Daniel is part of an online community called Reddit which I consider to largely be a black hole of time and energy, though he reassures me it has redemaning qualities by finding information on just about any subject you could imagine. In brief, how the website works is it is made up of lots of small groups with specific interests such as motorcycles, sports groups, funny comics, and paris community. He joined the Paris Community which has helped answer a few cultural questions we have had, as well as let us know about things happening in Paris. Reddit Paris occasional host "Meet Ups" one of which we decided to attend on Sunday, the theme of which was largely to celebrate June Birthdays at one of the few beer bars in Paris. The Parisians seem to be much up on the wine collection and less on an extensive quality beer selection.
We showed up to Brewberries (which seems to have a collection topping over 100 selections of beer) on a rainy Sunday afternoon to meet up with the people of the internet.
That is right Left Hand Milk Stout in Paris.
Fair or not I had set idea of Redditors being guys living in their parents basement, spending hours flaunting their internet superiority, some of these things were correct most of them were unfair portails. We spent a wonderful four hours drinking beer and chatting with Ben from England, Tommy from Australia, and Shaun from Amsterdam, by way of Aruba. It was a small gathering and I was the only girl, some internet stereotypes do hold water, but we enjoyed conversation discussing differences in all our english speaking cultures and discussing beer when there were lulls in the conversation.
Daniel and I tried not to be the crass/ loud Americans and I imagine we succeed sometimes and failed in others. Surprisingly we got into several high caliber topics as religion, politics and gun culture (which I am sure we seemed like gun nuts, by the fact I grew up shooting and Daniel has picked up the sport and discussion and we gave a fairly liberal american showing.
We were still having a good time after four hours in the bar so four of us (Tommy needed to catch a metro back) headed out for a quick dinner and then the England / Italy game (soccer). I did my best to remember to say football and not soccer. We swung into the french version of a Chipotle and I ordered my whole burrito in french, which is not a small feat. I find a little bit of alcohol seems to make my french more fluid, I won't swear I'm better I am just less worried about it.
Ben selected from three different "English" pubs before selecting one to watch the match from, I guess was he was trying not to overwhelm us with avid nationalist fans, as one pub we passed was spilling out onto the sidewalk with football fans. We settled into an appropriate hole in the wall bar and watched through two halves, a 30 minute over time and penalty kicks (a game ending on penalties kicks is not very satisfying by the way). Sadly England lost but the whole night was not a lost as I drank one beer too many and Daniel discovered Picon Beer, it is a liqueur you add to beer, very tasty. We may even have tentative plans for meeting up with Shaun again later in week.
Daniel and Ben, who is not happy about the current state of the game.
A good time and enjoyable to talk to someone other than each other in Paris.
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