The 14th of July

Today is the French independence day, which is supposed to be a party of great significance. So, after a festive dinner here in Emmaus last night (which to quote our anonymous friends was a total fag/children's party), we wanted to see the real celebrations and went to Paris. Our first stop was Tour Eiffel, where we "met" two backpackers: we followed them just for fun making jokes about their huge packs and that they're probably looking for a youth hostel (it's an inside-joke with Xavier and Joe) when suddenly they turned to us and asked if we knew where they could find a youth hostel... We laughed our asses off! But we were quite nice to them and didn't say anything rude about backpacking :)
Next stop - Champs Elysées, where we hoped to see some kind of a sign of parades or party, but RIEN! Only a lot of stupid flics and military people. Yuk.
Therefore we just had to give in to our good-old habits and take the metro straight to Montmantre, where we finally (after being whistled out of the Sacre Coeur park twice!) found a store that was actually open and headed to a well-known corner behind La Maison Rose. It is a great and quiet place even on those tourist-overflow days like today. There were a couple of guys playing guitars and singing, so we were able to wine and dine accompanied by great live music. Since we were sharing a bench with the two musicians and all of us were having a little drink (they had the French traditional anise-thingy), then unavoidably we got into a conversation. I asked one of the guys if he could play Noir Désir and then he played me about 3 of their songs. Sweet.
We talked about music, drinking, working etc; one thing lead to another and tomorrow midnight we are invited to one of the guys' birthday party that will take place on the little streets of Montmantre... And as if that wasn't enough! After we told Marco and David that we don't have much money and therefore are forced to drink the cheapest wine, they gave us 10 euros and told us to go and get something good because we should enjoy the best wines since we are in France!
Now we have to figure out what to get Marco for his birthday (he's going to be 23 tomorrow). Party recollections coming up...