Unpack and pack - Paris in between
I was home from Finland on Sunday 24.9.06 night, unpacked my bags AND packed them again as I was flying to Paris on the next day. You can imagine that my laundry management is getting critical ;)
So on Monday25.9.06 I went to the office in Church Crookham with my luggage for couple of meetings and then in the evening flew to Paris. It was one of those less glamorous trips; a 1,5h flight was delayed with 3 hours, had problems getting a taxi from the airport and to top it off, the taxi driver was one of those love sick ones trying to hit on you. He would not stop talking the whole way, we were speaking in spanish mostly (he was Portugese but lived all his life in Paris) and then when it was time for me to pay the journey with my credit card (he was specially called in as he accepted credit cards), he says he´s machine only accepts the American Express, which is pretty much the only card I don´t have. I asked if the hotel could give me some cash and bill it into my room bill, but no. So there we go again, driving back to the close by village to get some cash from the wall. He´s talking so much and being busy trying to get my phone number that he crashes with a little concrete street post... finally I get to the hotel and get safely rid of him. At this time it is around 2am and I have a early wake up the next morning. Not happy.
Tuesday and Wednesday we had a global marketing meeting with people all over the world. We were staying in a lovely congress center in Chantilly, in castle called Les Fontaines (www.les-fontaines.com). In the evenings, we had a dinner and DJs. First night was sort of fun and I was among the first ones on the dance floor but on the second night, I was already so tired that I had to break my usual habit and leave early. Quite personal let-down!
The whole week we had lovely sunny days, but we were obviously locked up in the auditorium for tree days and just saw climpses of it. It was quite surreal leaving the place on Thursday afternoon and see the outside world again. I actually asked a friend in an SMS if there were any countries or wars going on as I had no contact with the outside world... Apparently not :)
Thursday night me and Mika from my team moved to a hotel in Paris, as we had a Friday morning meeting with the French team in their offices. In Thu evening we took the metro to the 5th quarter in Paris and had a Greek dinner in one of the many, lovely little restaurants in that area (bit touristic but still quite nice). On Friday afternoon, after the meeting, I returned to Paris, did some shopping in a horrible shopping center in Monparnasse while waiting for Jussi to arrive. Oui, he was coming to Paris to spend the weekend with me :)) He arrived quite late, so I had time to write my blog and watch David Bisbal (www.davidbisbal.com) launch his new CD on a TV show in TV Espanol. These days I find myself quite often watching the Spanish TV where ever I find it - makes me feel sort of at home :))
On Saturday we walked and walked through Paris. We started by the Eiffel Tower, continued along the river Seine to the Grand Palace to Champs Elysee all the way to Louvre. It was a beatifull, sunny day. Paris is just breathtakingly beatifull with so many spectacular details everywhere. We were really enjoying ourselves, and each other. It was just nice to be together and share everything we saw. I´ve missed sharing what I see around me. Travelling becomes so different from your usual business travelling. Happy happy happy.
Around six in the afternoon our feet were crying for a break and we returned to the hotel to take a little nap. The evening continued with a classic; around 9pm we were still too comfortable laying in the bed and decided to skip going out for a dinner and instead decided to order food in and just relax. It was great as we both were tired and just wanted to be together. Sweet!
We continued to be good tourists on Sunday and started the day by climbing up to the Sacre Coeur http://www.paris-tourist-information.com/sacrecoeur.htm. Beatifull views over Paris. And the chuch is nice as well ;) We then had crepes in a restaurant in the surrounding Montmartre area, known for it´s artists and bohemians. We then continued with art in my favourite art museum, Musée D´Orsay a (www.musee-orsay.fr). It has the best collection of the impressionists in the world with my all time favourite artists such as Toulouse-Lautrec, Gauguin etc. It was well worth the one hour queuing :) The views from the roof terrace were great as well. Before we started our journey back to our countries, we had a very Parisian coffee at the museum café, tres jolie.
We shared the taxi to the airport but unfortunately I had to fly back to London and Jussi to Helsinki. It was a great first trip together - thanks sweetie!
