In Paris the cabarets are opening and the dating platforms are running hot. And on the weekend everyone can feel free for a few hours
It is as if a slight vibration, a crackling sound, were going through Paris. It can’t be the awakening of spring: the first leaves are falling on the boulevards. And yet life is slowly returning to the city of lights, and with it the pleasure of the senses. For the first time in a year and a half, 20 of 84 fashion brands are currently returning to the Seine for the first Paris “Fashion Week” of the post-Covid era.
Finally a real catwalk again, finally the smell of make-up to loud electronic music again, finally small screams of delight again when the model from Saint-Laurent shows off a black tuxedo with blue gloves. And only the flashlights when Catherine Deneuve, Carla Bruni and Charlotte Gainsbourg get out of dark limousines to follow the Défilé against the breathtaking backdrop of the Trocaderos and Eiffel Tower.
Of course, the mask requirement and a minimum distance in the audience apply, but the fashion industry is “happy” that the catwalk-free starvation is over. At the end of the spring and summer collection 2022, the fashion industry is commemorating the star designer Alber Elbaz, who died of Covid, on Tuesday. Topic: “Love brings love.”
L’Amour is back in Paris with a capital A – also in the revue theaters. The Lido on the Champs-Elysées is returning to its soirees this weekend. The wind blades are also turning again at the Moulin Rouge in Pigalle. The guests from America and Asia are reluctant to return, but the Parisians, more willing to go out than ever, jump into the gap.
In the Crazy Horse, the dancers practice up-the-leg for the last time with the page cut (which, according to the house rule, has to be twice as long as the bust). Daniela also trained all summer, often in a quiet room at the hospital in Aulnay-sous-Bois, northeast of Paris, where she works during the week. A year ago, at the height of the pandemic, the nurse volunteered to go to the emergency service to assist the ventilated Covid sufferers. In a few days, the 32-year-old will resume her double life – nurse Daniela by day, Crazy Horse dancer alias Tina Tobago by night.
It can’t be a coincidence: Donizetti’s “Elixir of Love” premiered at the Paris Opera this week. On Saturday there is a “Nuit Blanche”, a white night, as they say “free night” in French. Exciting cultural events are planned, such as a roller disco in the 16th district of Paris or an “erotic night” in the Cité de la musique, where the dancer Kaori Ito will perform a piece called “Stick me on fire”.
Up on the roof
The most famous Parisian bars and clubs are jam-packed again, at least on weekends. This is also the case with the “Duplex” on Avenue Foch, which for its part is often busier after midnight than at lunchtime. The champagne flows freely, the bottle for 180 euros for five people.
The innkeepers only remember the past eighteen months like a nightmare. A quarter of Parisian nightclubs had to submit the balance sheet. A similar number have used the Covid break to renovate, some even by creating a roof terrace in the building to breathe. Nothing is trendier in Paris right now than a rooftop.
And the rest of the bars? You have smoothly switched from the authority category “Type P” (discotheque) to “Type N” (restaurant, bars). Officially, no dance at all. Then they hired a guard to sound the alarm when the night patrol arrived. In this case the lights went on, the music was muted and the dance stage was covered with tables. When the Flics came in, everyone had dutifully put on the protective mask, as a regular customer of Bar Le Germain described in the Paris-Match magazine.
You can dance
Now the big Parisian nightspots are returning to the “Type P” and are accessible to everyone, at least with a health certificate and mask. It’s not very sexy. Internet dating has experienced a new boom since the beginning of Covid. On platforms such as DisonsDemain (“Let’s say tomorrow”) or AdopteUnMec (freely translated: “Grab a guy”), but also on the well-known dating sites like Meetic, Badoo or Tinder, you can read advertisements like: “Bonjour, my name is Sarah, me I am looking for love and I am vaccinated. ”In some cases you can also tick in your profile if you are vaccinated.
If two crosses want to meet, there is still the question: How do you greet each other at the first rendezvous? At the popular meeting point at the east entrance of the Jardin du Luxembourg you can see all possible variants, accompanied by a slightly embarrassed laugh: elbow against fist, open hand against folded hands, or the almost forgotten “bise” – with or without a mask.
In the interior of the park, where couples used to eat each other on the benches, you now sit at a chaste distance. Among them are probably many dating couples, the new Parisian “Amoureux” of the Covid era. One is happy, jokes and shows the vaccination certificate when the opportunity arises. Or sing the chanson by Joe Dassin together: “It’s been a long time since I came here, to the Jardin du Luxembourg.”
