Autograph session, 29th March 2013

Originally Posted by Merci Alizée

Btw, this was probably the first time you talked to her, right? How was it? It might be interesting read.

I spend ages on writing it down...

so here's a small (wait, small ???) report from that day, it's more or less a copy from my post at AF... with a few changes.

So how was the autograph session? it was great but also a bit terrible because I was so overwhelmed by everything… ok let’s start from the beginning…

So Chris and I we arrived after a 14 hours trip – well we lost around 1 1/2 hours because of the traffic in Paris, I will never get used how the French drive – on Thursday evening around 8 p.m. On the next day we meet Miguel (Amigo) near the record store and then had to wait for Scruffy in his hotel (which took a while) and later went back to the store to buy some CDs for the autograph session in the evening. And so I got a photo beside a poster for the autograph session, there were 3 posters – one at the escalator, one on the shelf with the CDs and one in the room where the autograph session took place.



Ronny (RMJ) joined us around 1 p.m. and we wandered around a bit and around 3 p.m. we met Scruffy again in the Fnac because he wanted to talk to the staff if they could organise another private autograph session for AAm but I guess you already know all this so I won't repeat that story...

Well anyway Scruffy might have told you already that they left us to go and ask about the private session and Chris and I stayed and waited and I had a really nice talk with a French girl from Alsace, I don’t really remember her name I think it was Molwa or something but I could be totally wrong. She’s was right in front of us and in my video she's the last fan I filmed. She already met us and the others in the store earlier and asked where we came from and she was really surprised that we came from Germany and the US just for Alizée. She told me she really likes the new album, she liked UEDS too but it was more a kind of experiment and she really preferred the new album (same for me) and she was hoping that “5” will do better than the last one. She was also a bit upset that the French always think about Moi.. Lolita when they think about Alizée, that she still has this image even if she has grown up for a long time (well I and we all knew this already but hearing it from a French fan was different and even a bit more upsetting). She told me that she hoped this will change with this album because it’s really mature and Alizée also because of Alizée’s latest appearance on TV, she said in the past she was more coming to shows to perform something and not more and now she’s coming to some shows also to talk about different topics and she hoped people would see that and finally realise that she’s not a girl, not a Lolita anymore but a grown-up, mature, smart woman.

So before everything started we had to wait on a pretty uncomfy staircase because the autograph session took place in a separated part on the top floor and there was an extra entrance for this (we didn’t know that when we went up to the top floor for the first time but a member of the staff asked us if we were here for the autograph session and told the French girl that we have to go down and then we saw a piece of paper outside on the wall of the building and there was the information that we needed to go to another entrance… actually I guess Miguel and Chris already had noticed that there were Alizée fans standing outside…), so we waited there, then the others left Chris and me and later they let us in, but not all at the same time only in smaller groups until the place was crowded. When we came there I guess 30 people were in front of us, even more I didn’t count. I would like to know how many actually went there. The group right in the first row was from “Alizée France”, they all came together and as you already saw they even got a group photo with Alizée later... I guess around 16:30 they started to play the new album and the peeps from Alizée France all started to sing along and later chanted “Alizée, Alizée” together so they all were in a really great mood and it was fun.

Alizée finally arrived around 17h and as you already noticed, she looked really stunning, simple black outfit but really beautiful. A girl nearby was so happy when she saw her, she started to cry a little and I'm glad that I didn't even if this could have been me... at first Alizée posed a bit for the press and we couldn’t really see anything because so many people were in front of us. So the first 15/20 minutes or so we could hardly see her.

But the ambiance was really great and as you already saw in the videos and the photos - she took the time for everyone, they all got a photo with her if they wanted (and everyone wanted a photo) even group photos... some got cheek kisses if they asked for it and she made funny faces or her Victory sign for the camera and she was incredibly nice to her fans. And there was a really adorable moment when a man brought his little son and took a photo with him with Alizée, it was really cute.



