I cannot begin to express how I felt when I woke up in Singapore in the early morning to hear the terrible news about the attacks in Paris on November 13th. It was like déjà vu from the time when I was in Auckland, New Zealand when I woke to the news that the World Trade Center Towers had been attacked on September 11th. While one would certainly agree that the World Trade Towers attacks were all the more terrible and the loss of innocent life far worse, the feeling I had was eerily similar, an emptiness as I stared at the TV screen followed by bouts of shock, anger and sadness that continued to affected me for many days afterwards. I have many friends in France and in Paris so my thoughts also turned to them and the hope that they and their families and friends were not directly affected by this tragedy.
Once again I was in another country when global security was brought to the fore and I still had a long flight ahead of me at the end of this trip to get back home. Then I remembered that I was going to be in Paris in a weeks’ time for a long planned trip that was to culminate in 3 days at the Food Ingredients Europe (FIE) Expo in Paris, preceded by a couple of days in Barcelona (F&F capital of Spain) before taking what I call a “pilgrimage” to Grasse, France – the home of the Flavor and Fragrance industry.
As I watched the chaos unfold in Paris I was in two minds whether I should cancel my trip. I thought about this long and hard and finally when I had returned home and verified that the organizers of FIE had decided to continue with the exhibition, albeit with significant increased security, I made the decision to continue on with my journey. My one compromise to my family was to delay my departure until after Thanksgiving, and only go for one week so Barcelona will have to wait for another time. Now of course for those of you who are American, I can hear you asking why on earth would I have originally planned to go before Thanksgiving. What can I say, my only excuse is that I am Australian and Thanksgiving is just not in my DNA and historical memory, and I had made the non-refundable booking before my wife reminded me of this fact.
My plan is now to fly to Paris on Friday and then fly down to Nice to spend 3 days in Grasse and the surrounding area to take in the sights and smells of this Provence town and all it has to offer. Also limiting my time in Paris seemed like a good idea while things hopefully settle down and return to some normalcy but I am sure there is a new normal after the terrible events even after 3 weeks.
My reason to go to Grasse? As I consider myself an industry expert with over 25 years’ global experience, it seemed to me that that I was missing something from my knowledge and experiences for not having being to Grasse and so the decision was quite easy and I only wish that I had made the same decision a longtime ago. I know many of my industry colleagues have not been to Grasse neither but I am drawn here to learn as much as I can and take in the history of the area. There are over 60 F&F companies in this small area nestled up against the Mediterranean, with Nice, Cannes and Monte Carlo very close neighbors so it doesn’t sound like too much of chore to come here, does it?
More updates to come.