Les Enfoirés 2008

[JCC]

Good stuff, Snatcher! Can't wait for Roman's post. Where is RMJ going to post his stuff? Curious to see how his stuff turned out...he's probably got so much info on Alizee by now, he could probably write a book..

[Roman]

Boring alert! I think since I bothered to write it out and for those interested in following the boring part of a story, I'll start at the beginning. While Snatcher's pics may have been blurry, he knew what was going on a lot better than I did and has now told you about it; so maybe I'll quote him on the actual show if I have some comments. I only have part of my story so far anyway. Fortunately, I'll leave out some of the unpleasant and extremely boring air transit details.

<st1:city><st1>Strasbourg</st1></st1:city> trip log part 1:
Getting Tickets:
Sunday 2008-01-20: waiting all day for the time to try to get tickets. <st1:time hour="0" minute="00">Midnight</st1:time> rolls around and I'm doing final checks to make sure that I have all four ticket sites open in windows and refresh them just to make sure everything is working etc. The sale begins at <st1:time hour="10" minute="0">10:00am</st1:time> in <st1:country-region><st1>France</st1></st1:country-region>, that's <st1:time hour="1" minute="0">1:00am</st1:time> here. As the time approaches, I keep refreshing each page to check. Even a minute before, the page still says sale starts at <st1:time minute="0" hour="10">10:00</st1:time>. I'm looking at my computer's clock (which I had fortunately set to synchronize with internet time sources, so it's right to the second). The numbers click over 1-:-0-0-A-M and I scramble to hit refresh again. The board lights up; so to speak. All days are available. So, I immediately click on lundi since that's when Snatcher said he will be there and of course I therefore want to go with him. I choose one ticket and proceed through the pages, credit card yada yada. Then I have to paste back in the URL to the main page which I had copied. Nope, all gone, nothing available. So, I switch to the next window. Score! I get two tickets for Sunday, though I realized later I should have tried the next window first since I now have to go to two stores to pickup the tickets. Anyway, I'm all happy until a few hours later Snatcher asks me if I even tried to get a ticket for Saturday night since I will theoretically be there. Of all the stupid ****! I didn't even think of that being so focused on getting the two days that we will both be there.
Later on he says, 'hey, I'm going to bed, but if you can get another ticket for Sun or Mon, get it! I'll explain later.' Well, ok, I think I'll keep trying every once in a while because I actually do still see tickets showing up every once in a while. They come and go. Then at one point - holy ****! Several show up for every day! One day even had 10 available - after like 6 hours! So, I go through the same process only being able to do one day at a time and completing each transaction before trying another for fear that if I try to get more than one reserved at the same time, I'll waste time and loose one or both somehow. I get Sunday, then Monday is still available. Unfortunately, by the time I get back, no more Saturday. Well, at least I'll have company the days that I go. And two days is awesome! Why not? See it a couple times and maybe I'll know the sing-along songs a little better on Monday (ok, maybe not). Actually, it's probably good that I didn't get Saturday, if for no other reason than because I was really tired by the end of that day. As for sing alongs, Mimi kept doing this thing about a petite cigogne (stork). I still couldn't quite catch it after like 6 times, but it was kind of annoying anyway. Well, of course I didn't know what she was talking about. Imagine how cool the concert would have been if I had actually known what anyone was talking about. Ok, call me crazy, no don't… not necessary.

Crazy day, have to book flights and hotel and all that and things change, somehow Ronny is joining us - youpidou! Checking finances, etc.
Get several hours sleep after being up about 24 hours. Now what? I need a new camera for one thing. Don't know if that's going to happen.