Once I got home around midnight (again after delayed flight and the usual BA hassle), I again unpacked my bags AND packed them again. I´ll be flying to Finland tomorrow!! Surprise!! But there is a nice reason for my detour to London before following Jussi to Finland: I´m getting my new car tomorrow and tomorrow is the only day I can drive down to the harbour to collect it :)
A bientôt mes amies,
Anne
ps. you can see some fotos here (uploading not working again :)
http://pariisikuvat.blogspot.com/
So on Monday25.9.06 I went to the office in Church Crookham with my luggage for couple of meetings and then in the evening flew to Paris. It was one of those less glamorous trips; a 1,5h flight was delayed with 3 hours, had problems getting a taxi from the airport and to top it off, the taxi driver was one of those love sick ones trying to hit on you. He would not stop talking the whole way, we were speaking in spanish mostly (he was Portugese but lived all his life in Paris) and then when it was time for me to pay the journey with my credit card (he was specially called in as he accepted credit cards), he says he´s machine only accepts the American Express, which is pretty much the only card I don´t have. I asked if the hotel could give me some cash and bill it into my room bill, but no. So there we go again, driving back to the close by village to get some cash from the wall. He´s talking so much and being busy trying to get my phone number that he crashes with a little concrete street post... finally I get to the hotel and get safely rid of him. At this time it is around 2am and I have a early wake up the next morning. Not happy.
Tuesday and Wednesday we had a global marketing meeting with people all over the world. We were staying in a lovely congress center in Chantilly, in castle called Les Fontaines (www.les-fontaines.com). In the evenings, we had a dinner and DJs. First night was sort of fun and I was among the first ones on the dance floor but on the second night, I was already so tired that I had to break my usual habit and leave early. Quite personal let-down!
The whole week we had lovely sunny days, but we were obviously locked up in the auditorium for tree days and just saw climpses of it. It was quite surreal leaving the place on Thursday afternoon and see the outside world again. I actually asked a friend in an SMS if there were any countries or wars going on as I had no contact with the outside world... Apparently not :)
Thursday night me and Mika from my team moved to a hotel in Paris, as we had a Friday morning meeting with the French team in their offices. In Thu evening we took the metro to the 5th quarter in Paris and had a Greek dinner in one of the many, lovely little restaurants in that area (bit touristic but still quite nice). On Friday afternoon, after the meeting, I returned to Paris, did some shopping in a horrible shopping center in Monparnasse while waiting for Jussi to arrive. Oui, he was coming to Paris to spend the weekend with me :)) He arrived quite late, so I had time to write my blog and watch David Bisbal (www.davidbisbal.com) launch his new CD on a TV show in TV Espanol. These days I find myself quite often watching the Spanish TV where ever I find it - makes me feel sort of at home :))
On Saturday we walked and walked through Paris. We started by the Eiffel Tower, continued along the river Seine to the Grand Palace to Champs Elysee all the way to Louvre. It was a beatifull, sunny day. Paris is just breathtakingly beatifull with so many spectacular details everywhere. We were really enjoying ourselves, and each other. It was just nice to be together and share everything we saw. I´ve missed sharing what I see around me. Travelling becomes so different from your usual business travelling. Happy happy happy.
Around six in the afternoon our feet were crying for a break and we returned to the hotel to take a little nap. The evening continued with a classic; around 9pm we were still too comfortable laying in the bed and decided to skip going out for a dinner and instead decided to order food in and just relax. It was great as we both were tired and just wanted to be together. Sweet!
We continued to be good tourists on Sunday and started the day by climbing up to the Sacre Coeur http://www.paris-tourist-information.com/sacrecoeur.htm. Beatifull views over Paris. And the chuch is nice as well ;) We then had crepes in a restaurant in the surrounding Montmartre area, known for it´s artists and bohemians. We then continued with art in my favourite art museum, Musée D´Orsay a (www.musee-orsay.fr). It has the best collection of the impressionists in the world with my all time favourite artists such as Toulouse-Lautrec, Gauguin etc. It was well worth the one hour queuing :) The views from the roof terrace were great as well. Before we started our journey back to our countries, we had a very Parisian coffee at the museum café, tres jolie.
We shared the taxi to the airport but unfortunately I had to fly back to London and Jussi to Helsinki. It was a great first trip together - thanks sweetie!
Once I got home around midnight (again after delayed flight and the usual BA hassle), I again unpacked my bags AND packed them again. I´ll be flying to Finland tomorrow!! Surprise!! But there is a nice reason for my detour to London before following Jussi to Finland: I´m getting my new car tomorrow and tomorrow is the only day I can drive down to the harbour to collect it :)
A bientôt mes amies,
Anne
ps. you can see some fotos here (uploading not working again :)
http://pariisikuvat.blogspot.com/
posted by Anne at 09:42
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