For all those who couldn't follow the stream last saturday, and until it hopefully gets uploaded somehwere,
here as little supplement a short story of my trip to Paris last weekend.
Nadeo had invited about 80~100 people to join the celebration party in the rooms of Ubisoft, so I decided to take the opportuny to have a whole weekend in Paris.
Paris is a city you must see! The old houses and the modern architecture here and there, the mix of cultures, the pure life
Sorry for the mixed quality of the pictures, light conditions were partially terrible, it is difficult to take good shots, especially with a smartphone (rule of thumb: never use the zoom!)

And here for the forum (for ImagePark) I had to resize them.
I took the train (TGV, the French high speed train, that links Munich to Paris) because it reaches the center and then it is faster than to take a plane and also not much more expensive.
During nearly the whole last hour of travel before reaching Paris, the speed was 315kph, and sometimes little more. So you see, not only cars can go that fast

ok, the world record for trains is 574,8kph, but it was reached with a modified version of the TGV
Paris was welcoming me with a fog which gave a awesome lighting mood, so my first target was a night visit of the Eiffel tower:

After a small and uncomfortable (the fog had turned into rain) shopping walk on the Champs-Elysees, that are nicely decorated with LEDs in the trees along side during Christmas time, I went back to the hotel with the Metro line 6 that runs on tires (!), it passes the bridge some of you know from the Inception movie, and it is one of the few lines that also runs as overground train between several stations.
The next morning was a wakeup with perfect weather, sunshine and no clouds. This was already promising a great day

The breakfast I did not take at the hotel, but at a typical bistrot-café around the corner (much better and much cheaper

).

After walk the whole morning in the disctrict where also Ubisoft is located, I went back for lunch to the Eiffel tower district to see it at day.
From far distance you can barely see the tower, but it is very impressive to see it from the streets, please remember that it is a full metal tower that is now more than 200 years old and already since then 300m tall.
Then it was time to get back to the hotel, get some rest, and prepare for the party
Ubisoft is located behind this white crystal like structured building and right of the strange blue cut cylinder building.

Luckily I was let in a bit earlier, preparations were still ongoing.
The PC line up with the friendly support of LDLC, 2 ore mor each running TMO, TMUF, Canyon, Stadium, Valley, but also RPG Stadium, and the beta of Meuh Valley Raid.
On the back side the streaming station, with the commentators lounge.
On the other end of the room, the catering service also finished the preparations while the light magician installed different colored LED spots around the room. Mood changed.
More and more people came in, among the Nadeo crew and a few Ubisoft members, quite a few members of the community also had been invited
I was very pleased to see all the people I was only writing to here in the forums and online for years already - and to give them a face (not any order and sorry for those I'm missing): jonthekiller, mangastef, TMPurification, fantaribo, meuh, HaagseSmurf, TheM, bas_ekkelenkamp, carl, trkr, yoyo, and others, also Drakonia.eu members
And of course the Nadeo and NadeoLive members:
Alinoa and Adrienne
Hylis - pfew he's tall

Now I understand why the whole ManiaPlanet is litteraly always looking up to him
Cerovan, Fix, LuckyBoy, GabrielM, PapyChampy, Farfa, Magnetik and many more.
Also worth to mention: the very kind l'apach ("the Apache") with his crazy hair dress
All people are very nice and it is more a big family we're part of.
Then the party could begin, and so did the streaming events (we were not following all of them much honestly, because the meet&greet talking, the gaming and the spectating on site was much more interesting

).
Very yummy small food items and drinks were served all the evening long.
The time passed so fast, then it was midnight, and the time was there to celebrate the actual birthday of TrackMania, to announce the winners of the competitions (skins: fantaribo, videomaker: darkpuddle, track: Basbaas - congrats to all three

) and to cut & eat the birthday cake (which was a real huge condensed chocolate bomb

) :
Then there was the last local event: a team competition Nadeo vs. Community.
Hylis and Yoyo were fighting hard, until Hylis votekicked Yoyo (yes, he really did that!

). Look at his face, at first he could'nt believe what happened

Also the talkmaster tried his skills, trkr was already driving competitions in the past:
TMPurification also showed his talent as driver
The chat messages during the races were also very funny

Like HaagseSmurf: "practise, practise, practise!!!"
I also hat the chance to a bit in the end, it was really fun, and despite they're not always gaming, the Nadeo guys are not that bad. But the community drivers made it
The evening was getting longer and longer, and the chill zone was getting popuplated, with partial deficites
Everyone was asked to sign on the two linen during the evening
And then it was already time to go
Luckily the next morning was also very sunny, I went for lunch at the Canal St. Martin, and later also went to the Seine river, Louvre quarter, for a walk until the train brought me home.
Now, back home, I'm a bit sad, because the time was to short to talk with all people (its alway like that), but I know that there are friends there, a family of enthousiasts.
It was a very nice weekend in Paris, thanks Nadeo for the invitation, thanks for the party, and thanks for 10 years of fun with TrackMania!
On such events you can see that Nadeo is not just a company of anonymous developers who are creating one game with the only purpose to sell it.
They are still living this dream, they are continuing this adventure, even if it has shifted a lot to ShootMania. TrackMania is not forgotten, and we will certainly be surprised by what will happen in the future.
RPG title, Raid and others are showing what the community can do already now, and this is only the start!
The next 10 years of TrackMania can come
