France

Spent last week in France... travel paid for by Unilever, other than 1 night's hotel and some meals. Gotta love it.

When: Last week, 3 days after returning back to the UK

Why: Three days of Unilever training (Tues - Thurs)

How: Hopped the Eurostar to Dijon. Well, really the Eurostar to Paris Gare du Nord, transferred to the Gare de Lyon, and got on the TGV to Dijon. All in all about a 5 1/2 hour trip (1 1/2 hours layover).

What: Most notably, fabulous food: escargot de bourgogne (specialty of the region -- snails with a pesto-like sauce), veau, saumon, canard, foie gras, etc. etc., of course accompanied by the finest wines of the region, which I have learned come from the '05 vintage -- and '03 if you can find it.

Where: Somewhere outside of Dijon in Bourgogne (Burgundy).

Here's the Chateau de Chailly at which I spent 2 nights:


Not bad!

On Thursday, I took the TGV back to Paris to meet my friend Jill who was in Paris for a few days, also with Unilever. In a happy coincidence, this visit was arranged before I got the invite the course in Dijon (and fortuitously, I hadn't yet booked my train tickets). Jill & I go "way back" to Slim-Fast in West Palm Beach but she's on Caress now, and her Global team decided the most cost-efficient place for a few Americans, Argentinians, and Singapor(eans?) to meet would be Paris. Here's Jill & her best St. Denis imitation:

I would have shown the one of Jill working her corner outside the Moulin Rouge but unfortunately that one didn't come out too well. You can see that, and more!, in the full album -- link at right.

Best Meal in Paris: Astier, 11eme arr., Friday night. We arrived late, it was packed, and after hanging around outside for about 20 mins, we almost left to find something else. It turned out we were just patient enough and as we were about to walk away we were ushered inside for a delicious 4-course meal, the third of which was a 24" round cheese tray (on our 20" x 30" table). We had seen the tray being passed around the restaurant and anxiously awaited our turn... They gave us all the time we needed to sample at will about 10 of the roughly 20 cheeses (avoiding the stinkiest and boringest). Unfortunately this picture is on Jill's camera. I'll share when I get it!

Best (only) day sightseeing: We spent Saturday roaming around Montmartre, up to the Sacre-Coeur where we climed the dome and visited the crypt (location of headless picture above). We had lunch on the touristy square on the way down to Pigalle, where we beheld the slightly disappointing facade of the Moulin Rouge before finding some sweet crepes and making our way back to our hotel. There, we napped about 20 minutes before setting off on the Fat Tire Night Bike Tour!

Best (only) night sightseeing:

On Jill's first night in Paris, she was roaming the 8eme arr. looking for dinner when she heard someone calling her name -- and ended up dining with her flight attendant! The Jersey girl recommended the 4 1/2 hour bike tour, and was sure to add the advice of bringing along bread & cheese - along with decent wine - to have for dinner on the 1 hour Seine boat tour in the middle of the bike tour.

Biking through the busy streets of Paris was perhaps a little too stressful for me but it was worth it! We rode throughout the city, and saw the sights at night -- Notre Dame, Ile St. Louis, the Louvre, and of course this silly tower that I took about 50 pictures of:

Fortunately for you, I edited at least half of them out of the album! It's lit up blue these nights in honor of the EU and twinkles every hour on the hour for 10 minutes. It's bizarrely mesmerizing. We raced at midnight to make it to the base for the fantastic view pictured above. Note that my cycling confidence increased dramatically after the free-flowing cheap wine provided by the bike company

Missing Persons: In case you're wondering where Jason was in all of this... well, he was due to travel down Friday, but a fire in the Eurostar tunnel on Thursday suspended service indefinitely so those plans were foiled. What bad timing!