So well I visited Paris. And the essence of the trip was....
KOKIA's ~infinity~ European tour 2009

June 12th @ La Cigale
First I must apologize that this is so long...please bear with me. I had many adventurous moments and got a little carried away.
I travelled with my mom so of course I couldn't even dream to go queue early. The gates (or well doors since the place was small) opened at 19 ( = 19:18) and we were there around 18:25. There were some people (a 50m queue in the street) but we still managed to get good seats. About 5th row or so.
Before the concert started I left my seat a couple of times to consume money. They don't sell KOKIA's cds in Finland and the prices at some online shops are terrible... The poor lady at the small counter was having a hard time as I came clutching some paper money in my hand "How much will it cost if I take this and this and...this too and..." I didn't even try to risk it and speak French there (at restaurants and such I did quite well in their language though)
I left the counter with 5 cds, a bag, a t-shirt and some badges.
The concert itself...was great. I've watched KOKIA's live stuff in the net before but of course it was much greater when I was actually there. The first song was Hanautage. Just like in Tokyo and Osaka. It never was my favourite but the way it was performed was really something. Looking back, some parts of the set list were similar to the Japan ones, like Hana, Usaghi and Douke. I was really happy that Usaghi was there since I like it

Some song choices were interesting, like Senka no hana. That's a piano+vocal song about a flower on a battlefield. I personally love it.
I was also happy that she sang Il mare dei suoni, a song in Italian. Opera style! Shivers running down my spine...it was so..grand

Then there were some of the KOKIA "classics". Arigatou, Chouwa, Utau hito... The two latter ones my super favourites. After Chouwa everyone just stood up clapping their hands and wouldn't stop... It was interesting that Chouwa had yellowish lights. I think it's a very "blue" song. But since the song before that (Il mare dei suoni) had been blue, of course there couldn't be two in a row so...
Oh yeah. The spoken stuff. (umm "välispiikit" in Finnish...well the artist talks about the songs and such...you know what I mean?) They were in both Japanese and English. But not word to word though. I was surprised at being able to understand all of the Japanese too

Weird.
Before the last song there was a little extra. I believe it's referred to as "A short song - A message from KOKIA" in the Tokyo set list. It was a very short one, in English, kind of a thank you song

I wonder if it's just something out of the blue or if it's going to be something more in the future.
The last song was INFINITY (the non-acoustic version) about in the middle everyone stood up again didn't sit at all anymore! My hands were getting sore from clapping.... KOKIA had mentioned it was the last song but people were calling for an encore. In the end KOKIA (having had a minute or two to change to more relaxed clothes) had to come on the stage again and say that the time was up (probably the staff wanted to go home already

)
My troubles weren't over yet, though since I'd written KOKIA a letter. My original plan was to leave it onstage but when I was going to do that someone in the front row told me that it would be surer to give it to her manager. So I went to the person she had pointed and explained things with a little shaky voice. She took the envelope and assured me that she'd forward it. Later I recognized the woman I gave the letter to from a picture in front of La Cigale, next to KOKIA. So I guess she really was the manager lady (Ive met a live-Ms.-Sasaki! o_O)
Now I wish I could rewrite the whole thing since I read a grammar book and noticed some stupid mistakes in my Japanese. Dammit.