GOTTA LOVE GENEVA!!
Man, oh man! You guys will never believe the Thursday night I had!!! Well, for most of you, you will probably have zero idea of who I'm talking about, but oh well. My friend, Nina, received this invitation for a grand opening celebration of a new jewellery store in Geneva called Avakian. She called them and asked if she could still go, since it wasn't her name on the invitation, and they said, 'Sure!' So, she called me up 2 weeks ago and asked if I would like to go to a cocktail at the Restaurant des Eaux Vives....which is one of the most chic places in town. I said, 'Sure!' cuz, you know, it was free!! Well, I forgot about it and was at home last night still in my very casual work clothes...when Nina rang the doorbell and asked if I was ready. I was thinking, 'I kinda just want to stay home....but it might be cool, and besides, free food and drinks!'
Holy Mother of God.....this was not a 'cocktail'. This was about 200 jet-setters from all over the world! I'm talking FAMOUS people, and extremely rich people! We walked in, and immediately I was embarrassed because of how I was dressed! Women all around me were wearing dresses that looked like they were worn on the Red Carpet! Maybe they were! They must have spent at least 3 hours in the hair salon, with some of the 'dos I saw! We felt as though we were in a movie....then we saw all these photographers taking pictures of Mr. Avakian and this extremely tall blond woman, who was beautiful. She just happened to be Adriana Karembeu, the supermodel who made WonderBra famous!! She is apparently a superstar in Europe, and has been recorded by Guinness as having the longest supermodel legs ever! I swear, she's 6'1'', but about 5'8'' of that is legs....unbelievable. She is also married to French soccer star Christian Karembeu. I found her official site, but it's in French....but you can at least see what she looks like. http://www.adrianakarembeu.fr/
So, since we had no idea who she was, we continued walking around looking at all the jewellery showcased that evening. Not exactly my taste - a little over the top- but it was still cool to see. We planted ourselves at one of the tables and picked off little finger foods that were soooo delicious, and we quickly befriended one of the servers. I guess maybe because we felt more on his level than anyone else's there! They kept refilling our glasses with champagne, and they even had a sushi bar that was sculpted out of ice! It was so funny...all these people were so elegant, and had probably seen parties much bigger and better than this one, but we were so mesmerized with this ice bar...Nina kept touching it to see if it was really ice! I don't think anyone could say that we looked like we fit in! So, after eating sushi and TONS of finger foods, and downing glass after glass of champagne, the entertainment finally started. So, we didn't know who Adriana was -our friendly server told us later who she was and was shocked that we could be that stupid!- and we didn't know who the singer was. I had heard of her, or her name, rather, but never heard her songs. But when she started singing, it was like listening to Heaven! Lara Fabian can be described as the Celine Dion of France, and everyone knows how much I love Celine! But Lara's voice is a bit softer....she sang so many beautiful and amazing songs, and I instantly became a fan:) It was cool to hear her say that her mother is Armenian and her father Italian....my grandmother was Italian, and my grandfather was Armenian. Mr. Avakian is Armenian, but I have no idea if that was why they asked her to give a private concert. Either way, I was so impressed with her singing that I will go and download her songs tonight!
See if you can see this link properly...it's one of her performances: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Hg3DNNrH1M
So, after that, we were left with our jaws on the ground, but decided to stuff our faces with their very yummy desserts. I ate soooo much sugar that, for sure, was packed into all of the little tiny finger desserts, that I was practically bouncing off the walls as we left. Which, by the way, was awesome because they gave us each a gift bag, and a brochure booklet, that had a beautifully wrapped box of chocolate and, in mine, an Avakian bracelet. Nina got a ring. I don't think it's worth as much as the other jewellery we saw that night! But it was super nice and I'm wearing it right now!
I told Nina that if she ever intercepted another invitation to a party, that she needed to invite me again! But next time, I will try to dress for the occasion so I don't blend in with the servers:)
Kiss kiss, dah-lings;)
