Le Marais

(Katherine) We started off the day with the daunting task of purchasing an international SIM card through Orange for my phone, mainly for “emergency” needs (or last minute social plans!) We rewarded ourselves with a Croc Madame at Café de la Palace, and then began to make our way to the 11th arrondissement to meet up with Venetia at Liz and Vincent’s house. We hung out with Venetia and Liz until we needed to get Venetia into a cab for the airport. Then we hung out with Liz some more until Vincent got home from work. Liz is a native of Mexico, but fell in love and married Vincent, a Parisian, over 10 years ago. She has been in Paris for about 5 years and provided very interesting insight about our new city, having arrived as a foreigner. We all made plans to get together for dinner another time, and Robert and I took off to discover a new neighborhood.

We ended up off Saint-Germain, one of the main streets, but found an adorable tapas place called Casa San Pablo for a bite to eat. We then went on an adventure that took us over the Seine River into an area called La Marais which traditionally known as the center of the Jewish community. We decided it was time for a drink, so we popped into a bar that had a lively greeter upon entry, the Oka Music Bar: Le Midi L’Okawa. Once inside, I looked around and noticed Greece playing on the TV and rainbow flags behind the counter and realized that we had found the other community that lived in this arrondissement - “gay” Paris! As a long-time San Francisco and friend of many gay men, I was quite excited at this discovery since it reminded me of the Castro district back in SF.

We left the bar and made our way through the neighborhood checking out the other venues; some of which were a mix of men and women, some were overflowing with only men. But overall the vibe was upbeat, good spirits, and very safe. We kept wandering until we were nearly blinded by a series of blinky lights covering the entire ceiling of a small venue called 4pat. We were mesmerized by the pink and purple sparkly décor and decided to go in for a nightcap. As the crowd all chimed in to belt out the lyrics to “Summer Nights” I knew we would probably be spending a few more evenings in this fun neighborhood!