Week 32 – My first piece of Street Art

All summer I have mostly been going out to the same bar: in theory I like “change” and “new experiences” (hence this blog) but in reality I must be attached to my routines more than I think . Truth is, I like to know what to expect, mostly because I tend to visualize my future and activities long before I am doing them and need to know what to expect. Anyways, after a few evenings out, I forced myself to try new places, and one amazing evening was spent at……the Aerosol, an old shed from the French train company converted into a bar  dedicated to street art and 90’s lovers. On the outside, the huge walls are dedicated to ephemeral paintings where anyone can leave its mark (at least temporarily).

Although we are allowed to paint anywhere, it is hard to paint over huge masterpieces made by real artists, so for our first time, and because we are not that good, we painted on every other available surface (wall, ground, chairs, tables) which are free for anyone to express their artistic skills. We went to purchase sprays in 4 different colours at the local shop (overall less than 10€) and spent 2 hours creating our own pieces of art!

Unfortunately we had to admit that it was not what can be called magnificent work, but we have an improvement plan! The very next day I drew on a piece of paper what we are going to paint next: I will be in charge of drawing the outlines and the rest of the pack will have colours for the filling! I am positive it will look better on a big scale than the effort to make it!

Moving on: in front of these walls, ephemeral trucks that propose street food (pizza, hot dogs, burgers) aswell as more organic/hipster meals. But if you don’t want to pay extra for fancy food you can bring your own snacks, here the policy is “freedom”.

When the weather allows it the open space welcomes a skateboard ramp, pétanque field and more floor that can be painted!

Inside, it only gets better with a huge room covered by graffiti subdivided into a relaxed space with deck chairs, table football and a bar one side and an old school roller-skating ring overlooked by a mirrorball and a DJ. You can rent some rainbow themed roller-skates for 5€ an hour!

I think I haven’t laughed so much in ages as when I first put my rollers on! And seeing my friends fall one by one around me didn’t help me concentrate or reassure me!