is that everyone has been doing this longer than me.
It was so bad that my anxiety had started to get to me. It wasn’t until I got some motivation from these two girls I didn’t know in the class. They told me to keep going I was doing well. The thing is that we had arrived late so the break down part of the class was over. They were running through the routine that they were taught. So, I had to play catch up; which isn’t took bad for me since I am able to catch the steps of dance rather quickly is, I look at it a couple times. The one thing that kept frustrating me was that I couldn’t catch this one part of the routine and my fingers kept getting stuck in my afro. Don’t get me started on my long arms! I swear finding a comfortable position for my arms was the hardest thing that I had to do.
After about 3 run throughs we worked on putting all of the moves together and adding a new part. Now this part had me a little nervous; we were working on the duck walk. Which is basically when you squat down and walk in that position. I wasn’t sure that my knees could handle it. To my surprise every time that we did it, I did the duck walk perfectly. Even my house father said, “I was shocked to see that you mastered the duck walk.” Now that statement right there gave me all the confidence that I needed. For me I feel that anything involving my knees is the hardest hurdle for me to get over; so, for me to be able to do a duck walk everything else didn’t seem so hard to do.
As we closed out the class, I got a chance to formally introduce myself to the people who helped keep me motivated throughout the entire class. Still to this day I keep in contact with Mery, and Caroline. Both of these girls are very talented dancers and voguers, there is so much I could learn from them. I was really happy that I got the chance to exchange contact information with them. As we made our way to the train station, we ended up going in the same direction as the instructor and Mery, so that gave me more time to talk with everyone.
By the time we got back to the apartment, everyone was hungry, so we decided to go back out to find something to eat. At this moment it was around midnight, so I didn’t know what we would be able to find this late. We decided to walk back down by Boulevard de Clichy. As we started to walk down the street, I saw this pastry shop that had the most delicious looking strawberry tarte. I didn’t get the strawberry tarte that time but I marked the location in my brain so I would go back before I left Paris.
As we continued to walk down the street we ended up in “Sex City” again but this time we were on the hunt for food. As we made jokes about the stores, everyone was earnestly searching for food. As for me it was kind of difficult for me to be able to find food. Since I no longer eat meat, I didn’t have that many substitute options. Don’t get me wrong there could have been many other options but at that time I was too tired to actually look.
As we were walking down Boulevard de Clichy, I made the comment “wow its foggy outside tonight.” As soon as I closed my mouth Freddie corrected me and told us that wasn’t fog but smoke from a fire. Freddie was able to distinguish the smell; me on the other hand I had a stuffy nose so I couldn’t smell anything. So, as we continued to walk down the block the fog got thicker and according to Freddie the smell was getting stronger. That night Paris was literally burning. But I wasn’t expecting what was going to happen next.
After walking two long blocks we came across this place that made crepes and sandwich’s. At that point everyone was tired of walking so most of us decided to get something from there. Except for me of course, I was being really difficult that night. As we made our way back to the apartment, Freddie decided he wanted to stop at McDonald’s. After everyone was able to get some food we finally went back to the apartment.
As the next morning came, I was shocked to see Samil as soon as I woke up. I was really excited too; I haven’t seen her in months. You can imagine a little kid being happy after getting some candy. That’s exactly how I was. On the other hand, I couldn’t make too much noise because Thundaaa and Emily were sleeping in the other room. Since they were still sleeping, and Freddie didn’t want to stay in the house, so me and Samil decided to go with him.
As we made our way out of the apartment the first thing that was on everyone’s mind was getting something to eat, and some coffee. We decided to walk up the street to this café so that Samil and Freddie could get some coffee. Just a random note, but I don’t drink coffee guys. As we walked into the café the first thing that caught my eye was the set-up of the café. It had a bar right in the center, then small tables surrounding the bar. Then on the walls they had some booths to sit at. We decided to sit at the bar since they were only getting some coffee. In the end we got some croissants as well as coffee.
As we made our way back down Boulevard de Rochechouart we noticed that the train was closed. We were given a warning about the trains shutting down from Sky but also Mery. What I wasn’t expecting to see as we turned the corner onto Poissonniére were to see people setting up for a protest. I was not expecting for everything that was happening to be so close to where we were located. On the other hand, I was not mad at the fact people were protesting because I agreed with what they were standing for.
I am not from France, but I can understand the anger towards your government because they are treating their people like they have no worth. There has been so much tension going on in Paris between the Metro Unions and the government. Then the tension between the LGBTQA+ community and the police. You could see how serious things were when we had to go through multiple police check points as we made our way down the street. There were so many police officers there who were dressed in their raid suits.
No matter the situation we continued to make our way down the street because Freddie was looking for the block that had all of the black owned businesses on them, and paint for his effect. I had no idea where we were going so I just followed his lead. It wasn’t until we turned onto this street that was going away from the protest that we actually found what we were looking for. Now let me tell you, we started to walk by multiple beauty supply stores, multiple barber shops and hair salons. Every single store we passed had Afro people standing and working inside of them. Then there were people standing outside the shops trying to get us to come in and get our hair done. Well in Freddie’s case to get a haircut. Which was something that he needed to do, so the fact that we were able to find a street that had multiple barber shops Freddie was happy.
The actual mission that we had to accomplish was to find paint for Freddie’s effect for the Mugler Ball on Saturday. All of the paint shops that we tried to go to were actually closed because of the protesting that was going on. There were so many shops that had their windows boarded up it was baffling. Yet a smart idea for the business owners to do. We all decided that nail polish would be just as effective as paint plus cheaper that buying multiple bottles of paint.
After we bought the nail polish we headed back to the apartment, as we were making our way back up the street this time I was in the lead because the memory of Freddie and Samil are what I would call non-existent. Well Samil is a little better than Freddie but neither of them are as good as I am when it comes to remembering directions. As we made it back to Poissonniére the streets were full of people. As we continued to walk down the street, the protestors started to let off smoke bombs.
Now let me just say this…smoke bombs are the worst smelling thing I have ever come across. The air was completely filled with them the entire time we were walking down the street. The police officers were a lot more active; they were searching everyone no matter who you were. As we finally made it back to Boulevard de Rochechouart you could clearly see the smoke bombs in the air. I was shocked to see that the protest had made it all the way down there. There were people in the streets everywhere.
We decided to keep walking, I was a little sad because the activism in me wanted to join the protest, but I remained calm and just went back to the apartment. By the time we got back to the apartment both Thundaaa and Emily were up. We still had the entire day to do what we wanted until the ball that night. Even after we told them that the train system was down, we all still decided that we were going to walk to the Eiffel Tower.
How long was that walk you may wonder. Well it was a 1 hour and a half walk from where we were. Everyone’s reason for saying yes was because we would be able to see the city of Paris. Yes, even I wanted to walk to the Eiffel tower, and do you want to know what shoes I was wearing. I had on my platform boots, which in my opinion I find very comfortable. I accepted the challenge and we left out the house after everyone added a few more layers.
Before we even started this adventure to the Eiffel Tower we walked back down by the station because Emily wanted to get a photo of the protest and also everyone else wanted to go to Burger King. We finally made it onto the path towards the Eiffel tower after about 30 minuets of joking around. The great adventure to the Eiffel tower had officially began.
This was only supposed to be a three-part series but due to the fact there is a lot of information that I want to give you all so you can experience Paris the way I did. I will be adding another part to the “When in Paris Series.” I hope you are ready for what is coming next. I haven’t even gotten to the part of the trip that I enjoyed the most. So, prepare yourselves because this ride is going to get a little wild.
