Michael & Maria

Hey to all who are interested ,

it's me, reporting to duty. I'm back, and in one word: it was amazing.
I'm here to give a detailed review before the impressions fade, so I hope that by the time I am done with typing ezBoard will not have timed out on me.

But from the start:

Didi and I got to Paris easily (even without really speaking French), so the trip was rather eventless except for the fact that Didi was almost sick on the plane (due to the French habit of serving simply pain au chocolat for breakfast - and we were starving!). We got to the hotel and met up with

Laurence, Pascale, and Séverine from France,
Stephanie and Astrid from Holland (yes, Pinkie, I learned how to pronounce the famous soft "g"! ),
Noelia and Noelia from Spain,
Zee from Norway,
and the next day Marica from Austria and Diane and Janet from England.

We did a little sightseeing the first afternoon and saw the City Hall, Notre Dame (I'm sure there's an accent on the "o" but can't remember ), and the Louvre. I wanted to go in but there was no time. We also got postcards, and someone will hopefully be happy she got one, too, so that there would be a little Paris feeling for her as well even though she couldn't come in person.

Meanwhile, the Noelias had gone off to try and get tickets for the first concert on Friday as well - the rest of us was only going on Saturday. I knew we were going to regret it, so I thought I was taking it rather coolly when the Noelias knocked on our door in the middle of the night, all excited and giddy, hopping up and down and telling us that it had been "fantastic". They also told us that our bets had been right and Devon was with Majandra; and they had T-Shirts with them: the old black and white one, and new ones, with a greenish-turquoise logo with little stars in it, short-sleeved and with the seams inside out (I am thinking here that besides Spicy no one will care about this sort of info, but hey! I have to tell something. ).

By the time they had disappeared to bed, Zee and Didi (who I was sharing a room with) were howling with regret of having spent the night at Subway's instead of going to see the first concert as well.

I was all Zen since I had been mentally preparing for the feeling of regret - or so I thought, until I went to sleep and dreamt that I went into that place where they were selling t-shirts at the concert (that interestingly looked like the gas station next to my home here ), and started to scream at the guy, "I want this, this, and this", and started to try on t-shirts that had such a weirdly cut neck that it was constantly falling over my shoulder, and had me go: "I can't wear this", and the guy was like: "No, you're right, you can't", and I nearly strangled him, screaming, "Well, but I need one, so get me one that fits, goddammit!"

Well, Saturday arrived, and we went to pick up Diane and Janet at the station, and afterwards went straight to fnac (that's a music/ electronics/ book store, in case you don't have it)for the signing. The Noelias had gone at 9am already and were way up front, but by the time we arrived it was already pretty packed with people.

We settled down - Laurence was carrying a gift basket she had organized for Majandra, where each of us Europeans had contributed with something - it looked awesome, I'll have pics up later.

After waiting (we did little more that that, that day, it appears in retrospect ) for about two hours or so, Franck (he organizes Majandra's Paris shows, I think) appeared on stage, saying a few words, and the the girls walked in.

There I was sitting on the floor, watching Majandra walk across the stage, and thinking, "Hey, she's three-dimensional, she's real!" It looked so surreal at first because that was in fact really the first time I saw her for real, and I just though, "Man, she's alive!"

She was wearing a white dress, long, sleeveless but with straps (?). her hair was all curled up like Maria's in season 2, but blonde, and she looked simply gorgeous. Her and RoBERT (who she was opening for) sang a song from Burton's "The Nigtmare Before Christmas" (I went all "aaawwww" because that movie is one of my favorites), and the "Le Prince Bleu". The they answered a few questions (ask Didi about what they were about; I was busy taking pictures! ).

After that, they showed a brief teaser for the video clip they are shooting for "Le Prince Bleu", and it looks great. It's like a mixture of Tim Burton and the Arkanium/ Arthelius layout style, very interesting.

After that - signing. Man, there was security everywhere, and with the number of people that there were, by the time we finally got to the table, we were only allowed to have two items signed (one of the promotional cards, and something else).

