How did this come about?! Well, once again, being a student at the university that has produced the last several French presidents has its perks. The British law firm Linklaters is celebrating the 40th anniversary of its Paris office, and they invited 40 Sciences Po students to watch a "debate" between VGE and the president of the European Council, Herman van Rompuy. I was fortunate to be at my computer the moment they emailed us the invitation; the 40 spots were gone within five minutes. How ironic that I've lived in the United States for 28 years without ever seeing a POTUS in person, but after only seven weeks in France, I've now seen the most famous of the living French presidents! (My French law professor mentioned VGE a few weeks ago, and when he said "VGE is our equivalent of FDR," I don't think he was referring only to the common use of their initials. As I learned during the full five minutes it took the moderator to introduce him, VGE has held pretty much every significant political position in France except for being a senator or the Prime Minister. He was/is on their Constitutional Council, which is the closest thing to the American Supreme Court, and he was also part of the Académie Française, the institution dedicated to upholding the purity of the French language.)
This event took place at the Hotel Four Seasons George V (the Four Seasons hotel located on Avenue Georges V, which is near the Arc de Triomphe just south of the Champs-Élysées). Walking into the hotel at 6:00, I felt, for the first time, nervous about how unfashionable I must have looked relative to real Parisians. I looked totally fine by American business standards; I was wearing a black and white dress with a black jacket and black patent leather heels, but I felt like a fish out of water even while getting my nametag, a process managed by several girls around my age who were all wearing designer suits, perfect makeup, and fancy yet effortless looking hairstyles. (Quick note on the nametags: the French are brilliant and use magnets rather than clips or pins; no more piercing of fabric or awkward placement!) This hotel is also the kind of place that employs men dressed in suits to open the doors of arriving cars and hold umbrellas over the guests as the walk the five feet between the car and the awning. But wait, it gets more fancy later on!
This is the entry hall of the hotel, filled with orchids (there are many more than pictured here):
Although I didn't find anyone I knew until just before the event started, I enjoyed every moment of being in a room filled with powerful French people. It became clear later on that in addition to a ton of lawyers, there were cabinet ministers, senators, and members of the National Assembly there, not to mention the press. I sat down in the middle of the room about seven rows back from the stage and eventually saw another girl in my program, who came and sat with me. The "debate" lasted about an hour and a half and was really more of a dialogue about Europe's present and future. It was, of course, all in French. I found Herman van Rompuy easy to understand; he spoke slowly and clearly enough that I was able to make out every word, so if I didn't understand it was a matter of vocabulary. VGE was a bit tougher - I thought it was due to the sort of mumbling that some people have in old age (he's 87!), but I've now been told by two French people that VGE was hard to understand even when he was the president!
I took notes throughout and found the dialogue very interesting, especially from my perspective as a non-European. Predictably, there was a lot of discussion of the Euro Zone crisis and the economic downturn in general (which in France is called "la crise" and is under constant discussion in all forms of media). Van Rompuy kept reiterating the general theme of "unification is really important, both in terms of policy and currency, and this was always going to be a difficult process even without these unforeseen events, but there are always going to be unforeseen challenges, so we need to just keep moving forward." They also discussed the close relationship between France and Germany, which Van Rompuy described as "essential" for Europe - not only because they're both big, rich countries but also because they come from different traditions, so when they agree, it's significant.
Here are the two presidents: Valéry Giscard d'Estaing on the left and Herman van Rompuy on the right.
After the debate, we expected to get our advertised one glass of champagne and then head home. Instead, it was like being at a corporate Christmas party. Unlimited champagne (and other alcoholic beverages), and an incredible array of appetizers, which all came out at different times on trays carried by waiters. I finally had some foie gras (I hadn't had any since moving here) as well as a lot of sushi, dumplings, cheesy bread, shotglasses filled with different vegetables and some sort of cream cheese, creamy soup served in espresso cups, shrimp, gazpacho with crab in the bottom, duck, pork, chicken... it was incredible! And finally, there were trays of tiny pastries for dessert:
Anyway, about half an hour into this after-party, I looked across the room and realized, to my astonishment, that VGE was just out among the people having champagne! My friend and I immediately went over to where he was, and after about five minutes my friend (who is German and, unlike me, speaks French perfectly) managed to talk to him - long enough to clink glasses with him! I probably could have met him at this point as well, but at that exact moment the main thought running through my head was "my French is not NEARLY good enough to have even a 20-second conversation with a former president of France and a member of the Académie Française." I later thought better of this and had a short speech rehearsing in my head during the next 10 minutes while I continued standing RIGHT NEXT TO HIM as he talked with people from Linklaters and then had his picture taken by a lot of people... it is very likely that I inadvertently photo bombed several of those! Unfortunately, he never quite turned enough for me to catch his eye, and the moment he finished his champagne, he was suddenly and quietly out the door. No real regrets though... it was still really cool to get that close to someone so important, and at least I did not embarrass myself (or my country...) by speaking really bad French!
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