Cops and Grills

Why don't the French Barbeque? I ask you.
I hadn't thought about it until the cops came yesterday.
It was May 1st. National holiday. No one is at work. And it's Labor Day, right? So you'd THINK that (as an American thinking of course) people would be grilling it up all over the place. Oh, nay, nay.
For those who don't know, in America many public spaces are made specifically for Barbeques, and grilling. They even have little grills on the sides of some parks.
Brandon decided to through a little barbeque on the park behind Les Invalides (yup, of all places). I am not thinking anything of it. I know people picnic there. I have invited my French buddy Joris to join us so we could discuss our project. He sees the grill and such, and starts chain smoking. I ask him what's up, and he simply replies, "Oh, this is all very illegal." We even found a regulations poster, and Joris says we were breaking probably about 4 laws.
Nevertheless, Brandon ventures on with his newly bought camp grill. And one of his friends I don't know well, John, has invited the entire school of American University in Paris to join. Now, don't get me wrong: I'm sure some of them are nice. But most of them were acting dumb and just drinking wreckless amounts. In the daytime.
Some non-cops-but-still-officers-of-some-sort came over and warned us that, though they'd love us to have a BBQ, it was illegal in every public place in Paris, and that we better put it away before the police come and deal with us.
Off we go. To Brandon's apartment complex's courtyard?
In the US, it's alright to use the amenities of your apartment complex. Public use for the private space kind of thing. So, we think we're fine now. Though, they didn't by any Petroleum, so the grill was failing magnificently at igniting. And John and his 20 friends start drinking copiously again, and start kicking a ball around in the stupidest way imaginable. And Joris still chain smokes.
Why were there people in the apartment complex taking pictures of us?
John sees this, and (slightly inebriated) starts flipping the bird and swearing in French to Brandon's neighbors. Lots. Big commotion. People come out, and threaten to call the police. John's posse bails ASAP at the sound of "police", leaving all of their stuff behind them. For us to clean up. My friends and I are trying to stop the coals from burning and cleaning up toute de suite, because we didn't want any havic. If we can't have the BBQ, we'll stop. We're good kids. But John keeps trucking away in not-so-nice French.
We start bringing everything into Brandon's apartment when the security guard and president of the complex come over, and John has started to swear at them. They're all up in arms about it. So, the police have been wrung, and warranting John's arrest. John scrams to the park and hide for a while.
Which leaves Brandon, Peter, Liisa, and I to fix everything (Paz Rimi and Joris have been sent upstairs, since Paz and Joris are both French and Rimi was helping them out). Brandon, being the excellent diplomat he is, managed to calm down the two men, explain to them why John got upset, and how in the US it isn't OK to take pictures of people, and how in the US it's completely acceptable to have BBQs on your own property. It was all a misunderstanding. One of John's oh-so-special friends has come back and started swearing again in French about how they're exploiting us because we're foreign. Liisa manages to shut him up. The two men tell us that we need to make better choices with our friends.
The cops come. They look like they're giggling. They ask, "What's that?" We reply, "It's.....a grill." The respond, "Oh, you should probably get rid of that." We respond, "We know that now. Thanks." And it's basically over.
It ended up being my friends and I (and a calmed down John.....) in Brandon's flat eating stove-grilled burgers. It was a pleasant afternoon.

After a while, I agreed to meet up with Pierre and talk. We decided to, after talking out our differences, to remain friends. It is the end of one chapter in our frienship and the start of a new one. Everything is perfectly fine. Yeah, it all sucks, but I think in the end it'll be for the best. He's such a great guy, and I'd hate to lose such a gem. Again.

Today was not very exciting. Signed up to go to Budapest (that's in Hungary, folks) with Sciences Po. Did some banking. Cooked for Liisa, José, that Bulgarian guy, and me. We watched the Presidential Debate, and I'm never eating again.