My first tango in Paris

If you feel like dancing but do not fancy going into a night club, just walk to the quays of the Seine close to the Institute du Monde Arabe.

The music starts at 18hs, there are even classes, all levels. Or you can just find someone and move around as you please.

There is salsa, tango, rock, samba..anything you want. Nobody cares if you are doing it right, if you don't follow the rhythm etc. You just need to feel the music and dance!

Lots of Parisians go there for picnics as well. It is a wonderful atmosphere. You also see the boats cruising the Seine and the tourists all amazed...watching the mad people dancing on the moonlight!

Bus 72, public transport and cinema

Tired of walking? Cannot think on anything else to do in Paris?

The bus 72 may be the solution! It goes all the way from Chatelet to St Cloud by the Senne, passing by the Louvre, Concorde, Eiffel Tower, Trocadero, Parc de Princes, among others.
If you buy one of those daily tickets, you can hop on and off the bus as many times as you want. It is like a bus tour without the guide.

Unfortunately, for some reason, in the bus or in the metro, you always have the feeling that most people here are unhappy. I wonder why. How can you make such a face when you have the Eiffel Tower just a few meters away?

Personally, I think I will never get tired of Paris. I discover something new everyday.

Yesterday, for example, I went to see a movie from the 50s, called The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing...a real classic! And there were so many people there! It seems that around the "quartier latin" there are a lot of small cinemas that show old movies in their original version with subtitles in French. The cinema was also really beautiful...all red velvet! It was like travelling in time really.

No, I will never get tired of here.

The Man Bag

It is the latest fashion in Paris: the man bag. Every time I see one, I feel the impulse to take the guy by the shoulders and shake him while I ask:

- What do you need to carry now that you didn't have to before?

Non, je ne comprends pas!!! And these bags are everywhere in the city. I don't know, maybe it is just me. I am not ready for the new man, the metrosexual, the Beckham generation.

Yesterday, a friend took me for lunch at the very fashionable Boulevard Saint Germain. We had our rendez-vous at one of the metro stations. I was looking at a map when I see him approaching together with his man bag. I could not believe it.

- No, not you - I had tears in my eyes
- What is wrong? - he seemed confused
- You have a man bag. Why? You didn't have one when I saw you last year. What do you carry in it?
- My phones(yes, he has two! and one looks almost like a laptop!), my documents, my keys...what is the problem?
- I just think they are horrible, a real man doesn't carry such bags.

He looks at me and smiles:

- Ah, yeah...but we are in Paris, you see...whatever we do here becomes fashion. In some months everybody all around the planet will have one.

He is right. God help us all.

Ma vie en rose

Well, after all the non answered emails, I decided: I will create a blog.
Hopefully, I will have the patience and the will to post frequently and share my views of life in the most beautiful and amazing city of the planet.

As most of the Parisians have left the city looking for some peace of mind, I am probably the closest of a inhabitant of Paris that one can find during the month of August. (and unfortunately I do not live here!)

It can be said and no doubt about it, that I am a Parisian wanna be. :)

C est la vie.