Living it Large on the French Riviera

(more pics of Cannes)
(more pics of St. Raphael)

You know how sometimes you wonder about things. I used to wonder what it would be like to drink champagne on the deck of a 5 million pound yacht in the South of France. The answer is: it feels pretty good.

I've just been at the 3GSM mobile phone conference in Cannes. Exhibitor Space is at a premium there, so some companies rent a yacht for the week. Usually these aren't used for walk-by exhibits, but for meetings and as a place for the delegates to stay when they're at the conference. Hotels are also in short supply. I ended up staying in the town of St. Raphael 30 miles south of Cannes. And if you have a yacht and you're going to invite people on to it for a chat, it only makes sense to do so in the evening and offer a few cocktails.

Note that this was for work though. I wasn't there on a pleasure trip. I was on that yacht (well, several yachts, actually) drinking champagne and WORKING. This is the key point. It's all about steely resolve and finding out what your host knows and building relationships and doing your damnedest to ignore the jazz trio playing on the upper-deck and not getting too loaded down with canapes and bubbly so your mind can still operate at peak efficiency and making sure you can do your best for the corporation and bring back juicy bits of espionage and that one crucial business card that can whisk your fly out of the ointment just before the cleaver comes down.

But enough about work, let's all just look at the pictures and dream of moving to the South of France.