Gay Pride in Montpellier!

The week of June 5 - 10 was Gay Pride here in Montpellier, highlighted by a big march on Saturday, June 9 (see photo above). It was actually an amazing event -- I was in shock at how huge the crowds were for a city this size!

The other fabulous thing that happened that week was that I met a totally adorable French guy named Denis (pronounced "Deh-nee"), and was immediately totally smitten. (So much so, I've nearly completely forgotten all about Harvey.)


Me and Denis the night we met. And no, he is not sitting on my lap! (He's sitting on the arm of the chair, and I'm kneeling alongside.) Anywhoosie, the low-down on Monsieur Denis is that he grew up in Uzes, in the south of France, and just finished up his studies to become an accountant. And did I mention that he is totally adorable and I am totally smitten? Well, that just about covers it. :-)


Me and my friend Nicholas, the same night. (Doesn't my thigh look ginormous???) I met Nicholas the first week I was in Montpellier and he has been totally awesome in introducing me to lots of folks (including Denis) and having me over for drinks many an evening before hitting the town. The other great thing about Nicholas is that even though he is French, he speaks perfect English, so it's nice for me to be able to be lazy and slip into my native tongue every now and then.

Anyways, back to the Gay Pride March:


The march kicked off from the Arc de Triomphe...


And the throngs just grew and grew...


...and grew...


...until there was quite a crowd assembled in the Place de la Comedie, where the mid-march rally was held. This quick video clip gives some sense of the size of the crowd:



But if you're interested in seeing a short photo montage with far better production quality, check out the clip my friend Antonio (you saw Antonio in my last blog post) put together. (I'm sure if I had an iBook, I'd be able to do something like this, too!):



As could be expected with a gay pride march, the day was marked by:


...completely outlandish outfits, like this guy in the orange plaid -- I mean, you have to be crazy to leave the house wearing that -- and...


...really shocking and militant signs like this one. We're clearly dealing with some particularly uppity queers here. :-)


The Pride float for Le Heaven, the Montpellier bar where I probably spend a little too much time.


Folks choose to show their gay pride in many different ways; I, for one, like to eat lots of puffy pink cotton candy (or Barbe de Papa -- literally, "Poppa's Beard" -- as they call it in France). Here's me with Nicholas and Denis and some small portion of the total quantity of cotton candy I consumed that day, because, yes, I'm 5 years old.

Next up, more on Montpellier!