<o></o><o>Babbling about a camera:</o>
I spend the next couple days looking for cameras and though Ronny convinced me to get the Fujifilm F31 or at least the F50, no one had any, or so I thought. I happened to be going near a Best Buy anyway; so, though I already called and asked, I go in to check out what they do have and ask anyway. Sure enough! They have some F50se's left. SE? It's supposed to be an F50fd, oh well, this is apparently the SecretEdition which is nowhere mentioned on <st1:city><st1>Fuji</st1></st1:city>'s web site, but it seems to be right. My old camera didn't take as good pictures as I want the chance to get. Turns out that there is a lot to be said for knowing how to set the settings right anyway and my pictures are not that great.
<o></o>
Going there:
So, after sleeping for maybe 4 hours on Thursday/Friday, I drive to airport, fly to Washington DC, Dulles airport (could've gotten cheaper flight through Chicago, but especially with a relatively short layover and just not trusting flights to and from Chicago which I've always heard about having delays and cancellations, I detour around Chicago). It turns out that Dulles has it's own problems and can't get any planes on time (or maybe it's just United Airlines – they were nice other than that. Always get a non-stop international flight back to the west coast. Those planes are nice and big.). So, my flight out is so delayed that I eventually get another flight into <st1><st1:city>Frankfurt</st1:city>, <st1:country-region>Germany</st1:country-region></st1>. If I had waited for my plane, I might have missed getting the tickets and missed the whole thing – scary time, very scary. (Luckily for you, I left out plenty of details of the flight stuff.)
<o></o>
In <st1>Frankfurt</st1>, I had to find my bus. Eventually I decide to trust everyone who keeps telling me to just go out to the street and wait for the Lufthansa bus from there to <st1:city><st1>Strasbourg</st1></st1:city>. Sure enough, I find a yellow sign for it and after an hour or two it comes, driver accepts the ticket from United who handled all the ticketing for my trip, I get on, no problem. (if you ever go, here's what it looks like:


Bye bye Frankfurt!


So, on the bus, the driver puts on the radio. There's some news or something, then Madonna's "Like a Virgin". I put on my own radio. I find a classic rock station that plays American music - Billy Joel's "Piano Man", Glenn Frey's "The Heat Is On", actually on another channel. I find an English program for Americans talking about <st1:city><st1>Metz</st1></st1:city> and WWII America history in <st1:country-region><st1>France</st1></st1:country-region> and <st1>Europe</st1>. But, no French channels; so, I turn it off.

In Strasbourg!
After a few quick hours, hey, here we are finally in<st1:city><st1> Strasbourg</st1></st1:city>! The Gare Central (train station) is right next to us. It looks really interesting and impressive with the big half-dome of glass around the front.

Ronny convinced me that I could probably walk from here and it sure looks like it. Ben's hotel is right across the square/street from the Gare and quite obvious with it's large sign on the top of the building.


I forgot to print out a map that shows how to walk from here to my hotel; so, I go into the Gare. There are several small stores inside and quickly I find one with books and magazines, and oh yes, a map of <st1:city><st1>Strasbourg</st1></st1:city> and vicinity. It cost four euros 10 cents, or qua-di as the vendeur or caisseur says (luckly I knew the price before she said it, otherwise I might not have quite caught that which would usually be said more like 'quatre euros dix' in a French class). So, quickly I find the street to take, basically right across from where I am, head down and find the hotel.
(looking toward the tram station Homme de Fer, which is right on the other side of the building at the end. You can kind of see it under the building) The nice English speaking (of course, as all hotel receptionists do I presume) lady at the front desk checked me in and gave me a free touristy map of <st1:city><st1>Strasbourg</st1></st1:city>. Oh well.
<o></o>
Get tickets and CDs:
I drop off my stuff and immediately head out to get the tickets. Just around the corner is the Virgin Megastore. The billeterie is conveniently right next to the entrance à droite. So, I wait in line. When I get up, I say, "bonjour, j'ai quatre billets pour retrait" or something like that and hand the lady there my printouts of the receipts and credit card. It's rather obvious what I want; so, it goes ok without any English. She tries to ask me something about 'paiement avec ceci' while holding the card. I assume she's asking me if that's the card I used to order the tickets; so, "oui" takes care of that question. After that, straight to the FNAC, just around the corner from that. I'm looking around and having some trouble finding the billeterie here. I go to the caisse (cashier's counter) and kind of just show my printout. The lady there says it's up-stairs on the left. I remember while going up the escalator that when I saw an indication of 2^nd floor for the billeterie at the entrance it means 2 floors up – 3^rd floor to Americans. Of course, I start off going right at the top, having had 20 seconds to distract me from my mission and the mental note that it's on the left.
<o></o>
Anyway, I get that ticket and start searching for the Alizée stands. I need to pick up the new Mademoiselle Juliette remix disks for me and Ronny. Nothing.

