That Time I Went Partying Solo and Met My Husband

Partying solo in Paris last weekend reminded me about how I met the Frenchman three years ago.

And since I always get an “aww” or “that’s the dream” response when I say how we met, I figured it’s about time I wrote a proper post about it.

Before I tell you how it happened, I’d like to point out that when I quit my job to travel in 2022, I had the intention of moving somewhere and meeting someone special. I manifested and dated around, but I believe that nothing stuck until I was ready for a relationship because if I’m honest, I was a bit of a clueless wreck1.

I had no other reason to be there than because it felt like a good idea. I needed somewhere to be in between my month in India for my yoga certification and meeting some girlfriends for a London/Berlin/Paris party tour.

I already told you about my first month with the Sugar Daddy, and one weekend, I left him to go to a music festival in the city, Lollapalooza.

I had already bought the tickets a while back when I saw Rezz and Svdden Death on the lineup, and I didn’t care that I was going by myself. If anything, festivals are the easiest to go to by yourself because the people are friendly, and there are so many activities and opportunities to people-watch in between dancing.

I was on the dancefloor, and at some point, I remember having the thought,

How have I never dated a DJ before? I love music.

While I was out, a friend of a friend (who I’d never met IRL) invited me to meet her at a club that night. At first I was skeptical if I had the energy, but then in Bree fashion, I figured, what else do I have to do?

Plus, after I looked up what Baile Funk music was, I was sold.

The music was such a vibe. There was a dancer on stage, and what made it even better was that the club was attached to the iconic Moulin Rouge cabaret. After finding the friend and then promptly losing her for the night, I was dancing solo again.

High off my pen and hiding my tiredness behind my sunglasses, I saw two beautiful men on the dancefloor. One in front of me to the left and the other behind me to the right.

I remember thinking,

Ooh, I wonder who’s going to talk to me tonight.

Shortly after, the man in front of me approached me, but it went nowhere. He was extremely drunk and/or high and lacking proper communication skills. I couldn’t tell if he was trying to speak French with a Portuguese accent or if he was speaking Portuguese. Eventually I gave up, but this man was determined. He even introduced me to his friends who had looks on their faces like,

Who tf are you, and why are you here?

I had the same question.

I sauntered back off to go dance and then I felt something on my left shoulder. I looked down and the man was NIBBLING my shoulder. I quickly shimmied away and put some distance between us, but it wasn’t enough. I could see him in his daze, looking for my shoulder, wanting another taste, which is when I scurried away to where I could keep an eye on him.

With a wall behind me and the Nibbler in front of me, I could relax again.

I didn’t mention it before because it didn’t seem that important until after I mentioned the Nibbler, but at some point, a woman grabbed me and kissed me on the cheek as she walked by.

Not in a kiss-kiss French hello kind of way, but like she wanted to put her lips on my face kind of way.

Those two incidents plus considering how I met the Sugar Daddy told me everything I needed to know about how touchy French people are.

Side note: I also consider myself to be a touchy person so maybe this is anecdotal and something that I unintentionally attract BUT it still deserves to be mentioned.

I was watching the dancefloor and that’s when the other beautiful man that was behind me earlier approached me. He tried speaking to me in French, and I was over making any kind of effort. Luckily, he spoke English, and he offered me a drink, which I refused.

Like I said, I was over it.

But I told him we could keep talking after he bought himself a drink, which we did. He let me take a sip of his because it was very French and something I hadn’t heard of before. Ricard.

If you know what it is, maybe you have fond or horrible memories from it because according to a German woman in her 70s, it’s the reason for “the worst hangover of her life”.

But it’s cheap. If you’re trying to drink cost effectively without a lot of sugar, this is your drink. It’s a bit medicinal in taste (licorice), but as you add more water as you drink it, it gets better.

When I told him I liked the drink, he told me too bad I didn’t accept his offer. Then he reassured me we could share his drink, and that he was the nicest guy I would ever meet.

Soon after he asked if I wanted to talk somewhere more quiet, and I agreed to follow this man out of the club. It was 4 in the morning, and I needed some quiet after being out all day at the festival. We ended up walking back to his place where he told me had weed, and I felt like I was being blessed. All I’d had was my pen, and it’s not the same type of high at all.

It’s usually this part of the story that I get a gasp of like,

What?! This sounds like a scary movie…

But after traveling for a year and meeting so many people and doing a lot of inner work and feeling more connected with my intuition, I could trust myself to sense danger. I didn’t sense any danger, just an opportunity for a place to smoke and sleep until the metro started back up again.

Plus, I was still technically with the Sugar Daddy and I knew nothing was going to happen unless I wanted it to.

Through more conversations I learned that this man was also solo at a music festival that day in Paris and also high (off ket) and also at the club to meet a friend, who he’d lost.

There were so many coincidences but then this one took the cake,

He was a DJ. He was at the club to see his friend perform, but he ended up leaving with me instead.

I think I told you about how I manifested my place to stay in Paris already, but this appearance into my life was so quick, it showed me how powerful my desires are for creating the life that I want.

And I feel like it couldn’t have happened if I hadn’t dealt with the way I was treating myself. It wasn’t very loving, and I used to accept some terrible behavior from people. So I’m glad I handled it. Otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to attract the love into my life that I was looking for.

It also felt like perfect timing because I had one day left for Lollapalooza, but I was danced out. I offered my wristband to the man, the Frenchman, and he was so grateful. It just so happened that the headliner for the last day of the festival was his favorite rapper, Kendrick Lamar.

The Frenchman asked to see me again, but I told him I wasn’t available until I broke things off with the Sugar Daddy. That ended up happening sooner than I planned, and my first date with the Frenchman was a few days later.

The date lasted three days, we became inseparable (except for visa required separations) and then we got married and I moved to Paris.

I skipped a lot at the end, but you get the point.

And it all happened because of doing the inner work (like I wrote in my book Find Your Fiancé), and partying like I loved to do, even if no one was there to go with me (which is why my book How to Save Money and Build Confidence to Travel Solo had to be written) and perfect timing, of course.

Now, I’m in Paris, still partying and creating YouTube videos about it :D

I’ve come a long way from being scared to share my thoughts on the internet, and I’m proud. I have so much fun with the editing and the chatting and if you want to know what it’s like to party solo in Paris and how to feel more comfortable going out on your own,

Watch this week’s vlog.

Til next time,

Catch up on the character stories I mentioned like the Sugar Daddy:

And the lovely German woman I met at the beginning of my solo travels who later warned me about Ricard: