The US Embassy in France posted a video interview with Jimmy Buffett before his show at L’Olympia in Paris on Monday:

Buffett also visited the US Embassy last year where he joined the US Air Forces in Europe Band for a private show.

Jimmy Buffett will take his Margaritaville restaurant empire off the North American continent for the first time later this year when he opens Margaritaville Cafes in Sydney and the Gold Coast in Australia.

Watch the news report announcing the openings here (3:05 mark).

Buffett played shows in Australia this past January for the first time in a couple decades.

(hat tip Jenny)

With new owners taking over, plans for a Margaritaville Cafe in Calgary may change:

The Jimmy Buffett restaurant – touted as the marquee attraction in a major expansion slated for Stampede grounds – is facing new hurdles as the company behind the Canadian arm of the chain comes under new ownership.

A Toronto-based company in the process of purchasing Margaritaville Canada will be evaluating the Calgary project once the transaction is complete, said it’s head, Dragan Matovic.

“We are going to be speaking with the various developers there and the folks at the Stampede in the near future once this transaction is hopefully completed, and then we’ll decide accordingly.”

Bryan McFarland, principal of development, is in Calgary this week, meeting with several retailers, including existing tenants and new prospects.

“Whatever happens with Margaritaville, we’ve got a great lineup of tenants to either replace them or supplement them,” he said.

Margaritaville was to be the anchor tenant and include live entertainment and a sports bar.

Matovic said his numbered company is in the final stages of negotiating an agreement to acquire the Margaritaville licence rights for Canada.

“Subsequently, we would start focusing in on several major issues, one of which would be the growth of the company going forward and obviously assessing the merits of the Calgary project,” he said.

It’s too soon to make decisions before the company purchase is complete, he said, adding that the Calgary restaurant “sounds like an interesting opportunity.”

Plans were first announced for a Calgary location in the summer of 2009. An official website is up at www.margaritavillecalgary.ca but there’s no content.

Morning television host Kerri-Anne interviewed Jimmy Buffett while he was in Australia.

In the interview, they discuss the inspiration for the song Margaritaville (Austin, Texas gets the credit), the Jamaica Mistaica incident, Lionel Richie, parrotheads, “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere” and a few other topics.

Watch the interview here.

Dr. Gordian Fulde, who was in the first row at the Sydney concert on Australia Day, writes for the Daily Telegraph describing how he helped Jimmy after his fall and how serious it was:

You just knew it was bad. Watching it, it was like in slow motion because the show was all over, everybody was signing out mentally and physically.

Jimmy fell so horribly and I saw the angle and what he hit. I thought he might have had spinal injuries.

The reflexes kicked in and I went over to the fence and told security who I was, even though I didn’t look like a doctor dressed in shorts, a tank top and sandals.

This all happened in seconds. I jumped the fence and got to him the moment after he landed.

No matter how many patients you have seen it is still a shock when you have this crumpled human being, blood pouring out, they are white as a sheet, they are totally limp and you just don’t know what is wrong with them, what injuries they have.

The difficulty I had was it was a very small space and I didn’t want to straighten him out in case he had neck or spinal injuries.

Jimmy was crumpled up so he couldn’t breath properly, but he had a strong heart beat.

Behind me, I couldn’t really hear the crowd.

I heard a gasp of despair because anyone who saw it knew it had to be bad.

He was bleeding profusely from a very bad cut to his scalp. After a while, he started to wake up but was dazed.

As we wheeled him into the back of the ambulance he wanted to wave to fans.

I joined him in the ambulance to St Vincent’s Hospital and by the time he got there he began to recall the incident and was talking.

Continue reading Dr. Fulde’s column here.