Last weekend Katie and I took a quick trip to Paris to keep up the annual tradition of seeing Jimmy Buffett there. This time our experience was enhanced by some family and friends! My mom was there already as part of a longer trip and two of our good friends managed to time their business trips such that we overlapped - the more, the merrier!
We arrived Friday late morning and immediately met up with a Parisian colleague of mine for lunch. Francois and I met a couple of years ago through the Cleantech Open and CleanWeb circles, both of which he was leading in France. It just goes to show you how global the network is of entrepreneurs trying to use innovative capitalism to create a better life for all! In addition to catching up with Francois on a personal level (Somehow that is just easier over a fine French meal than it is over Skype!), I was also pleased to learn that he recently launched his latest venture, techUforward.
Our late lunch didn't leave much time before Buffett's first concert so we hustled over to Sacré-Cœur, where we met my mom and my favorite wingman. It was a glorious autumn day in Paris - clear skies and warm weather - so where better to "tailgate" than perched along the Sacré-Cœur hill? There were many other people out there as well, just soaking in what could be the last great weather of the year.
We opened some cheese and wine and played some Buffett on our phones to get ready for the show. Incidentally, we actually brought the wine (two left bank Bordeaux) from our cellar in the US. Bringing French wine to France is kind of like bringing sand to the beach, but we figured this way we could spend less time procuring fantastic wine and more time enjoying it! We weren't 100% sure that we were allowed to pop open wine in public in Paris and we even had a bit of a scare as a stern-looking woman made her way toward us. It turns out, however, that she wasn't looking to tell us off about our wine - rather, she was hoping to borrow our wine opener (which we had also brought from the US just to leave nothing to chance)!
As we continued to enjoy our Buffett pre-party, another Parrothead who was walking by recognized us and joined in the fun. I had met him last year and it was fun to see a familiar face. I believe this was the sixth year I came to Paris for the show and many other attendees were repeat comers as well - it's a fun little community of Parrotheads Parisiens!
Buffett's show was very nice. This first night it was all seated, including down on the floor where we were. Of course we were standing most of the night but it was nice to have a seat on which to leave our stuff while we were dancing about. As always, it was basically one big sing-along. Afterward we met up with some others for a few drinks but called it a [relatively] early night. After all, we would need our strength for his second concert on Saturday!
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