François Hollande's First US Visit + July 14th Celebration

Dear readers... I apologize for the long delay in writing. I have so many new things to tell you and yet have been so busy lately that I haven't gotten them written down so far.

First, today I'm going to share my recent happenings at the French Embassy, and soon I will also write about recent sewing projects, some film/style reviews, and continue my Europe 2011 series!

So, without further delay, let's begin with the first thing... François Hollande's first visit to the United States as President of the French Republic. While Hollande did visit Germany right after is election, he didn't actually have time to address French citizens there. Conveniently, during his US visit, he did have enough time to come and give a speech to us French citizens. The room was absolutely packed!

Finally he showed up!

He gave the usual bilateral relations speech, congratulated French organizations, and gave a shout out to the French high school in the area, etc. He also employed a bit of humor and managed to get some jabs in at his predecessor.

Overall, it was enjoyable, except for the amount of time waiting in a room with inadequate air conditioning. It was really hot in there!

I love how someone was trying to use their iPad to take pictures

And go figure, the Secret Service was directing traffic

~

Secondly, I returned again to the French Embassy for the 14th of July (Fête Nationale) celebrations! My girlfriend and I (Surprise! And yes, this is partly why I've been absent from the blog lately!) enjoyed a lovely evening with food and drink, and were able to meet up with many French friends of mine and meet new people! I also ran into a lovely lady with her husband and children who is a reader of this blog! I love discovering people who have checked out what I write! :)

Me and my girlfriend with Christine Lagarde... I'm wearing my new linen jacket, incidentally

Anyhow, the highlight of the evening was probably meeting Christine Lagarde, the head of the IMF! Sadly, we didn't get much time, but it was pretty exciting! :)