The Maison de la mouche is a parisian institution. For 80 years now, it’s been telling the legend of fly fishing, surrounded by what’s left of the medieval Paris, in front of a little square, and especially at a stone’s throw from the upstream tip of th Ile St Louis, dividing the Seine river. Every time I go there, I remember my student years, the mornings when we walked up still drunk from the Marais towards the Sorbonne. I always stopped in front of the Tibors, shinning through the windows of the shop. The others would light a cigarette, reeking with irony, and I would join them knowing they would ever understand. Years have gone by, I still don’t understand it fully either.

But the week-end of the 15th was not about nostalgia. We were there to celebrate the Maison, and even more to celebrate fly fishing. The guys from Simms were there too (in particular Stephan Schmid from FlyFishEurope) telling everyone with unadultered passion how great their gear is. Marco Crippa (from Swiss CDC) was at the vise, showing a couple of nice tricks involving cdc and Petitjean’s tools. And then there was a lot of traffic between the shop and the Seine, because Thibaud Giband was down there, demoing, teaching, explaining stuff, doing more or less anything you can do when you’re one of the few EFFA, FFF (and SIM and FFPML) certified instructors and you’re a terminal stage casting geek, and you’ve decided to share that with everyone willing to. Sascha Bachman (Simms/Scott…) was there too. He spent like a full hour of his precious time trying to show me how to do a proper roll cast upstream and into the wind. After that, he politely concluded that maybe it was all a matter of luck.

As the night came, more substantial pleasures replaced the joys of flying lines. A dedicated young man from the 38 Saint Louis shop, the deli from the corner, came at the Maison’s request to provide us with a most delightful buffet, the kind no memorable day should ever end without. Amongst fine cheese and voluptuous wines, Marco lead the guests at the vise, in order for everyone to contribute a couple of dubbing turns on the 80th Fly, a collective effort later suitably framed and signed by the authors. Of course, such a debauchery couldn’t but end with the return of the monomania, and Thibaut showed us how to do without a rod, and to shoot line with bare hands. A most useful skill, and so much fun!

The sunday, as it’s name suggests, was all about wind and rain, and two handed spey casts. Plus a fun session about fiberglass, just enough to get a spanking about proper power application… Long story short: it was a fantastic week-end. We knew it, we told you so… Next time, drop by !