Vero Bott

Hi Franzi, welcome and enjoy this beautiful place full of Mika resources  

See you in Berlin!

PS: The photo is beautiful ❤️

I couldn't resist and grabbed my ticket to Berlin too  

See you there ❤️

The sprint to the stage was insane and frustrating considering the fact that people who came to the queue late could easily be in front of you (waiting from 11am in the heat)...Ended up in the 3rd or 4th row (thank god for that, it was a success in this madness 😅).

But other than that the show was fantastic ❤️ The audience loved the gig and were singing and dancing like crazy ❤️ And the audience response to C'est la vie was just incredible. Mika seemed to be touched 💚🌸💚 

I'm still on the road but here are some photos that I posted 😊

2 minutes ago, Clemnc said:

I’m entering in the Foire  

Pink trousers + green top at the end of the queue 😀

2 hours ago, Clemnc said:

OMG 😱

I'm on the spot 😊 

2 minutes ago, Prisca said:

There are 51 people queuing already, just that you know.

Wow, that many people that early? That's wild!😮

8 minutes ago, Clemnc said:

As our tickets is a ticket for the all Foire, can we just stay by the stay already ?

I have no idea 😀 As I saw this crazy-running-to-the-stage video on Twitter, I thought we have to queue somewhere but I might be wrong 😀

1 hour ago, Clemnc said:

Hi Elsa,

My train arrive at 10:18 in Châlons so I guess the time to find my way in the city and go to the Foire, I would say 11am. But I'll maybe go check my hôtel room before, don't know yet.

 

Mon train arrive à 10h18 à Châlons, donc le temps que je prenne le bus et que je m'oriente, je pense que j'y serai vers 11h. Mais peut être que j'irai checker ma chambre d'hôtel avant.

J'ai hâte de voir tout le monde  !!!

See you there too @Viviane @Presci1108 and @Vero Bott !

Great, see you there 😊

And...it might be a stupid question but which entrance are we actually queuing at? The main one? The one closest to the "foire en scene"? 🤯😄

I'm going alone too and I'd like to queue early 🙂 We can do a "loners meet-up" 😀

I love the song (and the video) soo much!

If I would have to describe the song in one adjective, I would go for "tender", that's how the song speaks to me, it's a beautiful mixture of highly emotional lyrics and upbeat, yet delicate music 🥺 ❤️

18 minutes ago, Happymika_by_celine said:

 

Hi @QueenBigFat! 

 

Here in France, there is an application called "Photo Compressor" to shrink the size of an image. It's simple and free. And if you can't find this one specifically, I'm sure there are plenty of others like it. 

 

If you really can't do it, don't hesitate to send me your photo by email, and I'll be happy to shrink the size for you. 

 

Above all, can't wait to see your pretty rescue dog! 🐶

 

See you soon and have a nice day! 

Bye

 

 

 

Sorry! I didn't see Vero's reply when I replied to you...

The more solutions, the better 😉☺️

1 hour ago, QueenBigFat said:

Yeah, I also tried to upload a picture of my rescue dog as my official photo (he is ever so much prettier than I am!!) but the app refused it as being too big a file, and I have no idea how to shrink it.

You can try this one to resize the photo, it worked for me 🙂

https://www.lunapic.com/editor/?action=resize

1 hour ago, Hero said:

Deb, that's a wonderful story! What an amazing memory. 

 

Hmm, have I met him? I've been lucky enough to see him perform live a few times over the last 2 years, so have been there when he comes out afterwards... but I never had anything to get signed and wasn't sure what I'd say, so tended to hang back and watch how sweetly he handled the madness. I've been close to him a few times , but actually met, to say hi and have a chat? No not yet. Times not felt right. It'll come. 

 

The most I've done was in Cattolica. I had a present for him, but he'd just stepped past where I got to the fence, and I couldn't see him properly because of the girls standing on the ledge. Hoping for the best, I held the gift bag through the railings (probably knee height for him) and called "Mika!".  Started to look around for a better point in the line, when I realised a hand was on the bag. Yes, his. Time kind of stopped. I looked up and there were a pair of warm, kind, quizzical eyes looking at me.  I melted, and froze for what seemed an eternity (probably just a couple of seconds, but, you know...). Part of my brain screamed at me "say something!" Well, I'd been so focused on getting the present and getting it to him, I hadn't actually thought about what to say. Words tumbled around my head, but I was rooted to the ground and couldn't think straight under that gaze.  I heard another part of my brain shout "What? What do I say?" and then from somewhere (and to this day I have yet to track down the errant braincell) the reply "You're in Italy, speak Italian!".  Um, I don't, except for a few basics. So I looked into those lovely eyes and stammered out a halting " p.. per te?.." He looked slightly confused, but nodded and said "grazie" in return. 

