I had to say... goodbyyyye...

[lesmisloony]

 What have I done???

I've waited so long to tell the story of my last day at the Palais des Sports that I barely remember everything.  Fortunately, there are pictures.  I'll put those over here and see if anything comes back to me.

These include Upgraded Latino Mikele and Flo refusing to accept that I was leaving him.  Also, MAKTAV and Nuno!

Well.  My last day at the PDS.  The end of an era.  I only had a ticket to the matinée and Joanna was with me.  I was almost totally packed and ready to leave the very next morning... we all remember how that turned out.  Or maybe not.  I got stuck in Iceland for three days is what happened.

So here are the pictures from the last day.

 

For those of you who are overseas and don't know, this is the top of the Palais des Sports.  I took this picture because I suddenly realised that Nuno probably uses that ladder to escape the stage door.  Or at least, that's what the comment on my facebook photo says.

 

I don't know if you remember the pole that Solal had signed?  Well, this was the side of it.  Awesome.  I love MOR fans.

I remember that I really wanted a picture with Jocelyne but had never seen her stop or be stopped.  When she walked by, I smiled at her and she smiled back, so then I asked for a picture.

 

lol I love this.  She was in the middle of asking if I was English.  I said no, American, and she got all sweet and impressed and for some reason I told her I was about to see the show for the eighth time and then she got even more impressed.  I thought she was adorrrable after this encounter.

 

It was raining a bit, but I was super excited to get a picture with Diane and her makeup.  I already had one where her hair was up.

Also I made her sign my piano book!



I remember I had that photo that Nuno had tried to sign the night before with my fail-y fail pen, and I wanted MAKTAV to appear and sign it too.  But you know how hard it is to catch that man.  We were waiting at the fence, and suddenly a really tall man all wrapped in a scarf went running by... yep, Maktav.  I decided to content myself with the picture that had a terrible imprint of a Nuno signature carved into it (stupid pen) and just live my life without Maktav's autograph.

And then, an amount of time later, Maktav came running back out of the doors!  I remember being like LOOK JOANNA OMG MAKTAV HAS RETURNED TO US and she was like Yeah okay hun.  He ran off to talk to some guy in a taxi or something?  Maybe he had taken a taxi to the PDS and needed to get money to pay him out of his dressing room... or he had to take up a collection from the dancers or something.  Haha.

So when he returned he wasn't running and I jumped in front of him like OMG DA PONTE ILU and he was like what really? and I was like DA PONTE IS MY FAVOURITE and he was like aww no way!  And I don't remember how my American-ness worked its way into our conversation but obviously it did because when he signed my picture with Joanna's working pen he wrote a little note.  And he tried to make it be in English.  He translated "Amicallement" as "Friendly" and I will treasure that autograph forever.

 

Awwwww Maktav!  He's so sweet.

And then the normal model Mikele came swooping in, throwing off fans and not wearing any makeup.

 
 

My comment from facebook: "To be fair, that girl was crazy and weird. She had come from the south of France and thought that meant Mikele was going to crap his pants with excitement at her long journey. I was like BEEYOTCH I CAME FROM ANOTHER CONTINENT"

I think this was also the day that Joanna and I saw Mélissa get off a bus.  My mind was super blown because SHE IS MÉLISSA MARS and SHE ARRIVED ON A BUS.  She looked at us kind of unhappily but Joanna and I just smiled and didn't make any move to ask for an autograph or picture, and when she realised we didn't mean her harm Mélissa smiled very sweetly and said Bonjour to us as she passed.  So we said Bonjour back and I was like aww Mélissa really?  You're really this shy?

We were on Nuno patrol because I wanted his autograph to be on my picture and actually be legible now that Joanna was there and her pen worked.  I think we spotted his red jacket from a distance and I was slightly more normal that time, ie I didn't pounce upon him or tell him I'd been standing around calling his name for months.  When he saw me he said something like Do you have a working pen this time? and I was like SURE DO and he re-signed my picture over the carved-out signature from the night before.  Yayyy!

And then a little while later he was back in the crowd somehow, without the red jacket this time, so I asked for a picture.

