Down the old Moulin Rouge

Bonjour mes amigos, homosexuals and fruits...yes that is a very bad attempt by me to parlez Francais.

Well I've taken enough time to come back and tell you all my Parisian exploits, haven't I. I'm sure you're all dying to know what I got up to.

The journey started on the Eurostar, which as I said before, is a rather wonderful mode of transport. I accompanied 9 other males on the stag trip, including the (sort of) husband-to-be. We started off the journey in style by cracking open some champagne en route, then proceeded to the buffet car for more drinks and snacks, which was jolly nice. Tres sophisticated! Once we actually arrived in Paris, we went straight to a brasserie that was pre-booked. Had a gorgeous (if expensive) three course meal, including foie gras which was a definite guilty pleasure (If you don't already know, I will refrain from describing how this is made. Needless to say animal lovers would not be happy). Then I had profiteroles for afters, whilst some of the other guys opted for creme brulee. French food is just sooo yummy!

The husband to be was suitably clownish in the restaurant - it doesn't take much to get him drunk being the lightweight that he is and he does have a rather excitable nature, bless him. Our waiter was much amused by him and his dodgy attempts at French. Thankfully we had a couple of fluent speakers amongst us, which definitely helped. We didn't leave the restaurant till about 1am!

Thereafter things got rather frustrating as we didn't seem to be able to make a firm decision on a club to go to and ended up trekking around what seemed like the whole of Paris. We tried a well-known club called "Rex" but the queue outside there was ridiculous and after a while we moved on. In actual fact, the hubbie-to-be kept insisting on going to "Le Queen", the number one gay nightclub in Paris, which was kind of ... alarming. As I kept telling him was his fiance aware of his latent homosexual leanings? Being the ultra-considerate person that I am, I thought that going to a gay club wouldn't really benefit the majority of the group i.e. it would prevent the guys from being able to pull any fit French birds. Another good reason for not going was that it was too far to walk.

Eventually we settled on Pigalle (the red light area) which was pretty tacky and also seemed somewhat dangerous with gangs of thuggish-looking youths hanging about. Again we couldn't seem to decide on a somewhere to go (useless eh?) We did venture inside a sex shop with some interesting "exhibits". Anyway we eventually ended up in a bar/club just a couple of doors along from the Moulin Rouge called "La Loca" (I think - you can just make it out underneath the old Moulin Rogue in the photo above). It was very lively, noisy and crowded and full of trendy young things. Made our way to the dancefloor at the back and had a good dance, which was what I had been waiting for all night!! They were playing some excellent funky house stuff, similar to Bob Sinclar (French house DJ) and Armand Van Helden "My My My". However by that point it was 4.30am and the club shut at 6, so felt a bit cheated!!

Once chucking out time came round, we all trekked up to Montmartre to watch the sun rise (one of the party's ideas). There was a great view over the city but it got cold and the sun seemed to take forever to come up so we gave up on that after a while. Then we headed back to Gare Du Nord and had some breakfast before getting the train.

So a good trip overall although I personally wish we could have found somewhere to settle earlier on. Still I think I may go back again soon, it's so easy to get to Paris and there's loads to see. I think Gustavo would like it.

And we didn't get to humiliate the husband-to-be either, which was a great pity. We had planned on stripping him naked and strapping him to the central column of the Eiffel Tower - unfortunately we didn't get round to that one...

OC xxx

PS My eagle-eyed Mum just read my blog and took issue with my spelling of "foie gras" as "fras grois". So I have corrected it. Thanks Mummy dearest!!