Time returned to normal, he went to the next fan and I stood back to let someone else in. All while feeling a very unusual mix of elation (I spoke to him! He spoke to me! I gave him a gift! YES!) and complete embarrassment (what just happened? We're both English, why did I try to speak to him in Italian? Is he going to remember that, if I speak English next time?! I'm going to have to explain aren't I? Oh god.  )

 

Which was a long reply to say I've not really met him yet - but I have had some great moments.  And yes, when he's focussed on you, nothing else matters. 

 

Lovely story - and that would be so me I guess - except that you were still two words better than I would be... in any language!  

12 minutes ago, Mikasister said:

Today, Mika is a living treasure coffer 😀🥰❤️

Everything booked, I'm going to Chalons❤️

On 8/10/2023 at 9:03 PM, krysady said:

 

Today I remembered that he even walked on people's chairs during Big Girl, I bet they didn't expect that too 

He "used to walk in a different way", to make them dancing, dancing, dancing, dancing... 

I'm in ❤️

Thank you for posting about it here, Anna 

20 hours ago, mellody said:

Alright, time for a report. I'm actually still working on the one for Tarvisio, but writing this first now, as long as the memories are still fresh. Be prepared, it's long...

 

TRAVEL

So I arrived in Nice on Wednesday, together with my son, for a little holiday. I had decided that he's old enough to leave him at the hotel room on his own while I went to the gig - he got a new book for that and a mobile phone with my number and instructions about different situations... and when I was about to leave, he was just like, yay, finally I can start reading!  (btw he actually read the whole book, until past midnight ) Anyway, Nice is beautiful, the palm trees, a lot of pretty houses with ornaments, beautiful flowers, the turquoise sea, ... my son loved the rather big waves at the beach and spent hours playing in the water, and then again in our hotel pool. On Thursday we went to the botanical gardens, which are near the airport, as that was my son's wish for sightseeing. The entry is free there and it's on a hill, so a great view from up there... but it's quite a trip from the city centre and you could see that it's not very well kept and that it had been a bit too dry for the plants. Anyway, he liked it and took a lot of photos.

On Thursday evening we met up with Zita and Andrea for dinner near the beach promenade... I loved chatting with the girls, and my son wanted to try snails... and decided that it goes on the top 3 of his list of favourite food.  He has an expensive taste.

 

MY STUPIDITY

Zita had rented a car and we had agreed that she'd take me back from the venue to Nice after the gig, as there was no public transport during the night. But I wasn't aware that she had also planned to take us from Nice to Monaco, so that took me by surprise, and me with my different fears about driving in a car, I ended up deciding that I'd be going by train as I had planned, and Zita, Andrea and Nina would only pick me up at the station in Monaco, from where it was just 9 minutes to the venue. But that certainly was my worst decision of the week. The train ride was relaxed and super short with 20 minutes, but when I arrived, I noticed that the station in Monaco was a) underground and b) HUGE. It had at least 2 exits in completely different places. This city is built on a cliff and there were stairs and lifts in the station like in that of a huge city, and I was pretty overwhelmed. And when I tried to communicate with Zita where I should go, I realized that Monaco is not EU, so there's no EU roaming, and 2 minutes later my balance was used up and I still had no idea where to go.  Of course I tried both exits, but didn't see Zita at either of them. So after 20 minutes of waiting and running back and forth and starting to feel really stressed and sweaty, after all the time I had invested in looking decent for that event, I decided to look for a taxi. Which also was easier said than done, I nearly panicked at some point because I feared I would miss the event. I couldn't even check Google Maps to see where I needed to go, or make any calls. You don't realize how much our life relies on the internet and mobile phones until you're in a situation like that. After another 15 minutes of walking in different directions I found a hotel and the receptionist was so kind to call me a taxi, which arrived 10 minutes later and cost me 20€.  So, long story short, I mentally kicked myself and didn't arrive with the most positive energy. Was very glad then to see Zita, Nina and Andrea in the queue waiting to go in - they had waited in front of one of the entrances of the station but we didn't see each other.

