"Happy Independence Day America! And Thank you to my adopted home, France, for helping us!"
Thus started the July 4th "Cocktails with Courtney" festivities at the Tuileries Bar in the Westin Hotel. It was a festive night on many levels--there were the vestiges of a big fashion event spilling out onto the street as we arrived on this usually sunny evening in Paris.
[Most of May and all of June were rainy, rainy, rainy with dark, cold, overcast, drab, grey skies. The rain continued into July but the sun always seems to peek out around 8:30 PM. Just when my son is going to bed!]
This evening we had the prolific and illustrious Joel Dreyfus (formerly Red Herring, Bloomberg and many other notable publications) stop by. Joel is now back in Paris and working on a book colorfully documenting generations of his family's life in Haiti. He and Alain Cartier (vintage jewelry vendeur) spoke some francais while sipping cocktails.
I sampled a refreshing ice-tea with thyme infusion as conversations ranged from engagement ring styles (Kate & Diana's to classic French to lacquered) to the boom (and bust) of apps to the course of political history and dissidents in Haiti!
The repartee from Joy Sparrowhawk, who's with the UK Trade & Investment organization (www.UKIT.gov.uk) and Karen Hunt (Kobojo) added dimension and everyone's input made the conversations flow as smoothly as Joy's wasabi martini!