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A half dozen invitations emblazoned with the French Ambassador's coat of arms ensured a weekend full of culture and style enjoyed to the f...

A half dozen invitations emblazoned with the French Ambassador’s coat of arms ensured a weekend full of culture and style enjoyed to the fullest by the lucky few who were invited.

His excellency Mr Claude Blanche Maison, Ambassador of France in India, is a warm, charming gentleman, who with his quiet yet assertive style etched France firmly into the psyche of Mumbai.

The film East West, a moving saga of love behind the Iron Curtain set off the celebrations. The seated dinner that followed had a bevy of young, attractive actresses who set the pace for a lovely evening. The opening of the Trade Fair on the Monday followed by an extravaganza of haute couture with Gaultier, Mugler and Ungaro showing their collections, capped a delightful five days of a taste of France. The success of the whole show, the first of its kind, must go to the ambassador and Mumbai raised a toast to him, echoed by the deafening applause when he was presented a Lalique’ Ganesh after the fashion show.

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The rest of the week seemed to flit by in a scurry of social activity. The Zegna Fashion Show at the HSBC building, in Horniman Circle, was well attended and after the show the place to be seen at was A D Singh’s Bowling Co Sports Bar. The celebrity chefs for the evening were Neerja Shah and Ravi. We ate, drank and sung I will Survive’ like it was a mantra of girl power for the millennium to come.

Friday night was perhaps the busiest evening of the week with Shobha De being felicitated, at the Taj by Lillette and Ravi Dubey, for Speedpost, her latest book. Ashwini Kakkar, the debonair head of Thomas Cook, and I did the dash from the Taj to the Pearl of the Orient to catch the tail end of the dinner hosted by the dapper Sanjeev Chowdhury for Mr and Mrs Robert Andrigo, the new consul to Mumbai.

At 11, I joined up with friends at the Oberoi where the Sony annual extravaganza was on in full swing. The gorgeous Yukta Mookhey, the current flavour of the season, was at most of the events I went to in the week. The Femina party at the Regent poolside proved that all the world loves a beauty and we all went to wish not just Yukta but Pradeep Guha, the creator of the spellbinding aura which has brought home so many international laurels for Indian beauty. The two media parties Sony and Femina proved conclusively that when it comes to entertainment these savvy institutions know how to pull out all the stops for night upon night of revelry and fun.