Europe Got to be Kidding Me! Part 2

Sunday, April 11th: I land in Paris and meet my coworker, Jim, at Charles Degaulle to embark on my maiden international business trip for RITA Corp. The plan for the next 5 days is to set up our booth, (which we share with a truly wonderful company we distributor for in North America, ROVI Cosmetics) exhibit for 3 days and then depart Gay Paree on Friday morning.

Overall, the show was a great success. I had worked with ROVI's Marketing Manager to design a new booth for the show which more than exceeded my expectations once I arrived at the venue in Paris to check it out.(Side view of the RITA side of the booth)

(Straight shot looking into our booth)

(Jim and I inspecting the booth)

Tuesday through Thursday our booth was packed with activity, customer meetings and new contacts. Being that RITA only sent Jim and I to the show, he was mainly engaged in meetings ALL DAY and I was basically the Cruise Director so to speak, meeting new people, answering questions, distributing information and seating appointments. We were both very busy. Over the course of the show, I was lucky enough to see and do several memorable things. Firstly, I was able to meet many of my colleagues from ROVI Cosmetics, which was wonderful. It is always nice to put a face with a name, or in this case a far off voice that I call or email in Germany. Secondly, ROVI included me, their American friend, in a very special experience. I attended an evening at a French cooking school with them, where we experienced a wine tasting with the Frenchest of French wine gurus (apparently something above even a Sommelier) who to us, sounded like Steve Martin's Pink Panther character and boy was he passionate about wine. He had us evaluating it with every sense, taste, smell, sight...we even had to gargle it for what seemed to me an uncomfortably long period of time before spitting it out! We also worked under the guidance of a French chef (who only spoke French) to help prepare the meal we would eat that night...in true European fashion at about 11:30pm! I never thought I would be hacking apart a naked little quail and ultimately harvesting and cooking its breasts and legs. American Emily doesn't even like to eat meat off the bone and only purchased boneless, skinless chicken breast for this reason....but French Emily, gargled wine with the best of them, hacked up and even ate a surprisingly delicious quail among other delicacies.(Channeling my inner Julia Child...in a suit...at maybe 11pm!)