Majandra was completely overwhelmed, I think, with all the confusion going on. She kept repeating, "thank you, thank you", to everything and everyone, but what I liked a lot was that despite the fact that she was apparently under stress due to the chaos around her, she still kept looking you in the face when you were talking to her. I think that is a very nice gesture.

Didi gave her the fanbook and briefly explained what it was, and we took one picture of her, I just said "Thank you for coming to Paris and giving us all the chance to see you live" to Majandra, she said "thank you" back, and then we were out.

While we were being sent to the exit, I spotted Devon. He was standing near it, watching the confusion. While we had been in line for the signing, he had already been peeking out of the backroom, and I went like, "Hey, people, there's Devon!", and we all went, "Devon, Devon!", waving and taking pictures (So not embarassing. )

So, on my way out, the woman was telling us to leave, and there was Devon, standing right behind her. I said to her, "Excuse me, could I please just ask him a question?"; and she nodded, so I asked Devon whether he would mind signing something, and he went, "no, okay, sure".

So, Didi was searching for the pen in her bag, Laurence moved in from behind us (she had thought about printing a picture of Devon out just in case - clever girl! ), and more people were arriving from the signing, so that when Didi had finally found the pen, he signed Laurence's picture with "Laurence - Love, Devon" (there was probably his last name on it, too, but his signature is somewhat illegible! ), and signed one more item for someone else, and then the woman waved us out, and there I was, FD list in hand, and no signature.

Man, was I mad: I hardly ever work up the nerve to talk to someone I don't know anyway, so there I had politely asked him whether he'd mind signing it, and the got nothing. I was happy for Laurence though because at least she got something.

We went to get food and off to the concert place where there occurred - surprise, surprise - more waiting.

Th French are completely weird. They were seriously expecting everyone to move out from hallway we were sitting in out onto the street, but in a way that would keep the line up so that who had arrived first would still be first - uh-huh, like that works. Needless to say, it didn't. In a way it was good because we ened up a little farther up front of the line than we really were; in a another way, Zee kept threatening an English guy who was there for RoBERT next to her to "move, otherwise I won't either".

Yeah, so, there we were, freezing our asses of. The best part was when a taxi arrived that stopped at the other side of the street we were out on, and I was staring at it the whole time but it took me a couple of minutes to figure out that it was Devon in that car, along with Majandra. They went in right away, and it was so cute because he was shielding her like a body-guard.

More standing, until Devon came out again to take pictures of the crowd. We had the "aaawww"-syndrome again, and I suddenly thought that since he was already out there, I might as well race over to him and see if he'd sign something now. I asked Didi to back me up (I'm a coward after all ), and she came along. He was surrounded by a small crowd very soon, but very polite, siging all the stuff we had for him, patiently having his picture taken with all of us (when did I turn into some pathetic fan? ), and going, "yeah, sure, okay" to everything.

By the time I was back in line, I was officially abdicating of my Egyptian reputation. Seriously, I love Brendan (in a weird non-loving way ), but Devon is sooooooo cute! The way he interacts with Majandra is so sweet, and the fact that he was patiently waiting for us all to get over out childish "let's have a picture taken"-attitude was amazing.

Didi asked him whether Majandra had looked at the basket and book already, and he said yes, took a couple of more picture when we had left him alone, and disappeared into back inside.

About 8:30 pm we were finally inside. The place was tiny, and what I liked best was that people were sitting on the floor, because in Germany, they usually stand, only the stage here was so low that we probably wouldn't have seen a thing.

I went back out to get a t-shirt - yes, I still managed to grab one; after the concert, they were all sold out! So, at least my mind had its peace and didn't have to dream about it again!

We settled on a step a little away from the stage so that we could oversee it all a little better (and most importantly, there were no heads in front of us. ).

Majandra's performance was amazing, seriously. I do love her music, but seeing her life is something completely different. She moves very easily, in a way that makes it all look very good, but also not overdone.

She started with a new song, "I'm Mad", which is the reason I can't wait for the new CD because her voice was simply breathtaking. I knew she had a good voice, but in that song - she simply played the piano to it - , it was of a whole lot broader range than I had expected it to be.

