My First Cocktail Party in France

I think I forgot to mention, but Cyr and I went to a cocktail party last Saturday. After spending time over my morning coffee thinking about which black dress to wear I decided to ask Cyr what the invite said the dress-code was. I figured it would be a bit dressy (as France is a dressy country to me), basically what in the US we call "After Five" dress.

"It's black tie." He says. Completely serious.
Huh?
Wha...really?
"Are people wearing tuxedos and formals?!" I ask.
"No" says Cyr; "I am wearing a suit. The girls just wear nice dresses."

Well what do you know, it's like a 1970's adult dress up party!! I felt the urge to go look for some AquaNet and a Jackie O type dress. I settled on a black satiny number and added pearls as an homage to Jackie. My mother would have been so proud! The translation of "black tie" wasn't what it is back home (thank goodness). No one wore a tux, just a sort of dressy after 5 really. Cyr has all the pictures and is in Scotland until Friday morning, but I will post a few if I remember.

The party was actually pretty fun. The people were very nice. We arrived and found our way through a maze of hallways with the aid of a friend who had to come down to get us. Once there, it turned out to be a small apartment with Champagne and Mojitos flowing. The later in the evening it got, the more they flowed. The funny thing was that when the only bottle of rum left was Bacardi, everyone agreed that there would be no more Mojitos, "Because all we have is Bacardi." They say matter-of-factly. Then everyone sighs and nods their heads in agreement. Apparently everyone is aware that Bacardi white label is crap. Well it ain't no Caribbean rum that's for sure. But people...you are mixing it with mint, sugar and lemon-lime! How much can you really taste I think to myself. Maybe it's how much you feel the next morning, not how much you taste the night of. Ahh..me thinks I understand now.

I love that there were people from all over the world there. I talked with people from Estonia, Hungary, Benin, Italy, Sweden, different areas of France and a Brit! Cyr met a group of them on the train he takes to work in the morning. They all speak English too which is nice. I did practice my French though. There was probably about 15 or so people there throughout the evening. At one point there was dancing in a little space by the stereo. If you know me you will know that I did in fact participate in this cultural ritual where the women all dance together. At times this primitive behavior bothers me, but after an aperitif of Champagne and a Mojito (with good rum I might add) I had a hard time finding fault with it. I mean hey, I wanted to dance.

I ended up making some new friends and am going to have dinner with one this week while Cyr is out of town. The best thing was that on Sunday I wasn't too bad off. But I tell you, one more Mojito with the white label Bacardi and it would have been a pretty uncomfortable Sunday I bet. Cheers to limiting the Mojitos!! Or is that Mojitoes?