I'm sorry, can I get a date check? What, did you say 2009? OK, just making sure.

This weekend ending up being busy, almost in spite of my best intentions. I got off to an early start with orchestra rehearsal on Saturday morning, and just really couldn't seem to snap myself out of the haze.

After that I quickly did some grocery shopping, and headed to Montmartre and the Mairie of the XVIIIe to meet up with my friend Francesca (from the foyer back in the day) for the Fête des Vendanges. That would be the festival of the grape harvest, in case you wondered. Yes, I went to a festival celebrating one of my favorite things: Wine.

This is the Mairie of the XVIIIe, and right in front of it was the podium where the Mayor of the arrondissemnt and the Mayor of Paris and their respective entourages were observing. I opted to cut them out and get more of the building instead :)



The parade was really long, and had groups from tons of different vineyards, as well as crazy costumes, music groups and dancers. The various groups were handing out wine samples and grapes from their harvest! I got these ones early on. Very tasty.



These next few pictures are to give you an idea of the costumes and stuff. Lots of groups carrying banners and wearing robes.



Lots of traditional costumes helped me place the various vineyards on a map. You could see the German and Italian influences pretty quickly for some of the groups.



This group came through not long after I had seen a band of men and women in hot pink shirts, one guy with zebra accoutrements. Yikes. Also, saw my first male flag wavers. Yikes.



We decided to see what else the festival had to offer, so we meandered up to Sacre Coeur. We didn't really know where we were, but luckily, it wasn't too hard to pick it out amidst the other buildings ...



We came at it from the wrong side though, I don't think I've ever climbed up from the back stairs like this.



It was jam packed ... you literally couldn't move. Both sides of the church and the whole front were packed with little market stalls with wine on sale and tons of different regional goodies from all over France, AND even Canada! Those French-Canadians! This is the view out over the city from the front. Despite ominious clouds during some parts of the parade, it ended up being a beautiful day!



Just had to get a shot of this ... Really? Could it GET less French?



Then I headed home in the most tightly packed métro I think I have ever experienced -- you know, the kind where people fling themselves at the crowd as the buzzer signals the doors closing and hope for the best? I'd be alright with never going through that again.

Then later on it was Girls' Night at Ophélie's house, or as she more accurately named it, Promotion 2007, 5th floor (Although Ophélie lived on the 7th and Colline lived on the 3rd, Sarah and I lived on the 5th and we took the average)-- we had all lived together in my old dorm on Bd Saint-Michel back in the day. We ate a lot and had a blast goofing around, and then were talked into going to a bar at Pigalle by Ophélie's friend Carmen.

May I take this moment to reiterate how ridiculous dancing in France is? Or music? All of the music at this place, O'Sullivans, was stuff I loved back in ... oh, 5th grade? Old rap, old pop, the typical amount of Michael Jackson. Geeeeeeeeeeeeeez. And the guys that were dancing thought they were the dancing queens. I could hardly hold back gales of laughter. Disco moves are alive and well in France.

And then my gaydar exploded.

Today was uneventful; hit the flea market early for some much needed apartment things, then came home and tried to focus on productive things ... and clearly failed.