Dear Readers,
So let it be. At some point you just have to accept it, it’s hot over Paris. How long will it last, no clue, but we waited so long for it that we take the time to celebrate and my next posts will be full of sun. But not this one, because there is the other side of the Moon, the dark one, the hot nights in Paris. As you may know, even for Gritos apartments are usually quite small in the city of lights.

So as soon as the divine architect has turned the heater on, Parisians tend to go out and launch “the Hunt for the Terrace table”. This local sport is as tough as any Indy episode, full of sneaky opponents, of traps and dangers, like that ugly place rue Montorgueil “L’Estivals” – never go there, the food is crap and it is expensive, I mean if you want to feel depressed and abused like a basic tourist do try their cassoulet because it is the only terrace with a free table: if there is only one terrace with free tables, there is a reason to it…

To give you an idea of how fierce the fight is, here is a view of Little Italy terrace…

King Negrito: no Caprese for me tonight, snif…

Yes, at least one hour to get a table outside, not really wort it, especially with a band of hungry Gritos behind you. This is why we played the safe option – warning Paris spoiler to follow-, we went to the Comptoir de la gastronomie Rue Montmartre, just to enjoy their Foie gras carpaccio, which is a killer…

King Negrito: Foie gras, Sauterne, heaven is right next door to hell…

And as I was just enjoying the Parisian night and the good mood of all the people, the fantastic food and the quietness of the street, one of the few that during evening are lively enough to be exciting but quiet enough not to be bothered by hordes of people, there were two strange guys coming to me and starting to sing in Spanish some Latin American songs, and that was really fantastic…

King Negrito: Viva el commandante Grito!

That reminded me of the hot nights of Mexico or Bogota, those nights where you go to bed in the morning when the sun is to tough for your eyes to cope with it… and I decided to go out, just to see if there were some cool places around. And infact there are, I did not even have to leave the surroundings of le Marais to find Rue des Archives quite a lot of animation at La Grange aux Canards…

King Negrito: real or just a smoke party?

In fact since the new law against smoking in the bars – Gritos do not smoke so we do not really care – there is a lot of animation in the streets as many people go out to smoke, and sometimes the bar itself is totally emptied from its crowd, because everybody is outside. It was not the case at la Grange and there was indeed a good atmosphere, which avoided the Gritian traditional pilgrimage to La Perle or le Pop In. Instead of that….we went straight to Party and the rest of the night was quite blur as you can imagine

As you can see, these days the Gritos – including the King – are having a lot of fun, celebrating … spring, summer, sun, heat, love, dance, sauterne, foie gras, …. in a word: Paris!

Kisses to all

King Negrito

Dear readers,

As I told you in my last post, I was feeling things were going to change in the wonderful Gritoland country. So when I went to Santi, Rue Montorgueuil to have my traditional Italian salad, I was looking around even more than usually and I immediately noticed that people were in a brighter mood than usual, as this girl sirring for more than half an hour on her luggage in front of a closed door…

King Negrito: there’s something in the air….

In fact I really like le Marais, I mean this is my homeland so I really enjoy walking in the streets and meeting people, but when I want to feel the pulse of Paris, it is far better to go near the real heart of Paris, near les Halles. This is why the Rue Montorgueil is such a wonderful point: everything that will irrigate Paris goes through there. I was not even there for ten minutes that I saw people hurrying to the market, and it was obvious that this girl was not yet familiar with the shrink effect that is attacking Paris…she was like looking for the lower part of her sweater…

King Negrito: I confirm, half your sweater is gone…

The good thing with the beginning of Rue Montorgueil is that there are three terraces face to face – I ll talk in another post where to and where not to go – so when one id-s totally full, which happens quite fast in sunny days, then you just have to cross to find a seat and suddenly understand why everybody is in a good mood: finally the spring is really there, all the coats are left behind: viva short skirts!

King Negrito: nice …cap?

And the ultimate indicator that cool things are back is certainly the grass in the parks: when you see so beautiful flowers, its is definitely sure that spring is back, that we will be back with pique niques, garden parties, evening on terraces redrawing the world. It is sure that intellectuals will come out of their libraries, that boys and girls will just sunbath in the parks….

King Negrito: Flowers in the Sun

And you know what, it also means that I will bring you more news from Gritoland, and even maybe from beyond the borders of the Kingdom, as it is known that big expeditions usually sart right after winter, when snow is melting. So of course, if you’re in Paris in the coming days, feel free to contact me to have a drink on a terrace…in royal company

Kisses to all,

KN

Dear all,

be ready, the Bear will come out from “hibernation”. Why? well… the first one to announce it was Frederic, THE intellectual among intellectuals, you can see him all over the place on the walls of Paris…..

King Negrito and beigbeder : Spring is back?

But it is not only him, sometimes intellectuals make mistakes - can you imagine that even Malraux said something as stupid as “the 21th century will be spiritual or will not be” - and the best indicator for spring is the shrink effect on girl’s skirts…. and what did I see yesterday ?

King Negrito: Shrink effect level 4….

yep, you do not dream… this is a micro skirt, and the weather forecast announces dozens of them per square meter… Spring is over Paris, Yipeeeee!!!!

Tomorrw I will have a brunch at the Red Kids Market, whoever wants is welcome to join!

Kisses to all

King Negrito

Dear readers,

I think the pictures speak by themselves. These days, I travel a lot ( more to come about this) so when I am in Paris… I am just being Lazy.

And I enjoy the City, even if the weather is pretty cold, a breakfast on the terrace is something no Grito can refuse.