She also sang "Bruises", "Ski-Ming", "Hell and Bliss", and two other new songs (which you have to ask Didi for the titles for - It was so funny, Majandra kept saying "this is a new song", and Didi kept screaming all across the place" Title?" ).

Before "Hell and Bliss", she was standing on the other side of the stage, away from the laptop she introduced as "her band" , and she turned to Devon, who was taking pictures from across of her, saying, "It's you, Toots" (I think), and he switched on the music for her, but it was so cute that she would talk to him.

Yeah, to cut a long story short, the concert was awesome (except for the RoBERT part which started out great but became somewhat creepy, but that's another story), and Majandra still returned to sing "Le Prince Bleu" with RoBERT twice.

We might still have a little surprise for those of you who are interested, but that might still take a little.

Anyway, after the concert we stayed back (try explaining to a French security guy who only speaks French and doesn't even understand you when you are in fact speaking French to him because he is so stubborn that you still have business to do ) to speak to Franck because Zee had lent her pictures of the last Paris concert to him earlier that afternoon. Franck said there might be a spontaneous signing after the concert still, so we stayed.

And there was: we spoke to Franck out in the courtyard before the restaurant the signing was taking place in, and the best part was all the glance people were sneaking at us, like, who are these people, and why are they talking to Franck for so long? Thank God for Zee, because she managed to ask Franck to ask the security to let us in as the last ones, and together as a group (I take it the security guy did understand French after all, only just when it came from someone he wanted to understand. ).

So, we all went in together, and sang Happy Birthday to her. Didi says she thinks Majandra liked it (well, at least she was smiling). Then she still signed stuff for us, and we had our pictures taken with her.

Again, I think she really is a very cute and very nice person. Despite the fact that she had been under constant stress all day (I guess), she was still all polite and appearing very interested, and talking to all, co-operating with taking picutres, and very attentive, despite all the confusion around her and everyone shouting her name all the time. I think that is very impressive, especially because she remembered to do little things that are highly respectful IMO, like, I think Didi was taking a picture and someone else wanted something from Majandra, and she turned and said, "one second, please", and finished Didi's picture first.

All in all, it was GREAT. Majandra is in fact the way people keep saying she is - very polite and nice and kind and attentive; and definitely worth meeting her, even if it was only for a short time, but the chit-chat we still had with her (details probably coming from Didi later) was interesting because she acted very easily about everything, very natural.

It was definitely worth all the money I spent on the trip.

To cut this short (even though I seriously doubt anyone will have read this far ): the next day we still went sight-seeing the Eiffel tower and the Montmartre with Sacré-Coeur, the cemitery and the Moulin Rouge, and then got back home. Man, were we dead. But it was soooo cool.

I'll be back with pics later!



P.S.: There is still a few surprises in for you, but not telling anything yet.

Here's my review of the concert. Almost the same like Stalker's since we listened to Pinky's warining and 'sticked to our friends'

Hey,

So let's see if I'll be able to write down my weekend in Paris. Stalker and I met at the Munich airport to take our plane. I woke up at 6 and it was like 10 or something and we still hadn't had any breakfast so the flight for me was hell. I was feeling sick and a bit of salty food would have helped but all we got was one cookie and that didn't help. But whatever, we arrived savely in Paris and took our train to the hotel. We were wondering how we were going to find our room since we didn't know Zee's last name but we were worrying for no reason cause we went to the reception at the hotel and heard some loud 'hey's', turned around and there they were waiting for us It was Laurence, Séverine, Pascale and Zee. We all went to find some food asap since no one had eaten something and it was already around 1pm. After that Zee went to bed since she hadn't had any sleep the night before that and we went to some sightseeing. We saw Notre Dame and the Louvre like I wanted so I was happy

Ok, the next day we went to get Diane and Janet, and took the fanbook and the giftbasket (you'll get pics of both later on!) and went to the signing. There were already some people there and the "stage" was really small but we made do After waiting like for two hours Majandra and RoBERT finally got out and sang two songs, a song from Nightmare Before Christmas and of course Le Prince Bleu. Majandra looked beautiful, she had a white dress on and had curls in her hair and looked like an angel! And they sound live even better than on CD After the songs they sat down and answered 2 questions each. Majandra told us how she met RoBERT (through Franck) and that she listened to RoBERT's CD and fell in love with it and then that RoBERT visited her in LA and that's how they met the first time. RoBERT told us then that she stayed at Mo's place for a week and descriebed her room, and now don't asked me what she described, she was talking in French and Laurence translated it but I can't remember anymore. But it wasn't a description in detail so no biggie The second question for Majandra was along the lines about her going to other cities or I guess other countries, and Majandra said that she would love to and that if she gets the opportunity like she got it with Paris, that she would definitely make those travels to give concerts.

