Final day

Today was the last day of our amazing journey through Europe. It's hard to describe it. We left home sixteen days ago, in some ways different people. In such a short span of time we have visited twelve European cities in four countries, and spent at least one night in six of them. We saw a blended mix of large cities and small towns. We spent a night in, Cochem, Germany, which has 5,000 residents. We spent five in Paris, with a metro area of more than 12 million. In all of them we were warmly greeted, got to interact with residents and travelers alike, learn about the culture, the people, the work environments, and about ourselves. Tomorrow we fly home and begin the task of re-adjusting to our everyday lives. I have a great wife at home waiting for me, so that will make things easier.

We started our last day off with a visit to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD. The OECD is an advisory body that has been working since WWII reconstruction to help countries share best practices for developing their economies. We met in a conference room in the center's main building, a chateau built by the Rothschild family in the 1930s. When they were forced to flee before the German occupation, the building lay empty and was eventually sold to the OECD for their headquarters. Our liason was a public relations officer named Andrew who originally hails from Indiana, but has been working in Paris for the past 26 years. Andrew gave us an overview of how the OECD works, and then handed the presentation over to a French gentleman named Justin, who works on an interactive survey called the Better Life Index (BLI). This index allows people to rank 11 factors on the basis of what is important to them to achieve their ideal quality of life. This provides the OECD with invaluable data on various life factors and what is important to different people throughout the world. I took the BLI after our session, and it told me that based on my responses, my top three countries to live in would be Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. The United States was 15th (out of 34) on my list. This is largely due to the fact that the average U.S. respondent ranks jobs and income #1 and work-life balance last, and I was nearly reversed in my scale.

After the OECD our official program was complete. We were allowed to spend the remainder of our final afternoon in Paris as we chose. Unfortunately it was also raining like nobody's business. Most of us hopped on the train and went down to see Notre Dame. The cathedral was free to enter and was a welcome break from the downpour outside. It was a very moving experience to see, just as the cathedral in Cologne had been. Afterwards, I joined up with Sasha, Barb, Becca and Marie and we went down to the Musee D'Orsay on the left bank of the Seine. This is another art museum, much smaller than the Louve. It is built in an old train station, and the architecture is beautiful. The Orsay is famous for its large wing of impressionist art, featuring many paintings by Monet, Renoir, and other French painters of the 19th century. They also had a fantastic temporary exhibit on the life of Vincent Van Gogh, with around 40 of his works on loan from museums around the world. We had already been to the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam, but this was equally worth the visit. Consider me a convert to his art.

After the museum it was time to meet up with everyone for our farewell dinner. This was at a very nice restaurant somewhere near the 14th district, on the southwest side of town. We had a three course meal featuring a salmon spread starter, roast duck with potatoes for the main, and a chocolate cake with ice cream for dessert. It was very good, definitely the best meal of the trip, and the duck was the best I have ever had. Sadly, the restaurant service was poor, and we were kicked out immediately after serving dessert so they could give the room to another group of 60 schoolchildren waiting outside. Not gezellig at all. On the way back to the hotel a few of us stopped for one last drink at a cafe. I paid 9 Euros for the worst Long Island iced tea I have ever had. I didn't even drink it. Not a great note to go out on!

Ater returning to the hotel nobody much felt like calling it in, so we decided on one last hurrah. At a little after 10 several of us met in the lobby and took the metro back down to the Eiffel Tower. We got there just before the 11pm light show. We couldn't sit on the grass because it had been raining all day, so we wandered for a bit, eventually passing under the tower and to the north across the bridge, where there was live music playing. We were careful of the time, as our metro passes expired at midnight, so we got on the subway line at Trocadero around quarter til. Finally, we returned to the hotel once more and surrendered. However, while standing on the steps of the Palais de Chaillot we all promised ourselves that this would not be our last trip to this city, and I mean to keep that promise. I would love to come back one day soon with Katherine (and again later with our children).

That's all. Tomorrow we fly out at 1:30 in the afternoon, headed back to Chicago. It will be a long day by the time we return to UWO tomorrow night, but we will all be high on excitement and ready to relay the stories of our wonderful adventure to family and friends.

International Chamber of Commerce & Versailles

This morning we ventured west once again, this time near Trocadero, to visit the International Chamber of Commerce. Founded in 1919, the ICC is an international agency designed to promote trade between companies of different nations. Before the United Nations, before the World Bank or World Trade Organization, the ICC hoped that by forming a stronger economic base between companies, it would be easier to create a lasting peace between nations. Obviously that did not stop the Second World War from happening, but the Chamber remains proud of all its accomplishments over the past century.

We had two presentations while there. The first was from Mary Kelly, an American who has lived the past 13 years in Paris. Mary is the Director of Editorial and Internal Communications, and she talked to us about the history of the ICC, their mission (peace and prosperity for all) and all of the different types of services the ICC offers to its member companies. Our second speaker, Alma Forgo, is a German deputy counsel for the International Court of Arbitration, a major subset of the ICC. She talked to us in depth about the arbitration services offered by the ICA and their value in mediating disputes between companies. It was very interesting, and gave us insight into an international trade organization that, frankly, most of us had never heard of before.

