I Saw Bill Gates!

...on Wednesday. Isn't that weird and random?

I'm only mentioning it now because I wasn't sure before. Hold on, I'll explain...

It was Wednesday afternoon, and I was walking down Bosquet Avenue to the metro. I passed one building where it looked like there was some conference because people were sitting outside at tables. There was a small crowd of people gathered on the sidewalk. I casually walked around them and tried to proceed down the street but was stopped by two guys in suits who told me something in French. Their hand motions indicated that I couldn't walk down the sidewalk.

So I walked back to the crowd of people. I assumed that they, too, had been stopped while trying to walk down the street and were waiting to be allowed to walk. A woman said something to me in French but I didn't understand.

After about a minute of standing on the sidewalk, I thought, "This is stupid, why am I just standing here waiting when I have things to do??" I saw a guy walk into the street and around to avoid the sidewalk, and decided to do the same. As I was walking, I saw a group of security people rush out of the building, surrounding some guy who kept his head down. They got into a car and drove off.

The two guys wearing suits ran into a car as well and drove off. My first thought was, "Oh, maybe that was Sarkozy." I asked a woman what was going on and she said something in French. I told her I didn't understand and she said "Bill Gates."

I continued walking toward the metro, unsure. I figured the lady was mistaken, or maybe being sarcastic. Maybe she was even mocking me because I was American? When I got home, I logged onto Google News and typed in "Bill Gates, France" and "Bill Gates, Paris." Nothing showed up, so I safely assumed it hadn't been Bill Gates.

However, a few minutes ago I was in the kitchen and I heard the name "Bill Gates" coming from the tv news station my host family was watching. So I checked Google News today and sure enough, Bill Gates was in Paris on Tuesday and Wednesday!

I think it's funny that I actually did see him, especially since at the time I was kind of annoyed, like "Who do they think they are, closing down the sidewalk and telling me I can't walk here!"