After that everything went crazy. There were so many people and so little space so it was awful to wait there but well worth it of course. But not that much since there were those bodyguards who didn't let you do anything! You weren't allowed to take pics with them, and they began to push you out when your turn began to get too long.(While we were waiting we saw Devon and like the obnoxious person I became I shouted his name so that he would look our way and he did. He looked at me, smiled and waved and I waved back ). Well, so when it was Stalker's and my turn, I put out the fanbook and put it on the table, told her really fast that it was from us all here, that we hope she would enjoy. She said thank you and that it's really great and she was all smiles and I think she really liked it even without taking a look at it So Stalker took one pic of the two of them and the bodyguard beside me began pushing us out, and that's it. I was sad that we couldn't at least see her face looking at the first couple of pages, that there was no time for that and totally pissed that it's the second time I meet her and didn't get a pic with her again. I mean that's so disappointing but whatever, we had still a lot to do so we had to get moving We went to a supermarket to get some food and headed to the concert place. Hours of waiting and the light of that waiting was of course Devon He went out to take pics and Stalker and I ran towards him so that she could get her list signed. I asked him if Mo looked at the fanbook and he said yes that she did and that she loved it. I joked about that he could hardly say no, she hated it and he said in that cute voice of his 'oh' (you really could love his 'oh's ) 'no, I'm serious, really she loved it' So till then there was a bunch of girls in front of him and he was so patient and signed and took pics with us all! He's so cute and has definitely some fans now

They finally let us in and we took our places. Majandra came out and she was awesome! She sang a new song called I'm Mad at the piano. After that Ski Ming, another new song called Not Over This, Bruises and Hell and Bliss. And she was funny, cracking us up with jokes like 'hey, I'm a stage-diver' and making a gesture of jumping into the crowd who were sitting on the floor, or 'let me introduce you to my band' and pointing at her laptop, or 'my band isn't ready...oh, you are? oh ok' and having conversations with her band the laptop : She has a great voice but that we knew already and she sang beautifully, danced a lot and stripped again She was wearing a white satin looking coat, really thin, and underneath that the white dress from the singing. So, when her part of the concert was finished she started the first lines of the song from Nightmare Before Christmas and RoBERT came out and they sang that song. Majandra went out and RoBERT had her concert. When it was Le Prince Bleu's turn Majandra came out again and they sang it together. At the end of the concert they sang it again, and Majandra was wearing a new Majandra logo t-shirt above her dress, looking all cute.

The concert ended, and people started to get out but we stayed since Zee had given Franck her pic album of Mo from the first concert and he kept it and said he would give it back after the concert. So while we were waiting I remembered that I forgot to give Ruby's drawing of Mo to Mo and when Janet pointed me that Devon was there I ran up to him and called his name and told him that I forgot that drawing and if he could give it to Mo that's right, I didn't say Majandra, I said plainly Mo : It just came out like that, it wasn't deliberate. I guess I'm too used to write here Mo all the time since I'm lazy to write down her name : so that when I talk I call her Mo too :sigh: But whatever, I'm sure he didn't even notice it! He took the drawing and you could see from his face that he really liked it and I said thank you and went away.

