 Finally, after years of email exchanging, I have the honor to meet my French twin site Natalie', better known as Ivycosplay.
We wait for her in the hotel's lobby late in the morning, having planned, weather permitting, a quiet walk around Paris' downtown.
Being a perfect guide, Nat takes us walking around places of Paris that usually are not visited by tourists, from a medieval kiosk perfect as the stage for taking pictures of Maleficent, to the St.Severin's church, in the crypt of which a number of scenes from Interview with the vampire have been shot.
But we appreciate also to walk to St.Michele, Place de la Concorde, the Opera', the Bastille, and the LaFayette stores.
We stop for a couple of hours in the Starbucks near the Opera', built in what used to be a great luxury building of the Renaissance, drinking a frappuccino among columns and stucchi that make this the most beautiful Starbucks I've ever been to hands down.
This is the perfect occasion to plunge into gossips about the world of French cosplay, finding out a number of analogies with our very own... starting to the massive use of the stabbing technique.
 While we walk around the Latin Quarter, we are surprised to see the number of restaurants offering nearly any kind of dishes from anywhere in the world and, alternating little walks to transfers using the tube, we get to Montmartre, the artists' hill where the church of the same name rises.
But our goal is the many fabric shops crowding the surroundings, a real show of glitter, spandex and other shiny fabrics that would be the joy of all the cosplayers.
Going down from the hill on top of which the church rises, we stumble upon a shop selling essential Barbapapa's items where I buy an elegant CD case shaped like a gym locker.
Useless to say, it is pink.
Just a few steps further, the same will happen with a mouse and the related mouse pad sporting the face of Hello Kitty that will prove irresistible to both Nat and me.
The plan for the night includes the meeting with two of Nat's friends who are cosplayers and sisters, with whom we will go to a cheap but very good Japanese restaurant located in a street where there's plenty of choice among a number of restaurants offering Japanese dishes.
So, between some yakisoba and some gyoza, we spend a joyful night before going back ired but happy, to our hotel. |
