After a Summer Delay, Paris Pride Finally Took Over the Marais

I joined from Hôtel de Ville and let the day carry me from there, down toward Place des Vosges, where things finally slowed down enough to sit under the arcades and actually look around.

This year's march had been pushed back from June to today because of the heatwave, which meant the crowd I walked into wasn't the summer version people are used to. The light was lower, more October than June, and the street still felt completely full anyway. One grandmother leaned out of her window above the street, waving down at everyone passing. Near Hôtel de Ville, a group had climbed onto the roof of a bus stop and were dancing and singing from up there while the crowd moved past underneath. Rainbow flags weren't only being carried. People had turned them into outfit pieces, tied around shoulders like capes, knotted into skirts layered over jeans, or wrapped as scarves, with glitter and matching makeup on a lot of faces in the crowd.

Place des Vosges had a different pace entirely. People from the march had drifted over to sit on the grass under the arcades, taking a break from the main route. You could still hear the music carrying over from Bastille, where the march ends and the podium stays loud into the evening.

What struck me walking through the neighborhood was how layered the day felt. Pride had the obvious pull, but mixed into the same streets were people holding signs for animal welfare, a separate cause entirely, coexisting without anyone seeming bothered by the overlap. Le Marais wasn't even the only draw that day. Belleville had the Fête des Lanternes, its own Moon Festival weekend, running at the same time, so the city felt unusually full for an ordinary Saturday, with different crowds moving through their own corners of Paris at once.

I left Place des Vosges in the early evening, the kind of light where everything in Paris starts looking slightly gold whether it deserves to or not, and the Marais was still full behind me.

Hannah Mones attended the Paris Pride march in person for The Paris Eye.