 

THE DINNER

I think it was shortly after 8pm when we went in, but there still were people arriving for about an hour more, and the dinner started half an hour later than planned, so there was enough time. The entrance was ON the stage, which I only realized when we had walked down the stairs. We had a table in the back, on the pedestral at the back of the hall. The view was ok, but far away, so my mood didn't really lift and I thought, what a sh*t decision to go to this, when we have to stay seated all evening - Mika can't even come through to us there. The look at the choice of wines didn't really lift my mood. No getting drunk, with these prices. You'd have been sober the instant you got the bill.  I ended up sharing the cheapest and smallest bottle of wine on the menu with Nina, it was still 45€... at least it was a good wine. In return I bought no water (which would have been another 11€ for a big bottle) but drank the tap water in the bathroom. I gotta save *somewhere*  

 

Shortly after 9pm the dinner started. Each table had their own waiters (not sure how many, I think 2 or 3 for one long table). I had been sceptical about the first course, as I never liked tuna. The tuna I know smells fishy, like cat food, and just the smell of it makes me want to stay away from it as far as possible. But this was nothing like it. I think it was partly raw, but it didn't smell or taste like fish at all. Then there were all the other things, vegetables and pomegranate, coriander falafels and chickpeas cream, radish, carrots, cucumber slices rolled to little roses, all very colourful and delicious. I felt like the rat in Ratatouille, which finds the perfect taste in the combination of different types of food. Wow. Unfortunately the second course couldn't keep up with that. The fish was very tender and the taste was good, but my piece of fish was completely bony, I think I found at least 20 fishbones in this little piece, while the others had none or maybe one. I also didn't like the sauce that came with it. The roll with the mushrooms was ok. The dessert was beautiful, with raspberries and little bits of edible gold on top of the butter cream, and a musical note made of red chocolate (I suppose it was white chocolate mixed with food colouring, but not sure). It was delicious too, tho without the Wow effect of the first course. Unfortunately the photos I took of the food didn't turn out very well, because of the light.

 

There was a band playing during the dinner, according to the Menu the "Mack Mackenzie Band", playing jazzy versions of classic and modern songs like "What a difference a day makes", "Mack the knife", "Americanos", or "Something stupid". I loved them, it wasn't too loud but still a nice and entertaining background sound, and I knew almost all the songs they played. I wouldn't have minded to watch them as a real support act, and dance to their music, instead of being distracted by my dinner.

 

At some point the huge panoramic windows of the venue were opened. I didn't see how they did that, I suppose they went down into the floor, but suddenly the terrace was accessible right behind us. It was then that we decided this was, although even further away than our table, a perfect place to watch the gig and dance, because no one could complain about us standing in their view.

 

After the dessert they brought 2 plates of pralinés for each table and they were supposed to bring coffee, but then suddenly the Lollipop intro started, so the chocolates and the coffee had to wait...

 

THE GIG

Mika started the concert in his green glitter suit, on the piano for Lollipop. My view wasn't much better than what you can see in my video above, and I didn't understand much of what he said either, except for the usual story of the pink girl in the grey town. But I loved the atmosphere, this venue with its elegance and the huge open windows gave it a special feeling, maybe can be described as solemn, but in a good way. We danced and had a good time at our window place, but weren't sure if Mika had seen us and we wondered a few times if we should just try to go to the front, but were worried they'd send us back, and I kept saying, let's wait until Big Girl... and that was a perfect decision as he came over, in his stunning white suit with the big fluffy flower. It was the first time I got to dance with him for Big Girl in the crowd, because usually I'm in the front, thus far away from where he dances. You can see it in the video that was posted here, but apparently time slows down when something like this happens. The moment felt much longer to me than it really was. Mika was there, right in front of me, dancing and singing, I could hear his voice without the amplification, saw his eyes, his curls, the white suit, I danced and jumped, he held his mic to us to sing along, first to Nina, then to me, and then he was gone again. From that moment, my mood was fantastic.  