Negrito: oh the sun is rising on the Pantheon.. time for breakfast!

Negrito: looks like a decent breakfast, doesn’t it?

 King Negrito: did someone stole the middle of the tower this night?

Kisses to all
King Negrito

Dear Readers,

What does it take to have a nice Eastern week end when you are a Grito and living in Paris. Well first of course you have to survive the weather and the mix we had this weekend was really tough, rain, ice, sun,; wind, we experienced everything in an unpredictable way. But what is sure is that Eastern without Chocolate eggs is not Eastern, so I ran to Rue Montorgueil to buy a decent quantity of them for the Gritos, and as I am a bit lazy King I went to the nearest location, Stohrer, Rue Montorgueil

King Negrito: an egg factory!

There I bought more eggs I can eat – that’s a basis – to be able to share some with all the Gritos. Given the awful weather conditions we did not organize an Egg hunt, we did not even go to the Jardin des Plantes to participate, we just stayed around and had fun in da house. Of course, at dinner, I bwas very excited by all this chocolate and wanted to go out, but going out in Paris on an eastern week end is not easy thing, there are zillions of tourists all over the place – and with this pitiful weather it is not even a decent thing to do to sit on a terrace and look at them passing by – so I went to have dinner in a warm and friendly atmosphere, at Joe Allen, the headquarter of the Parisian democrats – the US party- where I enjoyed a fantastic steak

King Negrito: I should do the 4 Joe Allen restaurants….

Of course after that I felt a little bit… heavy so I decided to walk in the cold night – and it was damn cold, and was caught again by the Seine magic which made me walk to the Trocadero and the Eiffel Tower without even realizing it…

King Negrito: Hey Old Lady, how are you?

There I realized that I was looking like a chocolate Ice Cream, and that it was probably better for me to take a cab to come back to Gritoland, which I did. I can tell you that this very night I really slept well. One can be a king and still be overthrown by a mixture of chocolate, big steak and walk in the freezing wind…as discovered Napoleon who was more than a King but could not cope with the Russian winter 

Oh , by the way, it was supposed to be spring kick off this week end, and I was planning to talk about girls with short skirts over long legs and all that.. I fear it will wait a bit 

Kisses to all

KN

Dear Readers,

It all started by a note in an elevator, one of these little attentions who make you think that everything is thought through, prepared, well done. In French is was saying that there was a little party organized, and that if there was a problem people could always call to complain, and a mobile phone number. Of course it was neither said that you should show up to complain, nor that the likelihood to hear a mobile ringing in a party if the call is to complain about the noise is near to zero…

King Negrito: tough party forecast

Indeed the place was gorgeous, with a view on Paris that you see only in Cedric Klapish movies, a 270 degrees from la Tour Eiffel to la BN. The kind of balcony where you naturally tens to stay for the whole party, because it makes you romantic, it puts things in perspective, giving your opinion on the cheese cake sounds far deeper when you express it while looking at the night city lights….

King Negrito: with such a view I would live on the balcony

But of course you know me, I am a social animal, and could not resist when I saw the hostess of the Party, the delicious Petite Anglaise, who has thrown this party because her book was launched in the UK and in the US…a book that you can find in the best libraries as well as on the big bookselling websites. And Petite is a dear friend of mine, and she proved it, placing me near to her heart…

King Negrito: A nous les Petites Anglaises

After such a warm welcome and hot session, I needed to cool down drastically, I mean, i was a bit overheating which is never good at the beginning of a party, and needed a good drink. When parties are well organized, you can find everything you need in the bathroom, and this is where I headed to take…a cool bath

King Negrito: Champagne, English party yes, but in Paris!

From there I found I needed a glass, yes I am not a Babyshamble and I do not walk into the party carrying a champagne bottle just for myself, so I headed to the kitchen , where I saw that everything, again, was in control, there were two fantastically sexy cooks, including the forever hot Meg,  who were designing very strange foods, like if they had chosen randomly a set of flavors and were micxing them to see what was the best combination. What is sure is that it was pretty fun and I even gave a hand, who knows maybe one day the will be a “Negrito canapé” in cookbooks?

King Negrito: Hey girls, seems kitchen is quite fun?

Of course, with such an organization and such exquisite hostesses the party could only be a success, and soon the atmosphere started to heat, like if old friends were gathering together, far more than for a standard “book launch party”. I even met some of my readers, that was a good surprise…. After a few glasses of champagne I started to see things moving in the right direction and just forgot the idea to go on the balcony, the chilling wind was too cold for a sweater-less Grito.

King Negrito: the heat is on!

And around midnight, I had the please to meet again la Coquette, who was coming out from the Chanel fashion show and was already forecasting the Vuitton one. She showed us the Carrousel in the Grand Palais, and we had a lot of fun remembering the fashion weeks, because it’s true that it was the fashion week in Paris, but that will be for another post..

Petite, Negrito, La Coquette: all Paris Glam in one picture

As the night went on my literature side came back and I started to hunt for the thing, I mean the book, and I found it on a table where it was fiercaly guarded by … a doll tied to a bottle of beer. Of course we shared a drink together, but I am definitely more into champagne, even if she was very…convincing

King Negrito: time for kids to go to bed…

The rest is not to be published, but all in one that was really a cool party, and for the ones who have read the blog, or for the others, I recommend that you read the book of Catherine Sanderson: Petite Anglaise. You will get a deep dive into what it takes to be an English girl in Paris 

Kisses to all

King Negrito