After the ICC, we boarded a suburban train out to Versailles. We took an hour to have lunch in the town center before meeting up for the palace tour. I had a very good hamburger for lunch from a local place, one of the few occasions I have had beef on our trip. At 3pm we met up and entered Versailles as a group. It was absolutely packed inside, giving much the same experience as the beginning of the Louvre yesterday. Because of the massive crowd we all quickly got separated, which was okay because we had already made arrangements for everyone to go back to Paris on their own as they saw fit. I ended up touring the museum with Katie and Brooke. We saw all that the palace had to offer, including the royal apartments, the bedrooms of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, and the Hall of Mirrors where the worst treaty in the history of the world was forced upon the Germans in 1919. The scale of every room, combined with the intricacy of every detail in each carving, fresco, and painting was hard to fathom. To think of the contrast between this and the living standards in Paris of the day, and it's not hard to see why the people were so upset come the French Revolution. Much of the palace reminded me of Hampton Court in London.

After some time in the palace, we went outside to tour the gardens. They are huge, and it was warm and sunny, and our legs were just not happy after so much walking for so many days. So we did the natural thing- rented a golf cart! It just so happens that I am over the age of 24, and can therefore drive such a dangerous vehicle. So after surrendering my driver's license, the three of us set off to discover the gardens behind Versailles. They were beautiful, and well worth the extra entry price. We spent an hour driving to see all that they had to offer, and were rewarded with some spectacular views. The day was perfect for it too.

We pulled back in to the palace after an hour, just as the grounds were closing for the night. After joining the shuffle back to the train station, we boarded an overcrowded train back into Paris. It had some kind of mechanical problem and limped all the way back, stopping for several minutes between stations on two occasions. However, it did eventually limp into where we were trying to go, so we hopped off and switched to another line to go see the Arc de Triomph. We popped up on the Champs Elysees right under the arch, and spent some time admiring the colossal structure from inside. After a few pictures, we went for a walk along the most famous street in Paris, stopping in at an English pub for a drink along the way. Finally we came back to our part of town, grabbing some fruit at a local grocery store for a light dinner. I joined some of the guys outside for a few minutes before retiring to my room. One more full day left!

Sofitel la Defense & The Louvre

On our second full day in Paris, we started by heading out west of town to the modern-day financial district, la Defense. There, we toured the 5-start Sofitel Paris hotel in the district, which caters to financial customers during the week and tourists during the weekend. Our guide's name was difficult to catch, but I believe he said Dior. He was the Director of Sales for the Sofitel, having previously worked at their branches in London and Los Angeles. Dior gave us a very nice, personalized tour of the facility, starting with background information on the hotel and its related brands while we talked in the library. Then he showed us two guest rooms: one luxury, one mini-suite. Finally, we were shown the conference room facilities, where we got to sit down for some refreshments and go through a very detailed Q&A session. In addition, we met the general manager of the hotel, who was starting his first day on location, newly arrived from the branch in New York City.

The visit was very interesting, and I would rank it up there with the winery tour, just below that of the Claas factory visit. We learned a lot about this large worldwide hotel chain that is popular throughout Europe, North Africa, and China, with a small presence in the U.S. Sofitel is their luxury brand, built for business travelers, and the three pillars they stand on are interior design, food, and French culture (the brand is based in France). Interestingly, he told us that the only language requirement for any of their hotels worldwide is English. Even here in France, employees must know English and are not required to speak French. This is a concept that keeps coming up in our visits- I know how often English is spoken around the world, but this trip has really given me perspective into how far along English has gotten towards becoming a true universal language. In addition, our instructor asked the director if he would be willing to stereotype his clientele to give us an idea for how different cultures interact within the industry. He said that U.S. business travelers are more or less ideal clients. American tourists on the weekends ask a lot of questions but don't provide many headaches. Visitors from the middle east, however, are used to having unlimited amounts of service in hotels (you snap your fingers and 6 people come running was the example), and have difficulty adjusting to the European model (This hotel only staffs 100 people), so they frequently express frustration with the level of service even in a 5 star establishment. Finally, he admitted their biggest headaches come from Chinese clients, who do not know European culture or customs at all, and are very loud and demanding.

After the hotel visit, we walked through the la Defense district and saw all the modern financial buildings and businesspeople going about their day. I really enjoyed seeing this scene, because it showed me what a modern, vibrant metropolitan city Paris still is today, outside of the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame, the berets, moustaches, cigarettes and baguettes. In fact, I have enjoyed seeing that aspect in every city we have gone to. Amsterdam is Amsterdam and is unique unto itself, but outside of the canal district you can see the 21st century going about its business. The same went for Bremen, for Hamburg, Cologne, Brussels, and now Paris. All of these big cities that depend on tourism, but are also modern places where people live, work, and experience life on their own accord. They all provided the counterpunch to the disappointment that I experienced in Bruges.

