Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Paris, at last!
I have always wanted to go to Paris so this trip is interesting. I flew into Charles DeGualle Airport and caught a bus to take me to Euro Disney (for the ocnference my customer is holding this week). My class is part of an EMEA kick-off conference. I teach on Thursday and Friday. It is Tuesday about 3 in the afternoon and I am trying to stay awake so I can have an awake day in Paris tomorrow...and be awake for all of the class. It is january so it is quite cold and windy in Paris. My first impression (since the sky was gray) is one of cement. The airport is about the ugliest I have seen...all concrete and escalators. No effort has been made to make it anything other than a stark port of entry. (Makes me appreciate the American airports!) On the bus on the way here we drove by concrete hotels, concrete factories and stucco houses that needed paint. There is a feeling of disrepair that surrounds everything I have seen so far. (This might be a false impression as I have not heard that before but we'll see.) The hotel LOOKS like a Disney hotel (pretty and well-designed) but the execution is a little off. I am staying at the Newport Bay Club so they are going for crisp New England nautical. That works except for the mildew on the shower walls and the unironed bedskirt (which is intended to be crisply starched) Not a big deal at all! It is just an observation that like Disney pretends to be "A Wild West Show" it also pretends to be a resort...It is trying to seem like the Broadmoor. But I have been to the Broadmoor and they expect more. That doesn't make this bad...just not as "posh" as it pretends to be. Now I have to decide do I go to Disney Studio or Park tomorrow....or I do I go into the city...my one free day in Paris. I am too tired today to do anything but try to stay up until after 5PM! I will call the concierge and ask the cost of a cab ride to Musee D'Orsay....if at all reasonable I will do that! Anyway.....time to call Nick and see how he is doing and then I will probably go to bed. I didn't sleep much on the plane ride over (Can only take a pill if i am going to sleep a full 8 hours and there were not 8 hours to sleep on this plane ride. I hope I get to check out the impressionists tomorrow!! Bye for now!
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Okay, I am all for you going into Paris tomorrow. Not sure what the concrete is all about but I know that Europe in general if pretty grey at this time of the year. The hotel sounds just a tad off, if you know what I mean. Reminds me of the time Peter, the nasty but rich guy, and I went to Holland, missed the ferry back to England and had to stay in Calais for the night. It was 2 in the morning and we ended up talking to some young man who admired Peter's car and drove us to his mother's hotel. It was really small, kind of clean, the door to the room would not open too far it got stuck on the bad and the shower was eventually found in a closet. We had to switch the water on first then leap into the shower and stand there as water cascaded down, not much arm room. Ah, the French, they live such full, rich lives dont they.
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