Sorry to be so late, but here´s the last part:
On Sunday morning, I joined my friends Marta and Malgosia on a lovely trip to L´Arc de Triumph and then to the Eiffel Tower, where we took some funny pics, mostly of Marta "gliding"
The weather was beautiful, we were getting excited for the Gala. We wanted to came earlier to the stadium, but we somehow lost our way to the undeground
so we came just in time for the Gala.
For the Gala, I joined my other friend Nina and her mom and sister in the third cathegory section, which turned out actually really good, not as far as I thought, we had a nice view and at least to speak for myself, I was very happy with my seat.
The gala itself was beautiful! I always wanted to see the skaters gliding in all the coulourful lights, which you can hardly see on TV screen, but finally I got to experience it, and it was magical. I felt a little like Alice in Wonderland
Everyone was great, of course some stood out more for me, but that´s natural I remember Nina saying to me "I hope Tomas will do his MJ exhibition..." Indeed, he did it and it was great fun, and although I was running out of tape, I just had to tape at least a little of it, just for the nostalgy and the fun I have when listening to Michael while watching this...(besides, Tomas was really great )
I also liked Yu-Na, Mao, Nathalie & Fabien (I was so excited to see their Clowns live!!), John & Sinead (a lovely skate to the Gladiator theme), Vanessa & Yannick as well, Maria & Maxim....
Of course, my favourite moment from the whole Gala just has to be Brian...not because he´s been my favourite skater over the last years, but because his Merci encore touched me like not many things I´ve ever seen in a Gala (and I thought many times "I´ve never seen anything like this" before), especially from the human point of view. And even with my poor French, I did understand what he was "singing" about in most of the song and although I´m not usually emotional in public, I did have teary eyes a bit, it was just too lovely to stay cool...
After the Gala, we went to the skaters´ entrance in the back of the stadium, in hope to catch Brian (especially to sign Marta´s LOVELYSUPERMAGNIFIQUE banner ) and other skaters possibly coming out. There were some indeed, like Adam Rippon, Sinead and John (John looking as a movie star with his shades
), some others I can´t remember anymore, and oh yes, Yu-Na Kim
Gosh, if I didn´t know she´s a skater, I would think she´s the American president´s daughter - as she went out, there were like 100 people around her, preventing fans from ANY contact with her
She basically just rushed through but Michelle managed to take a quick picture of her at least
(she was passing me by like only about 2 metres away from me ) After a long wait we decided to go to the skaters´ hotel again, in hope of seeing Brian again. He was there, but we didn´t spot him early enough, he was sitting in the bar with his mom and some other people. As we spotted Madame Joubert going away, our "Brian-detectors" were suddenly on and then we saw him
When he stood up and was on his way out of the hotel, we saw he was in a hurry (probably to catch his train, as somebody said), but he just couldn´t go without fans running to him Despite of really looking in a hurry, he stopped every like metre to sign an autograph or take a quick picture with someone. It was funny, because he was moving in the speed of probably two metres every 20 seconds
And yes, Marta was successfull in getting her banner signed!
To end the weekend, we decided to eat out, the last night in Paris, so after taking some hillarious pictures in front of Bercy (I swear I almost had to pee of laughter
), some walking in the streets of Paris, and a "few" minutes of "desperately searching for" our friend Nicole at Gare de Lyon (on a meeting place which appeared to be not as easy to identify
), we ended up in a lovely pizzeria just opposite the Gare de Lyon (yes, Irina, the waiter was cute, not only in the "skaters´" pub ) having a great pizza and chat for dinner!
It´s always hard to say goodbye, but at about 1 a.m., we had to and when I imagined that I had to get up in not even 3 hours to catch my plane....
Oh, before I end this, a little extra which in Brian´s words made me "more confident" about my woman´s charm
I was hoping for the Métro (Underground) to open at latest at 5 a.m., which of course it didn´t... I was walking near the entrance to the Métro from about 4.15 and was desperately praying for it to open, because it was vital for me to catch my plane in time. As time went by, I started imagining the worst scenario - "You´ll get stuck here, no money, no acommodation, nothing...You have to be at work tomorrow, you´ll gonna get fired.... "
And I was thinking "Dear God, please send me SOMEONE, or SOMETHING to help me get out of here..."
And tadaaaaaaaaaaaa! He must have heard me and I must have been very good throughout the year, because shortly after that, at 5 a.m., suddenly a taxi stopped on the opposite side of the street. It was waiting there for about 5 minutes and then I decided to go for it...
I came to the taxi and looked into it through the window. The window came down and there, I saw a young (and CUTE
) taxi driver smiling at me. I have no idea, where I got the courage from, because I´m NOT that type of people, but I was talking like as if I´m doing it everyday.
Me:"Excuse me, do you speak English?"
TD: "A little " (he giggled as probably only the French guys can do
)
Me: "Can you tell me when does the Metro open?"
TD: "Oh, I think at 5.30, but I´m not sure."
Me (still looking NOT in panic, though I was ): Because I have to get to the CDG airport and be there at blablabla.... And I´m afraid I won´t make it by Métro... And I don´t have a lot of money left "
TD: (smiles with a giggle) "How much do you have?"
Me: "How much would it be?"
TD(thinking for a few seconds): "45"
Me (looking into my wallet and counting how much can I say to have something left for my bus journey home in Slovakia): "That´s fine, I´m coming with you "
He laughed as I said that...
It would take me about an hour to get to CDG by Métro. By taxi, we were there not in 25 minutes, and I think I don´t have to say how much I was enjoying the ride with a cute French taxi driver
As we got directly to the entrance of my Departure Gate and he stopped the taxi, the driver looked at his machine and said with a smile "It´s 41 Euro
"
I was thinking "I was wondering why did he turn the machine on only after about 5 minutes?..." Now I guessed what might have been the reason (no matter if it was or not, I tend to believe that)
As he was giving me my suitcase and I smiled and said "Merci beaucoup, au revoir", he said "Au revoir, bonne journee!" and smiled
Call me crazy but for me this was just THE perfect ending after a PERFECT weekend!!!
And as I was proudly saying to my parents at home, I had a 40 Euro taxi drive in Paris, mo mom was first like OMG but then they both started laughing and me too
To sum it up, that weekend in Paris was simply MAGNIFIQUE!!!
Michelle