 

He hung out a little while longer and was joking around with some fans.  That was when I learned he was going on as Mozart the next day and I was like BUT NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO I HAVE TO LEAVE TOMORROW NOOO WHAT ARE YOU DOING NUNO COME ON

And I made him sign my piano book.



He also pretended to kick a fan in the face.  I will always remember this because she was significantly taller than him and yet he had no trouble making his foot fling up that high in the air.  It was amazing to witness.

Apparently Solal came by too that day... I seem to remember he was in a hurry and wasn't taking pictures, but since I'd gotten one two days before I was down with that.

I DID acquire a signature, though!



I think Stagedoor Mélanie was there, because I think that was the day that when Flo was on his way in he smiled and said Bonjour in our direction and not in Stagedoor Mélanie's and I was like BOOYA.

Anyway, then I went to the show!  I have a bunch of videos probably, but they're on my broken laptop.

So here are some pictures!

 

 

 

 

By the time curtain call rolled around, I was getting kind of morose on the inside.  I remember specifically staring at the glitter coat and trying to commit how amazing it is in person to memory, because I have yet to see a video or picture or anything that accurately expresses how cool that thing is.  It looks like liquid purple magic.









Bravo, Bravo Mozart Guy!  Little did I know he was 1. going to play Süssmayr the next day and 2. leaving the show within the week.
Also, thanks to my hard work being a stalker I now know that those other guys are Alexandre, Guillaume (I think), and Valery.  Man I'm good at being creepy.



That is Nuno's default facial expression, true story.



At this point Maktav and Yamin liked to do this thing where they held their bow wayyyyyy longer than everyone else.  It was so cute and I loved it a lot.



This was because Maktav had taken off his cravat.



IF ONLY THIS WASN'T BLURRY
IT WOULD BE ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFLO PICTURES EVER TAKEN

Let me tell you something.  In that lil mosh pit that day, I wasn't sure if I would ever, ever be able to see the show again.  I thought it might be my last time singing those songs with a huge group of people who knew the words, let alone with the cast and the lovely sound of Flo's guitar.  I thought it was all over, and I will always remember how intensely I sung the last "quiiiii s'aiment" that day.  I had tears in my eyes.

But there was no time to dwell on that.  As the curtain closed and Mikele shouted WE LAHV YOOOO for what I thought was the last time, I went on that familiar run from the foot of the stage to the stage door.  I got a pretty okay place.

Night had fallen and IT WAS SNOWING.



Oh snow.  You and I are no longer friends after last December.

I didn't even have an umbrella.  I stood out there for about an hour.



That hand belongs to Merwan.  He just kinda waved and said something about how he wasn't coming out in the snow.  Instead he stood right inside the door and texted somebody.  Probably like HAHA THOSE POOR FANS.  But seriously Merwan, if we're willing to stand out in this weather to see Flo you, you can at LEAST find an umbrella and put on a coat.  Tsk.

Maeva tried to come out, but then when she saw the snow she said she couldn't because her hair was still up and she had the tricorn on.  She was so sweet and apologetic about it.  What a lovely person.

GOSH MERWAN.

And then Flo arrived.  I think he had a guy following him with an umbrella, and he just went around being his incredible self despite the snow and the freezingness.  He signed all the things and took all the pictures.  I have never loved a celebrity so much.



And I made him sign this.



WOW what an uneventful LAST NOTE EVER.  I mean, good thing it didn't turn out to be my last note ever, but still.  I don't think Florent Mothe responds well to snow... or something like that.  He was patient and lovely and all, but he wasn't being very, like, personable.  Or something.  It's kinda the same vibe I got off him in Lille.  Then again, if Flo's off-days are  "patient and lovely" but not very "personable" he still wins a million percent over Mikele, whose off-days are, reportedly, yelling I AM A REAL MAN WITH A REAL LIFE AND I OWE YOU NOTHING at fans.

lol my caption on facebook:

I'm telling myself that if it hadn't been snowing he would have poured out his deep passionate love for me. But he obviously didn't want to ruin my piano book, so he just said "Thanx again cyou" WHICH OBVIOUSLY MEANS HE IS COMING TO VISIT ME IN THE USA ALONG WITH MIKELE

BEST SLUMBER PARTY EVER

Though Laurel believes the note says "Thaux ayau cyou"

I was slightly baffled by the use of "see you" since I had clearly explained that I was going home the next day... If you recall, I had told him two days earlier about my impending departure and he had misunderstood and been surprised when I came back on Friday... so perhaps he just didn't believe that I was actually leaving that time.

