Fall in Paris

Late last week I needed to make a short business trip to Paris. It gave me a good excuse to spend a weekend there and take in the sights. The weather was really great over the weekend and I had a chance to meet up with a friend of mine that lives in Paris.

We ate at the one restaurant we always eat at, Chez Papa. I don't think I have ever been anywhere else with him for dinner in Paris. It has become a running joke of sorts. He is from Toulouse and this particular resturant serves typical fair from southern France. I think it is his excuse to get a taste of home.

What Is Wrong With This French Toilet

What is Wrong With This Picture

I am not a contorsionist. That is why you can understand my disbelief at this toilet setup we experience in our hotel in Cassis France. Although I thought the Le Jardin d'Emile hotel was acceptable, I found myself continually pondering who in their right mind would have installed the toilet paper holder in such a strange location when there was plenty of perfectly good, and quite accesible wall space just to the left (while seated) of the toilet. Alas, that would be 'impossible.'

Fields Of Sunflowers

Fields of Sunflowers Somewhere in France

I was going through my photos again today. Still working on the images I took during our vacataion. This was an hdr image of a field of sunflowers somewhere in the french countryside.

We just happened to be driving along the road and came across this field. The road along the field was running along a nice high embankment so I could actually shoot down on the field.

French Fields of Purple

Fields of Lavender Near Sault, France

Wow, what great pictures. What a great photographic vacation. I have so many pictures and not enough time to go through them that is for sure. Over 8 gigs of photos in 9 or so days of vacation, I will be busy for weeks sorting throught it all.

So where did we go? Thanks to my wonderful wife, we took a trip to the lavender growing areas of Provence in southern France. Guidebooks are a little slim on details for the particular area we were in, but my wife's hours and hours of planning and combing the internet for small nuggets of information paid off in a huge way.

The center piece of the trip was about 6 days of wandering through the impressive and wonderfully smelling lavender fields near the towns of Sault and Valensole. Sometimes photos just can't do a place justice and I think this is one of those spots.

Prime season for the lavender blooms is July, with most of the harvest completed by mid August. Although the weather was extremely hot and at times close to unbearible, the timing was nearly perfect to photograph the fields of purple.

For the duration of the trip we stayed mostly in 'Gite' hotels. Gites are what I would consider French bed & breakfast style accomidations. Many are in Bastides (farm houses) or other historic buildings run by the owner as a way to live in and maintain a piece of French culture and history while creating a bit of income to keep the buildings in good shape.

I really have to recommend the 'Gite' style of vacationing. The places we stayed were relatively affordable, and well accomidated as compared to European standards. I would do it again in a flash.

During the trip we had a lot of interesting cultural experiences. As I work with quite a few French, most of it did not surprise me, but some of it did. I have plenty of stories to tell from the apparent inability of store clerks to make change from any bill larger than a 5 Euro note, to the shock and dismay of our Gite hostess that could not seem to believe that we did not want to eat our breakfast croissants.

Catching Up On Photos

Notre Dame, Paris France

So now that I have my computer back I am catching up on some old photos that I have archieved since my computer dilemma began. As a temporary measure I was storing a bunch of images on my work laptop. Now I have had a chance to move things back over to my personal computer.

Here is a fantastic photograph of Notre Dame Cathedral that I took in early April. I had business trip to Paris at the time. We had decided to stay for the weekend to enjoy the weather and try to get some good photographs.

This image is another example of an HDR image. It is a composition of 3 images put together into one.

Lets Strike Because The Economy Stinks

There are mumblings around work about the French transportation strike that starts Wednesday evening and runs until Friday morning (story on cnn).

Such strikes cause havoc to our company because our headquarters are in France and when this happens the entire office seems to shut down, and anybody traveling to or from the central office is paralyzed.

Which leads me to the question, why do the French do this? What aspect of their culture do I not understand? To me it makes no sense to strike because you are afraid of the economy and losing your job. What is that going to achieve other than give everyone on a vacation day?

As an American my values tell me to go to work, work hard, and there is a good chance you'll keep your job. If you aren't working your not helping the company, which means no cashflow, wich means no money to pay salaries. You just gotta be there to keep the company afloalt

Working From The Hotel

My seminar finished early this afternoon so I made the quick trip to a different hotel for the next couple of days to setup my laptop and do some work. I could have gone to the office but I needed some time alone to get budgets done.

The quick time in the hotel room was very productive and I am glad I made the choice to work from the room.

On strange event did occur though. There was something wrong with the shower so while I was here this afternoon there was some guy in the shower for about an hour and a half monkeying around with the shower. He was using some kind of crazy strong epoxy so now the entire room smells of chemicals.

I hope the fumes didn't affect my budgets, I guess I'll find out tomorrow.

I will meet a fellow participant from the seminar for dinner this evening. He is from Cypress and we were discussing the fact that he didn't leave until tomorrow. We decided it would be fun to meet for dinner. Two non-French speakers is much better than one. I think it will be a good time. I'll go and meet him in a couple of hours. In the mean time I may sneak out for some photography before hand.

