A slight shock to the system. From chilling in my flat in London trying to shake off flu to a quick rehearsal, straight onto a German tourbus, then a Dover ferry, before a headline show in Paris, five radio performances, some very good coffee, a train to Lausanne and now a drive to one of my favourite little towns CransMontana in the Swiss Alps for tomorrow's ski festival show, Caprice. A nice gentle warm up for this month's European headline tour then. Apart from feeling like I've just gargled sandpaper, I couldn't be happier.
Caprice was the location for a very memorable Mattafix show several years ago and has remained a place where I return to yearly to snowboard, catch up with friends, eat some good food and embarrass myself in two or three different languages.
Going back to the Paris show though, the atmosphere was electric. The musically knowledgable Parisian crowd can have a reputation for being reticent but not in my experience. The energy was truly magnifique and a confirmation that the direction we're heading in as a live unit is a solid one. As a foreign artist it can be tricky getting on the radio as the quota system rightly favours French writers. However New Age has been in the top 10 AirPlay chart for a quite some time now which continues to surprise everyone, including me.
The city on a whole often doesn't seem to work very well though. The traffic is unbearable (our tourbus had a couple of scrapes) and there always seems to be a strike of some kind grinding proceedings to a halt. Why is it then that I can't shake the feeling that I want to live there at some point? Blame the food, the language or the fact that I've just had a huge hit song in the country. I also love the fact that they don't take crap from the government as a general rule. Probably the residual effects of the French revolution. No coincidence then that the Bastille is my favourite area.
And we've literally just driven into a cloud. CransMontana is 3000 metres above sea level and I have no idea how our driver is able to see the road at this point. With a sheer drop on our left and an horrendous bus crash here only a few weeks ago I'm going to sign out promptly.
A bientot.