I came across this video on youtube today while I was chasing myself down one of my rabbit holes and it reminded me of one of the many times I went to a party in Paris ...

One time I was in Paris visiting my friend K. She always had exciting things on her agenda – whether it was meeting up with friends or going to gallery openings or to parties. So this particular night there was a party that she was taking me to.

First though, we had to stop off at the corner grocery to pick up a bottle of obligatory wine to take with us. Picking out wine at any store in France back in the day was an Herculean endeavor. So many choices. Maybe it’s still like that. All for a buck-fifty. Probably not still like that ($$). But I finally chose one and off we went.

We get to this party – and it’s a small intimate gathering of about ten or twelve people at a friend’s apartment – and I present the bottle of wine to the hostess. She tells me to go ahead and put it on the mantle with the others, and when I do, I realize that we all brought the same bottle. Just something little I noticed that I thought was weird given how many labels there were to choose from and how long it took me to choose just the right bottle …

I then go on to do random party things like drinking the wine and eating the food, and having stilted conversations in French with the folks I’ve just met. And of course I do that American faux-pas thing of asking folks “what they do” as a conversation starter. Someone is an opera singer. Another a gallery owner specializing in photography. Another is a photographer. A few other people that I can’t quite remember right now, and then these two guys sitting on the floor in the living room.

I sat down with them and asked my obligatory first question which caused them to look at me like, hmmmm, what’s up with this chick? They were a tad suspicious of me, as they should have been. They said they had a band. Their names were Gaëtan and Arnaud and the name of their band was Louise Attaque. I kind of wrinkled my nose and sheepishly said sorry I have never heard of you, and they looked at each other, but I said no, really, I haven’t. That then started a whole conversation about them, and I had suddenly become refreshing! Arnaud talked more, as he spoke English, so we talked about them, what kind of art I make, what kind of music I liked, French music, American music, African music, and where could I hear the band play. They weren’t playing so much as a group at that time, so I went to FNAC the next day and bought a couple of their CDs (hey, it was 2005).

These guys are still on my playlist.

This is also one of my travel experiences that falls under the “Always Say Yes” category – when someone offers to take you somewhere, clean yourself up and put on your best clothes, and go! You’ll never know who you’ll meet.