RUBBING ELBOWS

So I chauffeured Monday and Tuesday in La Rochelle. Alstom was launching their new "AGV" which is the newest, most advanced version of the TGV (train de grande vitesse).

The job itself was easy; there were ten chauffeurs and ten cars from our company and basically we had to go to the airport, wait for the private jets to land, avoid the massive amount of security because Carla Bruni Sarkozy was landing just after, then bring the guests the 5 miles to the site and wait until Sarko had spoken and then bring them back to the airport.

Anyway, I get the list of my charges and there's a Mr. Montezemolo arriving by private jet from Rome. I knew this was a big thing - Sarko was there, Martin Bouygues was there, the Director of Alstom [of course] was there, but I didn't know anyone by the name of Montezemolo. After I picked them up, I, on multiple occasions, referred to them as "the Italians" and Montezemolo even mocked me about it - but I was afraid to attempt his name, since I am horrible with Italian names.

Anyway, they get into the car - which was a Citroen C5 (the worst of the worst French cars) - and Montezemolo asked me what it was and then said something to the effect of "French cars aren't too bad." To which I nearly responded, "yeah, but it's no Alfa." However, being the discrete chauffeur that I am; I didn't. I should have.

As I dropped him off someone involved in the organization referred to him as "Le Président Italien": I knew he wasn't "The President," but this piqued my interest so I did a quick Google search on my phone as I was waiting: Luca Cordero di Montezemolo: President of Ferrari and Chairman of the FIAT group. And I'm driving this guy around in the equivalent of a fucking Buick. The assholes who organize this stuff don't find it necessary to give us a tiny bit of background about our charges...I would have made the Alfa comment, if I had know who it was and I wouldn't have referred to him as "Le Italien" either. Oh well.

Needless to say, he was nice enough. We did a little jaunt around La Rochelle before they left, but he didn't (as I had hoped) tip me a new car. Or even a key chain. I did get to drive right up to the steps of his airplane, like they do in the movies.