Chris and I also talked to another French girl (well more or less because her English was not so good and my French isn’t either so the conversation didn’t really flow) but Chris asked her if she could take a photo of him and Alizée with his camera - originally I wanted to go first and Chris second but the girl was worried that she wouldn't manage to do a proper photo with his camera – to be honest I was worried too I’m just not used to use such big cams, I have my little Nikon and I’m happy with that and I kept telling Chris that I’m scared that I would drop it or that I would ruin the photo. So we changed plans and he went first, I took the photo of him and he took the one with Alizée and me later from the other side of the room (I still look horrible on it argh) and also one for the French girl. She already met Alizée oncem it was 2012 in Monaco and she had the photo she took this day with her and wanted to ask her to sign it. She was surprised when she showed me the photo – she only told me that she met Alizée once, nothing more - and when I said that I knew that photo and knew exactly where it was taken because I remembered someone posted it in the forum. She was really happy that Chris took a photo with her because she went to the autograph session alone. She’s the one on Chris photos right after the photos with us, when Alizée made a grimace for the photo.

So… it finally was on me to go to the table and what can I say I felt like I was going to die… I mean I already was nervous before (the French girl from Alsace asked me if I was because my hands were already shaking a little while we were waiting) but when Alizée was right in front of me it was so much even worse, it was like it just hit me that this was really HER like *BOOM*… I was suddenly shaking so badly and I thought I would die and when I said “Salut” to her my voice was trembling really really badly and I think I was just so overwhelmed by all this… I'm so glad that I didn't start to cry Alizée might have felt so uncomfortable. So my voice was still trembling terribly when I said to her "j'ai un cadeau pour toi" (I got her a present and my friend who went with me to the Enfoirés concerts (AlizéeFee) and couldn’t come gave me a present for her too) and I gave her the bag with the presents in it (on the last of Chris' photos there’s a little orange bag with flowers on it on her table, that was mine) and then I switched to English and told that I’m sorry and that my French is "très mauvais" and if she would sign something for me and my friends. I had 3 albums to sign and two photos. So I gave her the first album which was for me and I told her (I tried to talk to her in French) that it’s for me and my name (I wrote all the names down before the session to make it easier for her and also because I can’t spell in French) and then I gave her the photo that I got for my friend and she signed it for her and I said “c’est pour ma copine" etc. So she also signed all the other stuff for me - I don’t know how many times I said “merci” and also “c’est très gentille” to her for this - for the last one I even didn't had to tell her the name of the person I wanted the autograph for because she already read it on the little note where I wrote down the names... then I was finished and then out of the sudden she asked me in English – there were these small photos on her table, from instagram - if I would want one of these too. I was so perplex that SHE was asking ME if I want another (and I was already worried that I would bother her with my 5 autographs) so I just said yes or oui or whatever and took the first two photos that where right next to me and just asked her to sign one for me and another for my friend (the one who got the second autograph and she was really about this little extra and so I got a signed photo of Alizée and I didn't even planned to get one) She really signed everything people gave to her, some people even brought 5 or 6 CDs, a lot brought stuff from the past years, a few the hat box... I probably could have got some more autographs for some people but now it’s too late.



And then I could take my photo with her (but my smile looks so forced, I look horrible, probably because I was so nervous… and I should have taken my jacket off and put the bag near the window or something but I simply didn’t think of that…) and so Chris took the photos and I took my stuff and wanted to say good bye to Alizée but then she was talking to someone who just came to the table (I don’t know if it was someone from the staff or a friend) but I didn’t know if I just could go or not and I didn’t just wanted to leave neither because I wanted to tell her a proper goodbye and I wanted to wish her good luck so I waited a few moments (I hope she didn’t thought I was rude for not leaving) and said “Au revoir et bon chance avec ton nouvel album” or something similar and now I don’t remember if she said “bye bye” or also “Au rêvoir”. But she was smiling and really really cute.



And then it was over and I still felt like dying and I had to wait for Chris because he took the photo for the other French girl and then we went outside and I still was so excited and there were some other French girls outside and they saw us and we talked a little bit (well kind of they were just curious and Chris told that he would upload photos on his photo page – self promo ^^) and then I went outside because I seriously needed to sit down somewhere – Ronny and the others were still in there – and we went to Starbucks downstairs (I mean I don’t like Starbucks but I simply had to sit down somewhere, I was still shaking).