We came back to the hotel to change out of our business clothes and grab lunch. I talked such a big game about Pret a Manger that Katie, Shelby, Brooke, and Mark were all willing to walk the mile from the hotel with me to grab sandwiches and soup for lunch there. They all told me how good it was- converts officially recruited!

After lunch we headed back into town and saw the Louvre! It was an experience just getting into the building. We came in from the street through the basement. It felt like we were rushing through a shopping mall until we turned a corner and suddenly came upon I.M. Pei's famous inverted pyramid. We got our tickets and all went in as a group. The idea was to get everyone in to see the Mona Lisa, and then we could split up from there. We started pushing through the crowd, and Sasha quickly asked me to take charge of the navigation through the labyrinth of rooms. I got us into the right wing, up two flights of stairs, and down the grand gallery quickly, until pretty soon we were in the room with the mysterious painting of da Vinci. Seeing the painting was wonderful, but I have to admit I was disappointed by the atmosphere. There are at least a hundred people in the room at a time, all pushing and jostling with one another to get as close to the painting as possible, with no regard for anyone else, and of course now everyone wants a selfie with her. I did not try to get too close, just admiring the masterpiece as best I could from around 10 meters back. Escaping from the room did not provide much relief, because the grand gallery outside was just as crowded. I actually wish the Louvre were more like the Van Gogh museum, where photography is forbidden and the demeanor of the crowd is much more subdued and respectful.

I joined up with a few others and we headed for the second floor, with a brief stop to see the Venus de Milo. Once we got all the way upstairs we found a better museum experience: many fewer people because the most famous pieces were not on this floor. We wandered for awhile through the French 18th and 19th century art, then began to move on towards that of the Germans and Dutch. Someone in our group really wanted to find art by Monet, and we were surprised to learn that the Louvre only has three pieces. We then dropped down a floor and saw the preserved apartments of Napoleon III in the north wing. By this time we had been in the museum for two hours, and most of the people in my group had had enough, and they all broke off to head out and go back up to Montmartre: some of them wanted to have a painting of themselves done and had not had time the day before. I stayed in the museum for another hour until I was kicked out at 6 when they closed. I managed to see much of the Greek and Roman antiquities departments, the Law Code of Hammurabi, and the medieval foundations of the Louvre itself. I very much enjoyed my visit.

On my own after leaving the Louvre, I did a little window shopping at the stores across the street, along the Rue de Rivoli, and then headed back to the hotel. Not being hungry, I skipped dinner and talked to Katherine for awhile. Then I joined some of the others down at the outdoor patio behind the hotel for a little wine and music. Once it got dark we hopped on the metro and went back down to the Eiffel Tower. We packed some wine and cigars with us, and sat out on the grass in the park just outside the tower talking and listening to music. We were far from the only people with this idea- it was very busy. Not nearly so busy as the fourth of July, but a similar environment. We stayed for a little over an hour, saw the light show the tower put on at midnight, and headed back at 12:30. We were a little concerned that we missed the last subway ride of the night when we got to the platform for our connecting train and found it all dark with no people, but a train did come by a few minutes later and we made it back safe and sound.

We have now seen most of the "sights" we came to see, and get to spend our last few days here simply enjoying Paris as it comes to us.

Eiffel Tower and Montmartre

This morning we were rushed off at 8am by Fatima, our new drill sergeant.  We arrived at the base of the Montmartre hill, in front of the historic Moulin Rouge, at 8:45. This gave us a comfortable 45 minute cushion to wait for our 9:30 tour. We sat on the boulevard waiting. After an hour we realized the tour guide wasn't just late, but something was amiss. After a few phone calls, the company admitted they did not have our reservation, and managed to wake up a tour guide who was at home sleeping. He arrived by 10:15 to give us our now abbreviated tour. Despite the disappointing start to the day, the tour itself was good, even if it did involve climbing the biggest hill in Paris. We saw several old mills, the city's only winery (apparently it makes crap wine), and the artist's square, the Place du Tertre. Around the corner at the apex of the hill is the basilica of Sacre-Couer, which commands a breathtaking view of the city below.

After the tour, we were given around an hour and a half to do some shopping at the Tertre and get lunch. Then we headed down to the Trocadero metro stop to get an amazing view of the Eiffel Tower as we approached from the northwest. After some pictures on the Esplande du Trocadero we walked down across the river to the tower itself. We broke into smaller groups based on who wanted to take the elevator and who wanted to climb the stairs. I chose the daring group that was looking for exercise. 670 stairs later we had a great view from the second level.

At this point you are still only 100 meters of the 300 meter total height of the Tour Eiffel. There are a further 1200 stairs which lead to the top, but they are not open to the public. So we had to shell out an extra 6 Euros to take the elevator to the top. It was definitely worth it, as the view is simply too much for words, in every direction.

After our descent, I grabbed a raspberry sorbet on our way to the banks of the Seine for a boat tour of the river. This gave us a perfect chance to sit down and cool off while seeing what the river has to offer: views of the Musee d'Orsay, Louvre, Notre Dame, National Assembly, and of course all the historic bridges across the river itself. It was a nice way to end the evening.