Oh God, this is getting too long so let's just jump to the signing part. We went in, and sang Happy Birthday for Mo and she was all smiling when we did that. She liked it so yay! When it was my turn to let my CD sign, I told her my name and she said that she liked it and that it sounds nice and said it out loud Oh and while she was signing, I asked her about the fanbook and she said that she looked into it a bit and said that it looks great and that she could see how much work everyone put into it and such. I asked her if she could post about it at the boards so all of you can hear from herself what she thought of the messages and she said of course and that she was going to anyway! So, I took a pic with her (finally!) and stayed and waited for the others. When she was done with everything, she stood up and some of us were around her and I asked her about what Franck told us outside (that she has some new project), and she said there is State's Evidence and I told her we know , she said Celeste in the City, I told her we know , then I told her that it's something new and she said that she shot a French movie but that it was a low budget one and she was like 'you know how independent movies are' She said she doesn't think that movie will ever come out but that she still had hope of course. And we do too! I'm thinking that's not what Franck meant when he said that Mo is busy and has to go back to the US, and said that she has a new project cause the way he said it, it was something she was going to do and not something she already did. But it was probably still top secret so Mo couldn't tell us so we'll wait and see! Oh damn, I forgot, when she was sitting and signing still and I was waiting, Devon came up to her leaned forward and called her 'Baby', as in her nickname! That was just too cute for words D While he was there, I asked if I could take a pic of the two of them, at the same time a guy pushed a pic of her in front of her for Mo to sign, so I thought I'll wait and ask again since I didn't think she heard me. Then she said to that guy 'just a sec please' and turned towards me with Devon so I could get my pic. Again, too cute for words. I was really surprised...and very happy

You have no idea how cute, sweet, attentive, polite and nice Majandra was and when you met her and talk to her you just have to be more a fan of her than you already are! I sure as hell am! She was absolutely fantastic, paying so much attention to everyone and what everyone was saying. You can't say that she "ignored" anyone in there! She was totally multitasking

So that was my POV from the concert. We all were on a high after it and nobody did mind that the subways were closed already and that we had to find taxis to get back to the hotel!

Ok, jumping again to the next day so that I can quickly mention why I posted that about the stairs...it wasn't really the subway stairs, we went up to Sacré Coeur...all those stairs there, add all the stairs at the subway all the time, so it was getting a lot But Stalker and I were still sad that we were leaving. I think we both would have stayed gladly two days more to go into the Louvre and wave at Mona Lisa, and see Versaille...but next time! Franck said that she'll come again in the summer maybe for her new CD so...

Last but not least I wanted to say that I had a great time in Paris and it was great to see Marica, Laurence, Séverine, Stephanie, Pascale and Zee again, and to meet Astrid, Diane, Noe (our Chica Candy), Noelia and Janet! I hope we'll see each other at the next concert

God, everyone who came so far as to reading what I'm writing right now gets some - like Stalker's always saying - extra cool points from me

Yep, sure, but you already rock so... *hugs*

I did pick up the stuff you left out without knowing that you did leave them out! So it was like either that I know you would leave it out or that you know that I would already put it in or both

Btw, this blue rain is messing up with the smilies here again

Okay, here you go, so that you all see that no, I did not lie about going to Paris, and yes, I have been an awfully good girl.

Lookie, Devon signed it first, he's such a cutie!

And I told Majandra that Bunnie asked her to sign a similar list a few years ago during her NY concert. She was listening, looking at the list, and I was saying: "Well, she actually did not end up at your concert because she ended up in the..uh..." and forgot how to say "place next door", and Majandra went: "In the hospital?" , like, shocked voice, and I was like, "Nooooo, nothing that bad!"

Then she remembered the two rooms that were next to each other, and I told her Bunnie had talked to her then and asked her to sign the list. She was going to sign the other one, too, but I told her that it was just a copy for her if she would like to keep it, just so she knew there were people out there who supported her, and she went: "oh, okay, thank you." She put it down on the table and went on signing, and I thought, ok, that's where it satys, but when she was done with signing, she gathered up a few papers she had left on the table, and the list as well, and carried them over to her table where Devon was sitting as well - so .

She was really incredibly nice, and I am only hoping she won't have time to lurk on here, otherwise I will go into hiding because of the awful things we post about B.

OMG!

