I woke up a couple of weeks ago and I realised I was celebrating 10 years since I left France, on a gloomy early morning, leaving Paris, my close friends and my immediate family, following some unexpected development in my then life.

My last ever "Carte Orange" (Monthly Underground Ticket in Paris)

I was leaving the country I grew up in, knew inside out and was moving to a place I had only visited once and did not particularly like then. But for better for worse, I cut the cord, burned some bridges, packed my bag and left.

My luck at that time, the girlfriend of one of my best friends and former associate in a media agency, was a Disney Online executive. I will never know if it was pure luck or a little help from them, but the day I needed it the most, I received an offer to move to London. I didn’t think twice; I accepted it. I packed a bag and 3 days later, I was moving into my temporary apartment, in the middle of Chelsea, on the borders of Sloane Square.

Things at first were not really shinny. I didn’t speak the language well. I wasn’t realy keen on the local culture based on pubs and football and not fine wines and dining and would anyone ask me how I felt, my answer was: I’m 30, single and broke! Not the best of me!

As a result, my plan then was to stay in London for a year maximum, learn to speak English and then move to New York, surfing the wave of the DotCom bubble. This was 1999 and sky was the limit. We techno geeks were unstoppable.

2000: the bubble burst, I saw numerous of my friends lose their job in London, New York and San Francisco as well as the beginning of the dark years of the online industry. I then decided to stay put and wait for better days to come.

Larger than life lifestyle

In the meantime, I spent most of my free times enjoying a pure batchelor lifestyle, re-inventing myself every 3 months, split between 2 worlds: a motley crew of expats from around the world (Canadians, Germans, Austrians, Brazillians, Greeks, Americans but no Brit (except one)) and a group of French expats with a larger than life lifestyle. We had fun. We had great fun! We had major fun! It felt like finally going through my 20’s, college years, except that I was in my 30s with a more than decent income and no dependents. Basically, living my life in the fast lane big time. The friends I met back then are still to this day, some of my closest friends, solely distant these days due to the gap between their current location, where ever in the world they are, and California.

On the work front, the better days didn’t really come. Rather the contrary… 2001 saw 2 large towers collapsing in Manhattan and the stock market plunging. Once again, this wasn’t the time to try to change role, company or city. These were times to stay put!

2001 was as well the year I met Sarah. To be precise, on that very precise “Sep 11″ day. As no one knew what wold be the next target and our office being under the Heatrow flight path and between one of the largest tube station in London and the A40-M4 motorway, we were asked to evacuate. Still under the shock of the images of the collapsing towers we just saw on CNN, we all converged to our usual waterhole at the bottom of the office’s building, the Smollensky’s bar and made sure we would not die of thirst that day.

Friends at first, more came almost a year later and life changed again. We soon bought an appartment and moved in together. Sarah introduced me to a very good friends of hers and I soon joined his team on the TV side of the business and began my insane years of jet set traveller, enjoying on average a long haul flight and a couple of short European trips a month. I then discovered the West Coast of the US.

Traveling the world

Definitely not my cup of tea at first. I used to think that Los Angeles was the ugliest place on Earth and that life here was impossible. A kind of purgatory on Earth.

A couple of years go by, Sarah and I are married, our first child is born and through major reshuffles within our business segment, we ended up a couple of years ago (see previous post) on a sunny February day, Sarah, Thia, myself and a large amount of bags, at the arrival zone of LAX, having (once again) said goodbye to friends, packed a couple of bags and left. The sole difference that time is that I don’t think we burnt any bridges and it was a conscious choice.

Ten years… Feels like yesterday and feels like multiple lifetimes. At least, 6 or 7 me! If anyone would have told me back then that 10 years and bit down the line I would be married, with 2 lovely kids, living in California, driving and working for a large US corporation, I would have laughed and suggested stopping doing drugs. But here I am, here we are.

Next big milestone: the Four-Oh thing, happening next month!