Eventually I head back over to Virgin to look. Aha! Here's Psychédélices, but no Mademoiselle Juliette.


Since I can't find it, I eventually ask some employee looking guy, "Il y a des nouvaux singles Mademoiselle Juliette d'Alizée?" or something like that. After figuring out what the hell I'm talking about he responds with perfectly good English and shows me where they are. I ask him for any format they have, and though the vinyl was released the same day as the maxi CD they do have (or whatever that thing's called), they don't have it. As you probably know, it seems the regular single was canceled, though I didn't specifically ask about that.
<o></o>
Meet RMJ:
I decide to take my disks back to the hotel and then maybe go try asking at FNAC and get some food. Unfortunately, I decide to lie down instead. That's it for me. I just manage to get myself up late into the night so I can go meet Ronny at the train station. I try to figure out what track he'll be on and wander around a bit.

Eventually I decide to just stay at the front area called the meeting point, I actually happen to step outside under the big glass hemi-dome at the main entrance

and after a few moments a bit after <st1:time hour="23" minute="30">11:30pm</st1:time>, he walks up to me. Good to see you buddy!
<o></o>
Though Ronny, as usual, brought his notebook computer and both cameras and other stuff, he managed to pack incredibly light and only has a backpack! So, we go back to the room and watch some videos on his computer, quickly check the forum, since there's free wifi, and find a few new pictures from the concert. Eventually, it's like <st1:time hour="4" minute="30">4:30 am</st1:time> or something very late in any case; so, we go to sleep.
<o></o>
(note: some pics of unimportant stuff were reduced because of the ridiculous size of originals and time stamps are in GMT to avoid having to guess when it was taken.)

[Moi-aimes-Alizée]

Boring Alert? I think it was very nice to read wow I am really hoping to go to such place too

[Chommpers]

Originally Posted by Roman

Oh, wow! Now I need to read all of Snatcher's post, but I just came here to say that after downloading my mem card from my camera to my computer (which took like 40 min. on my USB1 ) that for a crappy compact camera, the sound is awesome and actually I got some kick ass video too! Sorry to tease like this, but it will probably be a while before I can get this stuff up. I don't know if I even want to bother with YouTube. The quality will suck if I do that. It's already shaking hand cam 640x480 quality. Hey, sometimes my arms were just getting to tired as I had to hold them high to get above the crowd (like everyone else in front of me). Well, again, I'll get back.

Edit: oh, yeah, and I love Alizée's curly hair! It's so cute!

How dare you do that to us Just kidding looks like you and everyone else had a great time, wish I could have seen it. I look forward to seeing the video when you get around to it.

-EDIT- Thanks also to you Snatcher for your story of the night, sounded like quite a show.

Dang I thought the page before was the last page lol, now I get to read Romans story

[Jess]

Thanks Snatcher and Roman for taking the time to share this with us !! Awesome description from you guys lifetime experience !! All the best to you guys, we salute you !!

[Toc De Mac]

Huge thanks to both Snatcher and Roman for their accounts of their trips, as well as pictures and videos!

[Toc De Mac]

From aline.stras and mollyetmimi via rozier:









From rozier via http://www.enfoires.be/enf_ph08_stra...enter%3E%3C!--





From pat-eldiablo and ancafa via rozier:

[AlphaDevil2]

very nice pics she looks so

Thanks for all the stuff about enfoirés. Great catching up on what happened

[Youpidou1]

Oh wow, that looked like a blast. I wish I could have been there. How much fun was it. Enlighten us all with all of your memories of the past 2 months. I want to hear it and then be jealous.

[Yaceman]

OH yea i want to ge Jealous too, not that it takes much :P