On Saturday, I was invited to a French wedding in a Chateau near Chartres. The Chateau was built in 1860 by some Empire Baron and was intended to host parties. It has a beautiful park and can certainly host parties.

Everyone was exploring the dark and dusty corners of the place, in search of hidden treasures of the past, but after so many Insead parties in 17th to 19th century chateaux, I have become quite blase of the genre. I walked around the place with an air of grandeur, inspected a few sculptures, sniffed up the food, embraced with a wide look the immensity of the park and the lake, and set foot in the main dining room with the assurance of the owner.

The wedding went on very well - apart from the fact that I forgot to say that I was vegetarian again - I got home about 4.30am (and left as everyone migrated very slowly from dining room to ballroom), the wedding couple was beautiful. I was sat next to an IT consultant on an INSEAD assignment applying for an MBA in the US whose first question to me was "what's your GMAT score?".