My trip to Paris with Jan and my double bass (October 13th 2010)

Myself, my double bass and my wonderfully supportive partner, Jan, were in Paris between September 13th and 20th 2010. I'd been organizing this busking / jamming trip for three months and trying to brush up on my French. I was afraid of so many things while preparing for this, and needed lots of reassurance that I wouldn't get arrested for busking (the illusive Mairie De Paris was where I was supposed to be able to get specific clearance to perform in the street), and we chained my double bass to a table in our room at Grand Hotel Nouvel Opera, 152 avenue Ledru-Rollin, in a bid to prevent it from being stolen. The whole experience for me, however, turned out to be a great lesson in learning to trust my instincts, and once I'd set my mind to this project, I found that a series of chance encounters (mostly imbued with strange, vague connections with my past), paved the way for a smooth, hope-filled journey: Armed with my belief that 'FORTUNE FAVOURS THE BOLD', and having wood-glued the flaking sides of my double bass, we set off at 4.30 am to get the first tube from Hainault. Already I was knackered from carrying the contrebasse ("our cross we must bear," reflected my friend and Chet Baker's double bassist, Riccardo Del Fra), and my heart sank further when on boarding Eurostar, a woman made one of the many mindless, stupid, irritating comments I get all the time when carrying my double bass in England, about betting I wished I'd taken up the flute. The first thing I'd written in my diary was that Place Des Abbesses in Montmartre is a good busking spot. This turned out to be true, as Abbesses was where good, heart-warming things happened for me all week: Had we not wanted to visit the stunning Sacre-Coeur on the Tuesday, I'd never have run into guitarist and songwriter, Denis, at Bar-Restaurant Au Rendez-vous de Montmartre, and on Wednesday we met up with Richard Lewis (an English musician and songwriter who moved to Paris five years ago). I met Richard on MySpace, and he gave me a wealth of information regarding living and working as a musician in Paris. My trombonist friend from Hove, Daniel Rehahn and I ended up busking on the terrace of the cafe where Jan and I had bought (extortionately expensive) coffee with Richard (Le Nouveau Carillon), and at another cafe in Abbesses - Le Saint Jean. A flock of Chinese tourists grabbed Dan and I for photos as we played on a bridge over the Seine near Notre Dame (I'd come a long way since my first attempt at busking my bowed solo set outside the Pompidou Centre where I was drowned out by a didgeridoo and my set list blew away)! This special day with Dan was capped off with a visit to the graffiti-covered house of Serge Gainsbourg on the rue de Verneuil in Saint Germain. I told Jan that I'd had a good feeling about a jazz 'cave' I'd been told about by 'jeremuliguane' on Twitter near the Moulin Rouge, called Autour De Midi...Et Minuit, where we ended up seeing the fantastic Laurent Epstein Trio, and I participated in a jam session which was such a buzz. Riccardo Del Fra showed me around the typically 'underground', dark jazz department at the Paris Conservatoire where he teaches, and one of the highlights of my week was playing 'Autumn Leaves' with Riccardo (I rarely get the chance to play with another double bass). It would seem that jazz is played in a lot of black market venues in Paris and that musicians are respected and valued highly. Refreshingly, I wasn't made to feel like a 'walking joke with a double bass' in Paris, although I'm sure that I got money a few times for being a tourist attraction (I even got offered a year's contract to work as a musician in Shanghai)! One thing's for sure, I had thighs of steel by the end of the week!