Paris

[Chance]

Looking for current(no older than 2 or 3 years) busking related(main circle show pitches; license or permit rules; amplification rules; best car parks; busker-friendly pensions; fav call girls name and phone number...) information on Paris. Any takers?

Chance

[le pire]

Beaubourg next to the centre Pomipidou and the bridge behind Notre Dame Cathedral are good. Musee d'Orsay is not bad, Montmartre has TOO MANY tourists so it's difficult to have enough space to do a show. Lots of statues.

Don't block the streets and the cops won't hassel you. Certain places, like the louvre and in FRONT of Notre Dame, are no show areas. Stay away from government buildings and churches in general.

You have you pick of prostitutes over 40 years old along rue St Denis. I hear they'll let you do it without a rubber...

Say hi to Big Ben for me.

e t i e n n e

[Chance]

Etienne,

Thanks very much for jumping in. Since I have never been, let's try breaking this down a little more...

[quote]Beaubourg next to the centre Pomipidou and the bridge behind Notre Dame Cathedral are good.<hr></blockquote>

I have heard about the bridge behind Notre Dame, but what exactly is Beaubourg -- a square, a neighborhood, a shopping street, another bridge...?

[quote]Musee d'Orsay is not bad<hr></blockquote>

The pitch is where exactly in relation to the museum (front, side, rear), and about how far away?

[quote]Montmartre has TOO MANY tourists so it's difficult to have enough space to do a show. Lots of statues.<hr></blockquote>

Again, is Montmartre a street, plaza, neighborhood...?

What about the really famous landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower, Arch de Triumphe, and so on? Any possibilities there?

We would be coming in by car, so any "locals" advice with where to park in close relation to these pitches?

Ditto for reasonable accommodation.

From your other postings I would gather that you are a juggler (I'm not, but I promise that so long as you don't learn lock picking that I won't learn to cheat the laws of gravity)? Which of these pitches do you use most often?

And thanks for the heads-up on St Denis, but the only 40 year old I want to have sex with is myself, and then only if my beautiful 28 year old girlfriend and I are having a major fight. The only 'Big Ben' I would ever want to meet will be a piece of paper with the number 100 attached!! [img]biggrin.gif[/img]

[ 04-15-2002: Message edited by: Chance ]</p>

[gerry nelson]

UNBEFUCKINGLIEVABLE!!!

[Chance]

Sorry Gerry, but with so much hot smelly air spewing from your general direction I can't tell whether you just belched or farted. Maybe you would care to elaborate?

Or maybe, just maybe, you would like to actually join in and be a meaningful participant in the discussion. Perhaps with some questions of your own, or maybe some helpful comments, instead of just showing your ass and slinging mud?

At any rate, I really am thankful for your help so far Etienne, and I hope you can find the time to follow up.

[gerry nelson]

For cryin' out loud Chance, Etienne gave you a list of names and places, but you want micro details. You want it brick by brick. Did it ever occur to you to *BUY A MAP, look up the places mentioned,( or check them out on the internet). Having done that, *GO THERE ,take a walk around and get a feel for the place. *CHECK OUT THE FLOW. *FOLLOW THE FLOW and keep an eye out for a space large enough, and then *GO FOR IT. You know, the problem with knowing too much before you try a new place is that the same old pitches and the same old taboos are perpetuated. Maybe we're better off going in cold sometimes, and quite often the result is that we discover a new pitch. In other words, take a chance Chance. Try being a real daredevil.

[Chance]

Gerry,

So it seems from your perspective that it is wrong to ask questions which better prepare me for my trip abroad.

I disagree, but I bet you figured this out already.

Haven't you heard, the only bad question is the one which is never asked.

Which is why I won't be too quick in calling you a hypocrite for using these boards to try to gather your own travel information. Not because you aren't one, because you are. But because you are just entitled to ask and be heard as I am.

And you are right, Etienne has answered me, and I have thanked him for his time. So I need a little more info to help fill in the blanks? Sue me. I happen to be bringing my lady along with me on this particular trip, we are both new to the area in question, and it makes me feel a lot safer and more secure to know these things in advance, for her sake if not for my own.

If you want to be truly helpful, and not just pretend, why don't you re-visit the Japan thread and try to be at least as helpful there as Etienne has been here. Hell, you could even share more and better! No one will stop you from trying, and it might even do you some good on the inside to give a little more than you take.