WITH GOOD REASON.  Haha.  He probably won't believe me when I tell him Toulouse is my last time for real.  He'll totally expect me to pop up at Bercy.

WELL I WON'T FLORENT MOTHE.  Which is why you need to come back to America with me.  You can be reunited with all your Canada friends and you can show off your amazing English all the time and play the guitar in Central Park and Kelley and I will feed you funfetti cupcakes and French fries to your heart's content.  And whenever you feel like being famous again you can go back to France and put out another album or do some concerts or something, then come back to the States and be normal for a while.  Plus I totally have a bff in Belgium apparently so if you want to go visit Mikele we can crash at her house.  You see??  IDEAL.  Let's do this.

UH ANYWAY.  Where was I? 

Oh yes and then Upgraded Latino Mikele arrived!  Apparently snow affects Italian humans differently than French ones, because Mikele used the weather as an excuse not to take pictures.  HOWEVER when I said it was my last time there (to this day I don't know if he realised then that I was the same American fan who'd knitted his stinkin gloves) he went all OH! and waited really patiently while I awkwardly flipped through my piano book trying to find Tatoue-moi.  Memory tells me that he busted out a special purple glittery marker to sign my book with, but maybe he was using it for everyone.  I'll pretend it was just for me because it makes me feel important.



MERCI POUR TOUT J'ESPERE TE REVOIRE PEUT-ETRE IN USA
J'ESPERE TE REVOIRE
REVOIRE

I think maybe he was treating "revoir" like a past participle and tried to make it feminine to agree with the  "te"?  Either way it makes me really happy to know that Mikelangelo Loconte is as bad at French grammar as I am.

And that is why I left France loving Mikele as much as I did when I arrived.  We went through a rough patch, but in the end he redeemed himself and I still love him.

Despite the snow and Joanna's prodding, I refused to leave until Flo had gone back inside.  I just stood at the fence and stared mopily at him.  Because I have often expressed that PHOTOS DO NOT CAPTURE HIS BEAUTY so I just wanted to try to remember it.  And I didn't know how next semester would go with them being on tour and all, so I was preparing myself for the possibility that THIS WAS THE END and I would never see Florent Mothe again.  So I stood in the snow and gazed and him and cried.  He went in and Joanna was like NOW can we go? and I obliged.  I will also never forget my last time walking away from the Palais des Sports in the snow, crying, glancing once over my shoulder at the barricade and the stage door where I had spent so much time and where all the best things ever had happened to me.

I moped all the way home... but in the weird fangirly way in which I do all things.



GREEN CARD OFFER STILL STANDS
AND WILL ALWAYS STAND
SERIOUSLY.  I MEAN IT.



I firmly believe that this should be his first album cover.

Oh, and here's my autographed Nuno and Maktav picture:



FRIENDLY.  I love it SO MUCH.





And that was it.  I went to sleep as soon as I got home, woke up the next morning, finished packing, and my host dad drove me to the train station amidst the most upsetting blizzard I'd ever seen.  And you know how my flight got cancelled and I made friends with a bunch of the other people who were stuck in the airport and we spent three days in the Reykjavik Hilton together and I sampled a million kinds of salmon and learned that  "takk" is thanks.  Good and also really annoying times.

When I got back at the beginning of this semester I considering going down to the PDS, sitting alone on the steps to the stage door, and using my self timer to talk the saddest picture in the world.  But now that I hear there are new posters up and stuff, I've decided I shall never ever go down there again.  Palais des Sports is over for me.

But I'm a real fan now!