Busy, Busy Day Around Paris

This morning, we got to have our first French breakfast buffet, and it was so delicious!! It was most definitely about a million times better than the English breakfasts we were eating in London. At our breakfast today, there were croissants, baguettes, orange juice, omelets, hash browns, toast, cheese, and the list goes on. The waiter even came up to me and asked me if I would like hot chocolate, and of course I said “oui! Sei vue play” (meaning ‘yes, if you please’). To this he asked if I wanted more milk or more chocolate! Wow, what great service! It was delicious! Although I was a little rushed during breakfast because I panicked a little bit when I realized I had forgotten my nametag that is to be worn on our business suits in the hotel room somewhere. Luckily, I found it, because I didn’t want to get points knocked off my grade for something so minor.
We then departed via the Metro (Parisian subway system) for our company meeting with Galeris de Lafayette, the oldest department store in the world. Galeris de Lafayette could be compared to Harrods in London because the both tend to specialize in high fashion brands and luxury items. One of the biggest differences between the two companies however is that Galeris has many locations all over France, while Harrods has remained steadfast to their one location throughout the entire world.
We shopped around Galeris for a bit before going upstairs to where they were going to put on a fashion show just for our group, complete with runway, lights, models, and designer clothes! The show was good, although I’m not that into high fashion, so it sort of just all looked the same after a while to me. When the show was done, we went upstairs to Galeris rooftop terrace and had a great view of the city of Paris! We took another group picture in our suits (we look so official!) and snapped a few pictures of friends as well.

Then we were on our own for about 5 hours until we had to meet back together at 5:40 for our presentation from Apple. A group of us decided to check out The Louvre. We were expecting long lines, but were pleasantly surprised to see no lines at all! It was wonderful! A hugely famous attraction with no lines to speak of! We walked most of the museum actually and were there for a couple of hours. We saw the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, Hammurabi’s Code, Winged Victory, and many other famous works of art. It was such a cool thing to be in the presence of such deep, rich cultural history! I even got my picture in front of the Mona Lisa! I’m so glad I went there, and would have seriously regretted it if I didn’t have time to.


After The Louvre we still had more time to kill, so we walked to Notre Dame. The French man at the museum told us it was a 10 minute walk. I have learned to never trust a Frenchman because it was definitely more like a 45 minute walk. Once we got there we were so tired from walking that we just took pictures of the outside, and then walked down the street to get a crepe. It was so delicious! I chose the nutella and banana kind, because I have heard those are the best, and even though I don’t normally like bananas it was very, very good!

We headed towards Apple via the Metro next, and arrived at our meeting place nearly an hour early. Our little group decided it would be the perfect time to try to find someone to interview for my marketing report I have to turn in at the end of the summer. We spotted this young woman standing near us who looked like she was waiting on someone. We interviewed her and found out she was 21 years old and a business college student like us. She was easy to talk to because we related to her so well since we were the same age.
Finally, it was time for our visit with Apple. Now, being a part of the Apple cult myself, I was eagerly anticipating this business meeting and had high hopes for it. I have to admit I was a little disappointed. The presentation itself was a little boring simply because most of the time they were simply stating growth numbers to try and impress us. Afterwards however, they let us go into their showroom and play with all the Apple technology, much like you can do in an Apple store. The best part of the entire business visit though was walking out onto their rooftop terrace that overlooks the Eiffel Tower. Their office is actually quite close to the tower, so we got a great, up-close view of it. Of course, everyone was taking pictures so I joined in the mayhem. At this point on the trip, everyone just immediately knows how to get into formation for a picture, who kneels, who is on the back row, etc. It’s actually quite amusing how efficient we are with it, haha!

Once we left Apple, 3 of us went to a little café that specialized in pizza near our metro station. The food was alright, but the pepperonis are different over here. They are thicker and more spicy, so that was an interesting change on my pizza. I have to say I prefer the American pepperoni pizza more. The service wasn’t very good though. Typical French rudeness though, just not waiting on us well because we don’t speak their language and are from the United States. It doesn’t faze me though, everyone has their own opinions about cultures and people. I can’t say that I love the French way of life more than my way of life back in Texas because that’d be a lie. Everyone sees things differently, and I’m constantly being reminded of that on this trip. It’s keeping me humble and making me grateful for those things I normally take from granted back in the States.