 

The front part of the stage was a dancefloor while people entered the venue and during the support act - it could be lowered to floor level, so that's what Mika asked the venue to do, he wanted a dancefloor instead of a big stage, so people could come to the front. You can hear it in my video, he says that it's the smallest venue of this tour, but the biggest stage, and if they please could lower the stage. But it seems they told him no. Maybe it'd have been a security risk, or they were worried that their VIP's in the front seats might not see well anymore - however, the stage stayed as it was. At least Mika got people to stand up. And then we used the chance and just went to the front. There were some people standing there already, and the venue didn't send them back to their chairs, so we had hope. First we were near the center in 10th row or so, then Nina went one aisle further where Mareva was, and I went to the corner of the stage, as it looked the most empty to me, and after a while I ended up in 2nd row because some people in front of me went to the back at some point. A really good place, and from then on I could enjoy the gig the way I always do, dancing and singing and having fun.  Also the people next to me were really into it, I loved that. Just the drunk guys behind me were annoying at times, but luckily also not all the time. During Happy Ending I really could've kicked them, that was so disrespectful! See my videos. You could see that Mika was annoyed by it too, I felt sorry for him, but I enjoyed the song anyway... his voice was so good, it took my breath away for a moment.  My 2nd fave moment after the one during Big Girl. I also loved hearing Grace Kelly in this particular place, as she's what I always think of when I think of Monaco. And all the times Mika came over and looked at me - he kept on giving attention to his fans - the Italians were on the right I think, I saw Manuela there at least, and he even mentioned the Italian guests a few times (there were more Italians than the MFCers I think). And he said that he's not sure which language to speak, haha! So he spoke mostly French, but also some English. As you might have seen in the videos (I filmed the beginning, I think Nina has the whole video of it), Mika got Mareva on stage to conduct the crowd with him for Underwater - well, I guess he invited her up because of her handmade Underwater jacket, which looks fantastic! The conducting was fun and chaotic, lol!  I hadn't expected him to bring a fan on stage at this gig, but Mika always manages to surprise us.

 

The setlist was the usual one, with the French songs, and Good Guys as an extra. I had the impression that people were a bit confused about Overrated, as that's probably not a widely known song amongst non-fans. Some of them looked a bit puzzled.  But it was a very unusual crowd anyway, compared to other gigs. Of many of them I'm not even sure why they were there. Do they go to all of the Monaco Festival gigs, maybe? Did they come just for the dinner and thought "oh well, let's see who this Mika is" (in that case they probably were surprised, haha! ) - or maybe for some he was just "the Grace Kelly guy", I don't know. But there also were people who obviously liked his music, some of them very engaged, others more keen on a seated gig than the party that it turned out to be (like the VIPs at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival). It seems he saw some people from Lebanon, he greeted them at some point... and I guess he knew some people in the front, during the first songs while we were still in the back he interacted with 2 or 3 people, one of them got his green glitter jacket, he hung it around their shoulders... so I think he must've known them, he wouldn't give his jacket to some random person I think. Several children were there as well, I wouldn't have expected that at such an event. I mean, the dinner didn't feel very stiff to me, as I had feared - probably also because I was with the other MFCers at the table, so I wasn't worried too much about super accurate table manners or anything. Still, knowing my son, I'm sure he was better off staying in the hotel. He's already too old now to like everything that I like and recently asked me why I go to see the same gig so many times, with the same songs.  I asked back why he wants more than one plant of each species (he collects carnivorous plants), and with that the topic was through, at least for this time.  

 

Btw, I read somewhere today that it was about 700 people. It was definitely more than the 300 that they had told Andrea before - I'm thinking it might have even been the 950 that was given as the maximum capacity for this venue layout, it seemed pretty full.

 

It surely wasn't Mika's favourite gig of the tour (not mine either), but he looked happy when he said goodbye ("until next time", in French) - Not sure what his expectations were, but to me it was much better than I had expected (especially when I arrived ), and it was lovely to know that a bunch of MFCers were there, even if we weren't all together during the gig.

