My friend and I rejoined Joey in Paris the week previous the Monte-Carlo concerts and spent most of the week there. Unfortunately, my friend couldn’t go with us to Monte-Carlo and had to go back to home to work. So, Joey and I took a train early in the morning, on Friday, June 29, from Paris to Nice, were I had made reservations for a hotel.
Like Joey, it was my first time at the French Riviera – and, believe me, it deserves its reputation: it’s beautiful! – We arrived in Nice in the afternoon, just soon enough to rent a car, get a bit lost in the city while looking for the hotel and get dressed for the concerts. We had to wear a jacket and a tie for the dinner-concerts. And the weather was terribly hot!
The Sporting Club where those concerts would be held is rather small: when I took the reservations for the tickets, I was told it could only hold 950 people, so it promised to be rather intimate concerts. Diana Ross already performed here, at least once for the World Music Awards in 1996, where she surprised everyone by wearing an amazing blond wig.
From the moment I bought the tickets for those concerts, I dreamed of what could happen during those three days. I had read so many stories of fans being invited on stage to dance with Diana Ross, and others discussing with her after some shows! I already had been to several of her concerts and I knew that she almost always asked someone to come on stage to dance with her during “Upside Down”. If only that could happen to me! No, that’s impossible! Wake up Laurent! You are dreaming! If only she could shake my hand, I would be happy… but I brought her autobiography in my luggage, just in case one of those crazy dreams would come to reality.