[gerry nelson]

Chance. In keeping with what I am discovering to be your nature, you seem to find it necessary to resort to name calling in order to defend your pathetic attempts to get other performers to spoon-feed you information gained by hard work and trial and error. In looking back over your recent posts, I can't see where you've offered any useful info with regard to pitches, with the possible exception of some reference to pitches in Florida.If you want security, YOU"RE IN THE WRONG BUSINESS.
Obviously, when playing a new area for trhe first time, it goes without saying, that some prior knowledge of the lay of the land is desireable. And, I won't deny that there is probably some info in these pages that I'll find useful at some time. But, I've survived with this business as my only source of income for the last fifteen years, without the help of this forum, and am sure I could continue to do so, were it to disappear tomorrow.

[Chance]

You got me Gerry. Man, you figured me out before even leaving enough messages here to qualify for the 'member' title.

All I do and have ever done with my 5 years here at performers.net is bleed members dry of all their most cherished private information without ever offering anything back in kind.

Likewise with my 8 years on the busking circuit.

I feel so stupid, so transparent.

Of course, now that you see me for the toad that I really am, you are, no doubt, going to go way out of your way to prove what life here on the boards should realy be like: Friendly open dialog; the sharing of ideas and opinions free of rancor; strangers giving unto strangers without the expectation of repayment, etc. In short, all that I have never been according to your educated opinion.

We certainly need more people like you at performers.net. Welcome!

I invite you to show me the error of my selfish ways over here:

http://www.performers.net/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=4&t=000038

Believe me when I say how refreshing it will be to read of someone so giving as yourself. I promise to follow exactly in your footsteps from now on...

Your humble servant,
Chance

[gerry nelson]

You know Chance, they say sarcasm is the lowest form of wit. I'd say it's probably also the lowest form of intellectual communication. I've just been sitting here contemplating various ways of communicating to you just what a fucking wanker you are, but then I realised that I was being just as big a wanker in doing so. So, instead I'm just gonna go and play with my five year old daughter, and talk to her. ``she makes more sense to me than you ever will

[Jim]

Hey guys, let's talk about Paris over here, OK?

Gerry:
Lighten up. Chance asked a legitimate question and a legitimate follow-up. That's the whole point of this forum... Talking about specific pitches and specific countries or cities. If you don't have an honest opinion on the pitch being discussed, you don't need to butt in.

Chance:
You know better than to get sucked into petty flame war. Let it go.

Jim

[Jim]

Hey guys, let's talk about Paris over here, OK?

Gerry:
Lighten up. Chance asked a legitimate question and a legitimate follow-up. That's the whole point of this forum... Talking about specific pitches and specific countries or cities. If you don't have an honest opinion on the pitch being discussed, you don't need to butt in.

Chance:
You know better than to get sucked into petty flame war. Let it go.

Jim

[gerry nelson]

Jim and Chance,
Tell you what guys. I'll just drop out alltogether. Okay?!

have a nice life......Gerry

[Robot]

PARIS SUCKS !!!!!!!!!!

I'm working in Paris since 1998, things were allright but Paris really starts to suck now....
The pitches at Beaubourg and the bridge behind Notre Dame are still ok but it's getting crowded!!!
The rest of Paris REALLY sucks, (allmost) every cop that passes will tell you to piss off because streetshow are FORBIDDEN now!
Most of the performers I know got tired and left Paris or are planning to leave soon or they just stopped doing streetshows!
[img]mad.gif[/img] [img]mad.gif[/img] [img]mad.gif[/img] [img]mad.gif[/img] [img]mad.gif[/img] [img]mad.gif[/img] [img]mad.gif[/img] [img]mad.gif[/img]

[le pire]

Paris doesn't suck.

It does get crowded at times, and there are a few ass hole performers who play turf wars (but that happens in every town), but most of them are REALLY fucking cool and don't get all flipped out like "you're taking away my job, man"

I got along fine with the cops, and this may seem obvious, but it helps if you can speak french. Most of the anglophone performers over there speak shitty french and are jerks about it (this is the problem) and then are surprised when their hats suck. There are a lot of american & english tourists, but the majority of tourists are French from the provinces.

I've done really well in Paris and hope others do as well.

Chance, just go there yourself. Your first day you'll probably do really well because of beginners luck. Your second & third day will be work and after day four you'll get the hang of it and start having some fun. Especially as the other performers start to get to know you.


e t i e n n e