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!
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