Faux Pas Friday: Hazards of the Happy Dance

Under certain conditions, I’m a dangerous woman.

Start with a little sun after a drawn-out deluge, dress in cute summer attire, add a little dancing and me without my glasses – these were this week’s ingredients.

It’s like this: It rained for days, for weeks without end. It was as if we would drown, as if the city might swim away. So when the sky suddenly opened into sunshine, I cannot tell you how miraculous it felt.

LAAAAA! The sun! Revelers enjoying some rays.

We skipped over spring fever and headed straight to summer. Life is beautiful again.

I went to dance class on Tuesday as I do; it’s my favorite time of the week. With the majority of my life spent sitting and struggling over words, the chance to move and express myself in a totally different way feels like freedom. Dancing is a saving grace.

After class it was still light outside – after 9 PM!

I don’t know if it’s all that rolling around and sweating and shaking it to good music, but I’m always much looser after class. Maybe too loose. I still have the songs in my head and sometimes I unwittingly break into a dance shuffle on the street. I try to keep it under wraps (conform to societal norms, Sion!), but I guess I’m not that much of a conformist.

So I’m walking up my block and I kind of throw my head back and arc my arms behind me; one of my involuntary improv moves.

Up ahead a man in a sky blue shirt does a double and then a triple take as he crosses the street. I smile because I realize – oh yeah, that probably looked kind of weird, huh?

But so now I’m smiling at him and he’s really like, what? (quadruple take!)

Que Veux-Tu? (Most Random Video Ever?)

Granted, I don’t watch a lot of music videos anymore, but this has to be one of the most random I’ve ever seen.

Happy Monday, folks. Have a great week.

Throw off the coils of self-consciousness and dance everywhere!

Breaking It Down to Jacques Brel

This week I finally returned to my dance class after … (ahem)… a 4-month hiatus.

Part of that long period was summer when there was no class anyway (some activities in Paris simply shut down), but since September it’s been a battle to get back.

I got caught up in rentree madness; every single Tuesday there was an expo or reading I wanted to go to at the same time.

Then my neck gave out.

So this week…finally! The triumphant return!

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday: Street Scene

Paris feels so relaxed. I still claim August as my favorite month.

Everyone (who’s still in the city) is out and about, finally enjoying the rare run of sun…including this guy:

I can’t tell you his story, only that he was good-natured in letting me take his photo.

In the brief moment of exchange I couldn’t tell whether he was homeless or just a character. Two little kids took him to be a character with that long gray beard and interesting attire and started talking to him. He jovially played the part for them.

In any case, it was almost too much to take in before he rode off again. (Is that an IV drip bag?)

And the sign in back reading poesie (poetry)? Definitely intriguing.

A Non-Strike Subway Shenanigan

Well, on Friday the French Senate voted to pass the pension reform bill that everyone’s been up and arms about (and in the street, and blocking petrol stations, and, and, and…).

Unions are still calling for continued strikes and protests, anyway.

In the spirit of returning to more naïve times, I’m posting a random metro video that has nothing to do with the metro lines not running properly.

You may remember that I was incredibly tickled by subway shenanigans on the New York subway this summer – both a subway party I ran into and a Star Wars re-enactment. I opined that we’d be hard pressed to see such similar quirkiness in Paris.

Well, a kind reader recently provided me with some footage of a little re-enactment right here on the Paris metro to prove me wrong. It’s a scene from “Les Bronzés font du ski,” a classic French comedy.

While the music’s a bit cheesy and frankly, French comedy still leaves me scratching my head most times, you know I support just about any random activity undertaken in good fun. It’s no Star Wars re-enactment, but I still applaud the effort.

Enjoy!

(Warning: Video in French. But you know, it’s more about seeing people in full ski attire and accessories on the subway).

More examples of Paris randomness I need to know about? Send it my way!