Stalker, I read your entire story, and I think the whole time I felt my face turning green from envy! But I am so glad you're home, and safe Was hoping to see my name on that list next to yours, but alas, no It's very sad because I've just loved Maj and her music for the longest time, and I still have yet to see her Of course, if I ever were to meet her, I'd probably have a confrontation with the floor

While reading, of course, there was no doubt in my mind that Mo is the sweetest person, I always knew that

Sooo, surprises, hmm? Do tell

Sounds like you guys had a great time. Thanks for sharing

*sigh* Absolutely fab Stalker. She looks great and Devon looks good as ever Your pics turned out really well. I was suprised when you said you had some, I didn't think they would let people in with cameras...or maybe that's just me

Thanks so much for sharing...off to look at the rest

Ahh! I can't see the pics! But I do have one word for you guys. Jealous. I wish I could have gone but of course...I can't. Lucky, lucky people. I swear.

---Brandy

Aww! She's so beautiful Thank you for posting!

And Devon looks cute

I think this is one of those times in a persons life that they say-- "I don't know what to say."

Stalker-- How honored am I right now? If I had your number, I'd spend the money to call international just to tell you how thankful I am.

For the record, I was the annoym, that was on at 9am board time with you (Stalker) and I read your entire review before work, it was absolutely amazing! Thank you for taking your time typing it all up, so that we could all experience it with you! And so you know-- when I got to the part about only two signatures each, I was like, "I sure hope she got the two most important people a signature and didn't worry about the rest of us!" (I'll email you about it later).

And then I jumped on earlier this evening and say Didi's amazing post (and I am SO glad you did get that picture!) Thank you for sharing also! (I'll have to comment on all my favorite parts later in the week when I'm not so exhausted)

And of course, I about fell off my chair when I saw the autograph Stalker. Speechless doesn't even do the word. I mean, like Wow, I certainly did not deserve that! (And I'm hoping it did not sacrifice anything/one else along the way.) But you knew I'd say that right?

And for everyone else reading this, I figured I'd go ahead and explain about the FD list this time. (Because Spice believe it or not, I did NOT forget about you-- you can actually read it from last week as I was doing the list in the Key forum). But here I go--

The first time I did the FD List (two years ago) Mind you it was only like 690 members and ezboard on the backend that stores the list, just listed all the members (meaning it was ONE page and I just copied and pasted the member list, rearranged the names and printed it out).

However, what you may not realize is that now we have over 2,000 members back there (and it is now on 21 pages) and ezboard has since then redone the backend, meaning they list every screenname (25 per page I believe) with custom drinks, titles, check boxes, emails, ect. So, the point being is that last week when I did the list for Stalker-- I could not "copy and paste" the names. Nope.

It took me four hours straight to type every last name onto Microsoft Word. (it was extremely time consuming for me and on top of that I was typing slow to make darn sure I typed everyone's names correctly-- and then on top of it I was getting so angry because the stupid little paperclip guy on Word kept auto-correcting all the screennames.)

Of course, I waited till the last minute and didn't realize that I had to hand type every name, so that left me NO time to rearrange everyone's names and put you guys at the top like I did last time. I did promise Stalker years ago, that if the opportunity ever came up, that I would put her first on the list for Maj-- and this being the "perfect" opportunity (meaning if it weren't for her, then it wouldn't have been done in the first place) and so I did put her name on there first.

Everyone else's names just fell in alphabetical order-- even my name. BUT if you look closly at the list (Spicy) you will notice how I paused on your name specifically and capitalized yours only-- to show you that I "spelt" it right this time. (Of course Stalker doesn't have the rest of the pages up yet-- but you'll see.)

Also, keep in mind-- (Stalker can correct me if I'm wrong) that the first time it was signed, everyone's names was only on one page-- now we have seven pages of names, but I did include everyone up to the last head count of last Friday.

Now that I've said all of that, I'll apologize for not starting the project earlier, and not spending more time on getting the list organized with your names on the top. I'm really sorry guys.

Lastly, I'm more thankful and astonished that someone halfway across the world from me, would think of me, would think of all of us and take the time (and aggreviation I'm sure ) to get us an autograph. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

Off I go to another busy day, but I promise to come back and comment on the greatest reviews, beautiful pictures! I'm just SO glad that both of you had a wonderful amazing adventure!