2009 June 4 - Cathy wanders from Brussels to Paris

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Yeah!!! We got free internet eventually!!!!!!

After the bus nearly left Ryan yesterday, I became very nervous about punctuality. How to prove my nervousness? Alice can be the witness of seeing me wake up during the middle of the night and rush to the bathroom to wash my face due to my misreading the clock.

After safely and punctually getting on the bus, we started our final day in Brussels with a meeting with Volkswagen S.A. Treasury Dept. and followed with a speaker from the Brunswick Group to talk about lobbying issues. Before today, I don’t seriously think that lobbying in Europe can be a kind of business and as Professor Brunel said, many MBA programs never tell us much about it.

After the short meeting today, we hit the road to Paris - everyone is excited! At 14:22 pm, we officially entered France! After Meg got Professor Brunel to briefly believe that a distant power line tower was the Eiffel tower, we passed by the Arc De Triomphe Etoile and had a short city tour and finally arrived our K+K Hotel safely. (The traffic is so bad in the city and made a bunch of us scared we wouldn't make it to the hotel!) The Hotel is in great location and there’s a metro station right in front of the Hotel which is super convenient. There are also rental bikes right next to the station.

After checking in, we missed the group walk and dinner but had a visit to the Chanps Elysees and had dinner at the “First tea house in Paris” - Laduree. They are famous for their pastries and we enjoyed a quite nice but long dinner there. It got so cold outside when we got out the restaurant. We walked to the Arc De Triomphe Etoile and discovered that the best spot to take pictures of it is to walk to the middle waiting area of pedestrians. We missed the deadline time to buy tickets to go to the top. It’s been a long day and we think we will save some things for another day so we headed back to Hotel. We did have a very scary moment where we couldn’t open the train door (they don't open automatically like the T in Boston) and at the very final second, one local French person helped to pull open the heavy train door and we were able to get out the train before it left, though PJ unfortunately got hit a bit by the door. So, I feel we have to be more careful when taking the metro tomorrow and try to get on the train as soon as possible or we will become a metro sandwich in France!

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Photos

Lunch
6+3+1=10

Laduree
First Tea House in Paris

Best place to take pic.
Ann and PJ are busy taking pics..