Because We Can Cancan

The Moulin Rouge. A night club, a dance hall and a bordello.

When I was 12, I spent most of my free time teaching myself how to use Photoshop and HTML so I could a) edit myself into a picture of the Moulin Rouge, and b) create a fan website for my favorite movie of all time (debatable now but it’s still up there…minus the obsession).  I had Moulin Rouge posters, pictures, costumes (obv for Halloween)….anything.  I promise, I wasn’t as weird as it sounds.  I think.

So, when some of my friends were planning to go to La Machine du Moulin Rouge, the nightclub, I was stoked and needed to go as well.  We went to go see dj sets with Joe Goddard and The Very Best, both of which I had never heard of but my friends had and were so excited!  I really just wanted to go to the Moulin Rouge.

Before the show, Emily, Rebecca, Maggie, Justine, Sarah, and Ashley came over to my apartment for dinner and drinks.  Emily and I made fondue (delicious fondue!) that probably would have been more successful if I had a fondue pot.  And now, I have 6 baguettes in my oven because we didn’t eat them all…but oh well.

Everyone else brought over hors d’oeuvres so we ended up with quite a little feast, ending with the dessert Rebecca brought, gin and tonics, and bananagrams before the show.

The doors opened at 11, and we didn’t want to miss the djs we wanted to see so we headed out fairly early.  When we got to the door, we realized we only had our NYU id’s with us (that wasn’t the best plan ever, they’re handwritten and have almost no viable information on them…except the fact that we’re all art history majors), and the bouncer was not trying to let us in.  Finally, another guy came over and told him it was ok and we could just go ahead.  The other bouncer?  NOT happy.

But then, there we were.  In the Moulin Rouge! Kind of.  It wasn’t the typical cabaret one usually thinks of, but we weren’t expecting that.  There was a big dance floor, tons of chairs and tables, and the bar was reminiscent of Manet, so much so that I took a picture.

We got drinks (I got a mojito “Moulin Rouge,” which is rum, mint, lime, champagne and raspberries YUM), and then headed out to the dance floor.  We thought maybe the people playing were a warm up for the djs we were waiting to see, so we just started dancing.

Then we realized the people playing were the people from Hot Chip and the Very Best, they just weren’t playing any of their own songs.  FAIL. We think it was because it was only the djs and not the rest of the Very Best, but Rebecca and Justine tried to get them to play Julia and it just didn’t work out.  It was around 1:30 at this point, and the metros were about to close.  Justine, Rebecca and Ashley left to go catch it while they could, while Emily and I followed behind them to walk home.  So much for staying until 6.

We weren’t in any rush and I needed to get a picture in front of the Moulin Rouge (not Photoshopped, at least).  We walked towards the Starbucks to get a good shot, and a creepy man followed behind us.  Without acknowledging him we started walking in the other direction, listening to a guy yell at him in French to leave us alone.  We watched as he disappeared, then ran back to take a quick picture before any other creeps came our way.

We ran over to a little store to buy Nutella for the many baguettes stored in my apartment, came home and watched TV on my computer.  Hopefully we’ll be able to go back to La Machine another time, and maybe then I’ll have the senses not to wear heels.