 

AFTERSHOW

After the gig we went back to our table, to find that Anne had payed the bill for the drinks, and we gave her the money for it. Then I ate most of the remaining chocolates because I wanted to be sure not to leave out anything that was included in the ticket price (except for the cold coffee ) , and we went outside to wait for Mika. All the posh people were waiting too, but not for Mika but for their cars (there was a parking service), it took quite some time until everyone had their car. Zita ended up having to re-park her car in different places a few times, but in the end the venue staff helped her to find a good place where she could park the car - they didn't seem surprised that some fans wanted to wait for Mika. It was just our group and 2 or 3 more people in the end when Mika came out. Unfortunately Prisca and Andrea already had to leave, to catch their flights in Milan, but I think the rest of us was still there. There were barriers and it was all calm, but you could tell that Mika wasn't in the mood to stay very long. He spoke quietly to protect his voice (mostly with Nina, he was so sweet to her! ), signed a few things and took some gifts. I asked him to sign the menu card I had taken with me as a memory of this special event and he did, but only his name, nothing more, no heart or X or anything. I hadn't asked him for his autograph for years, and also before that I mostly did it because I hoped he'd draw or write something sweet for me (which he mostly did), and I guess that's what I hoped too this time, as he didn't speak much. So well, his signature as such doesn't really have a meaning to me, so maybe I won't keep this menu card as a memory after all but give it away as a prize for the next MFC competitions, as I know that for other fans it might mean a lot.

 

Mika looked gorgeous in this silky shirt with the flowers and butterflies. He wore his golden necklace that he had bought in Mexico, but I still couldn't figure out what it is. I had thought it was a torch, but now seeing it from up close I think it's something else. Maybe just some art sculpture. For a moment I thought of asking him, but he didn't seem interested in speaking with me, so I didn't. When he left, we did our little mexican wave for him when he passed by in the car, because even in this posh place it's still us and him and I love keeping up these little traditions. But couldn't see his reaction, as he was in the back of the car with black windows. I hope he liked it.

 

Then we drove back to Nice, I drove Zita crazy because I'm the worst possible passenger in a car and all those tunnels and steep roads didn't help, but all went well and thank you so much Zita for putting up with me... I really need to work on this.

Was fab seeing everyone, especially Anne as we hadn't met at any of the other gigs this year!

 

I might upload a few photos tomorrow, of the food and group pix and other things I mentioned, but for now I think there's enough to read.  Some of my photos of the gig and M&G are in my story highlights on Instagram, and some more here on my German fan account:

 

Thank you for a fantastic report, just reading it I almost feel like I was there   

Mika's Story

😃❤️

And I'm not even going, but I enjoy reading this thread, it's gonna be such a special show - and such a special event as a whole! 

Can't wait for the photos and videos from you guys 

16 hours ago, mellody said:

So these are my dress options. 

 

 

 

I think I prefer the short one with the flowers (ofc I need to iron it) ... or do you think it's not elegant enough? It's kinda a mix between a cocktail dress and a summer dress. I've been wearing it at a few weddings, but well, maybe a dinner is different...

The purple one has a nice skirt, but the top part doesn't look very elegant, and it's pretty warm too with that synthetic fabric around the shoulders... so probably not.

The red one is a simple long dress I once bought for a choir performance. It was actually quite cheap but still looks elegant. It's not as comfortable tho as the short one.

 

Any opinions? 😅

 

The weather forecast looks quite nice, 20-29°C, partly cloudy... so it's not as hot as I had feared. Also I'm relieved that the weather for our flight on Wednesday looks much better than it did 2 days ago. 😅 They said windy / stormy then, now it's just rain in Munich and sunny weather in Nice.

 

Are any of you planning to do sightseeing in Nice on the few days before the gig? Maybe we could meet up, for sightseeing or lunch / dinner?

Love the long red dress the most, I think it compliments your skin tone and hair color beautifully 😊

On 7/24/2023 at 11:28 PM, silver said:

Here we go, 5 mins were enough to create Airy's little twin 😂

4 minutes ago, silver said:

That is soo accurate!  I'll have to make an Airy-twin after the next grooming session  

9 minutes ago, silver said:

 

Had to look that up - it's an old breed, isn't it?  And always black and tan, lovely colouring.

Yes, sort of, this breed is known from an old history of the Czech lands, recreated in the modern history. And yes, they should be black, with some amount of tan in specific areas 

But no matter the breed, they are all our sweethearts, thank god for them (or thank god that they found us?  )  

7 minutes ago, silver said:

 

Yes, long-haired German Shepherds.  What breed is your dog (I would guess at Tervuren)?

They are really lovely - and I love their fluff-hemmed ears ❤️

Airy is actually of a Czech breed called "Chodský pes" (Bohemian shepherd in English)