February 27, 2011

Des Oiseaux de Nuit (Night Owls)

When the French party, they party all night long. They like to stay out until at least 6am. This is especially true of the boite de nuit (nightclub) crowd, but house parties can last until an equally late (or early, depending on how you look at it) hour.

I am bad at partying until the wee hours of the morning. In California, the bars closed at 2am, which meant they started kicking people out around 1:30am, which meant I was usually home and in bed asleep by 2:30/3am!

I have not yet been able to adjust to the French way of partying.

They start their parties around the same time as I did in college (around 9/10pm), but then just keep on going and going and going like the energizer bunny until, if it were a weekday, I’d be waking up to go to work.


Clearly he was modeled after French night life.
source


The drink of choice on these ridiculously long evenings of partying is vodka redbull. Having had a bad experience and not liking the effect of the combination of these two substances, I abstained from the drink my first night at a Belgium nightclub. This resulted in me tired, cranky, and wanting nothing more than to be at home sleeping, sitting in a corner looking miserable by 3am.

Round two at a Belgian club, I decided to give this drink a try, thinking that maybe the only reason the French (and Belgians) are so good at staying out so late is because they are fueled by energy drinks. Despite my best efforts to “get wings,” come 3 am, I was tired, cranky, sitting on a bar stool and asking FBF if we’d be leaving soon.

My Made in America body doesn't want to be up past 3 regardless.

I have not remained completely untransformed, however. It has only taken two years, but I am now able to stay up an entire extra hour before hating the world. Just last weekend I was dancing at a house party until 4 in the morning!

At the rate of half an hour of additional party time per year I reside in France, it should only take me 4 more years to enjoy partying à la française!

6 comments:

  1. It's totally the same in Korea!! I stayed up all night maybe a total of two times in California. Since coming to Korea, it has become a regular occurence. Now, staying up all night and taking the first train home (or even the second, third, something train) has become a regular thing. I've stayed up all night in Korea maybe 8 or 9 times. It's crazy!!

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  2. I like the new banner! Very nice.
    I also suck at French parties. I can't remember a time that Jeremie and I ever stayed out until 4am together. Maybe the key is spacing out your drinking? Or secretly downing lots of h2o? My problem is that it's super fun until it isn't fun at all any more. No slow drop off, easing into "time to go home". It's like, snap your fingers and i'm done. I guess i'm just un drap mouillé!

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  3. I can't hang either! But luckily for me I can blame it on my age. But very unluckily for me my husband is five years younger and so are all of his friends. They have taken to calling me 'grand-mere' or 'maman', the little f*ckers.

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  4. Becky: I'm proud of you for adjusting! I have yet to make it until the next morning in good spirits, haha.

    Amber: Thank you! And I'm the same way. There'll come a moment and I'll just be like "yeah this isn't fun anymore. I'm tired. Let's leave!"

    Sara Louise: Now you don't need to blame it on your age. You can blame it on your Americanness! And screw them for calling you that! les connards!

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  5. 3AM? You're a trouper in my book. This grandma doesn't make it past 2AM.

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  6. Hey I think 2am would be a respectable time in our home country! These Frenchies are just crazy.

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