The conference was interesting with the quality of the debates and presentation on par with anything done in Silicon Valley. If anything the conference showed that France and Europe are not lacking in entrepreneurs and ambition – they are just hampered by excess regulation, less developed capital markets and lower scale due to differences in languages and product markets.

I also thought that the participation of the various French presidential candidates was compelling. They did not bring much to the debate, but it’s good for them to be more Web aware and it shone the spotlight for a day on the state of the Internet in France.

As for me, I caught up with my entrepreneur and VC friends and met some of the companies we are considering buying. I partook on a radio debate on Europe 1, one of the largest French radio stations, discussing: “Is the print media dead?” I was also interviewed on iTV along with my friend Tariq Krim, Founder of Netvibes.com, where we explained to French TV viewers what Web 2.0 stood for.