Later we went back to the store to meet the others after Miguel texted me to come in because they would close the store soon – Alizée was still busy signing autographs later when the store closed and that was at 8:30 p.m. so she was there for more than 3 hours and a half! I’m sure her hand hurt like hell after all this. But someone in the French forums wrote that she told during the autograph session that she wants to do more of these session, at least 5 all over France and I really hope this will help her to sell more albums, I really hope people will appreciate that. It would be cool. I already saw that they album dropped in the iTunes charts **triste

So we finally went outside and some of the French fans from Alizée France who were there right from the beginning came down and a few of them – especially one guy – were really good in English so they asked us where we came from and we talked a bit (well the others did) and then he asked if we would like to come with them. So we spend the evening in a restaurant with Mexican food (fun fact: if I remember correctly it was a restaurant from the same restaurant chain that we visited when we did the fan meeting in 2008 in Paris... and were I found out that I love enchiladas) and it was a really nice evening. After we were finished Chris and I left because we went back to our hotel while Ronny and Miguel went somewhere else to have a drink.

Well and then the evening ended surprisingly annoying… (and if you don’t want to hear this not Alizée-related story just skip the next paragraph)

Because we couldn’t get into our hotel room! We got into the hotel and everything but the chip card for the door of our room didn’t work, instead of the green light that shows that you can enter there always was a red light when we removed the card and we couldn’t open the door!! And NO ONE was there, the receptionist already went home. I was so pissed (and you don’t want to come across me when I’m pissed because I swear a lot and can be so annoying…) But we found a number at the reception that you can call when there’s something urgent and I called this number and after I made sure that it really was the right number I told the problem and the guy on the phone said he would call me back (to be honest I’m actually a little bit proud of myself that I managed it to talk to someone on the phone in English without a lot of problems because I am not good at this and not really confident… but well we had no other choice… no offence but Chris’ English isn’t that great ) and so I waited and waited and waited for more than half an hour but he didn’t call back! so I called again and he said he did call me back but I didn’t pick up (but my mobile didn’t ring, there was nothing) and he said he would call me back right now when I’d hang up… but even after ten minutes he didn’t call so I called again and he said I didn’t pick up the phone again. But this wasn’t true it simply didn’t ring. It was weird. So I told him that it simply didn’t ring and if he please could just tell me what to do because I was on the phone anyway. So he said I should go to the entrance hall (well more of an entrance room) and there was a check-in machine that is for check-in 24/7 when no one is there and he gave me a code and with this code I could get a new card from the machine but not for the same room so we spend the night in another room and couldn’t get our stuff, I didn’t even had a toothbrush, I was so unnerved because of this… that’s also why we didn’t go online after the autograph session and in the morning the receptionist was even 45 minutes late and he was the only one who could let us in. But then he finally arrived and we could get in our room only problem was the internet didn’t work so I couldn’t say anything about the autograph session...

Yeah I will definitely never forget this crazy, wonderful and omg-I-am-gonna-die day…

This post is too long…

And now I really have to go to bed or I will fell asleep in front of my laptop...

[Aldighieri]

Jenny your job is always very appreciate.Thank you

[lapinschous]

Originally Posted by Jenny_HRO87

then I was finished and then out of the sudden she asked me in English – there were these small photos on her table, from instagram - if I would want one of these too. I was so perplex that SHE was asking ME if I want anothe

Wait she asked you in english?? What were her exact words? I want to know how much progress she's made

[Jenny_HRO87]

you have no idea how confused I was when I suddenly saw my report being posted in this subforum xD because I didn't remember do this^^

@lapinschous

it wasn't something over-complicated, just something like "Do you want a photo too?" or sth similar. I don't remember the exact words ^^

[lapinschous]

Oh I see cool ! Too bad you didn't record the part where she spoke english that would have been a great add to my new video "Alizée speaking foreign languages" , oh well, never mind, at least she said "See You" in Scruffy's vid ^^

[Jenny_HRO87]

trust me I was already scared that I would drop my present for her. if I would have hold a camera it wouldn't have survived it. Also I'm not really a big fan of "please say something in the camera"... no offence Scruffy's video is really cute it's just I would find it weird.... standing right in front of someone, be for a few moments the person Alizée is concentrating on and then filming her instead of concentrating totally on her, without a cam.... does this make sense? but well I would have dropped the camera anyway.