Traveling for Business Again

I am traveling for business again this week. I can tell already it will be a very busy week. I had to fly out on Sunday evening for some early morning meetings in Paris.

Last night there was a problem when I arrived at the hotel. I had an e-mail confirm a reservation, but the hotel didn't have the reservation. This seems to be a trend lately. Luckily, they were able to offer a room at a hotel very close by. So dispite a few minutes of stress everything turned out well.

I had wanted to do a little sight seeting while I am here but I fear I won't have much time for that. I appears that my evenings will be consumed by business commitments. Maybe next time.

Monet's Garden at Giverny

Water Garden at Giverny

After a long week in Paris for business I had decided to stay the weekend to play a bit of a tourist. Since I have spent a good amount of time in the City center with my wife, she decided that she wanted to take a day trip to Giverny. Giverny is a small town in the country that can be reached by a 45 minute train ride followed by either a short bus trip, or a 3 km bike ride. It is the home to Claude Monet's Garden, most notably his water garden.

I suprised by the size of the gardens. I was also surprised at the fact that much of the garden was still in bloom this late in the season. I had orginally thought it would not be a good time to visit but I was wrong.

The house and accomanying gardens were so large it left me thinking how on earth could an artist aford such a place. After a little reading I learned that he orgininally just rented the place and later purchased the house and gardens after he had become famous and was successful in selling his work.

In later September there were a lot of visitors and a tour bus or two, but I have to believe it was less of a crowd than you might see in peak season. At this time of year the main gardens by the house are still full of color, but the water gardens are not in bloom. The color there was a bit dull, but it was still a beautiful sight to see and I could really imagine how an artist could be so inspired by such a garden in peak season.

As a side trip from Paris I would recommend the trip if you have a day to spend. Transportation to and from Giverny was easy, and there were plenty of things to wander around and enjoy. If you are the type that likes little shops and touristy places Giverny might not be the spot for you. Aside from the Gardens there are only a few other little gift shops, and mostly small hotels and resturants where you can find a nice outdoor table to enjoy a meal and a view of the French countryside. If you enjoy to take a stroll and just take in the scenery it is a perfect place.

Returning Home (To Baden)

The last week I have been traveling on business. It was a bit of a long trip considering I am not a fan of business travel. The trip was prolonged by the fact that I decided to take advantage of a 4 day event in Paris and stay for a weekend. My wife had decided to join me in Paris Friday evening.

The weekend in Paris was beautiful, the weather was unbelievable for this time of year. Sunny and in the 70's (lower 20's for those on Celsius). Just a really great weekend to find a plaza, some grass to sit on, and hang out people watching.

This trip I feel like the dog poop issue was really under control. I remember a few times walking down the street when my mind was wandering and all of a sudden realizing I better snap back to attention and turn on my poop radar, but miraculously I didn't have a problem. I wonder if the city has been on a campaign to clean things up. With the poop issue apparently resolved
my only grip about Paris is that wherever you go it seems to smell like urine.

But after all that 6 nights away from home is a long time. Hotel rooms, business dinners, late nights working on presentations for the next day, it takes its toll. On the way home on the high speed train (TGV) some women got on at Strasbourg and began speaking to be in German asking about the seats. I didn't panic, I understood what they asked, and replied correctly. It was a strange experience. The reason being after a week of being surrounded by French, I was actually pleased, and somewhat relaxed to hear German. I never thought German could be so calming to the soul.

And for one of the first times, when I got off the train returning to Baden I had a sense of arriving home. Surely, not the same sense of the word when you arrive at your childhood home, but it was one of the first times I felt relaxed to arrive in Baden.

I was looking forward to jumping into my own bed, making my own dinner from that should surely include some form of Cheese, Pork, and potatoes, and getting back into the routine.

Rollerman

Rollerman

There definitely is some wierd stuff being invented in this part of the world. Enough said.

glumbert - Rollersuit in the Swiss Alps

Parisian Sailboats

Children Playing with Sailboats at Jardin Des Tuileries

One of our weekend strolls took us through the Jardin Des Tuileries in Paris. As we wandered through the park we stumbled upon a small fountain that with a floatilla of small sailboats. A lone vendor was renting this small sailboats to children, or should I say their parents, for 2 Euros a half an hour.

The kids were casting the boats off with long bamboo poles and then running to the other side to wait for them to arrive. The children were screaming and yelling and often times hacking each others boats with their long bamboo poles.

The sailboats themselves looked like they were experienced. The tattered sails were worn, but functional. And an ingenious designed allowed the sails to freely catch any gust of wind ensuring that the boats would always make it back to shore.

It was a wonderful photo opportunity and the whole scene felt so French. I half expected to turn around and see a painter capturing the scene in Oils with me frozen in time watching the children play.

Alas, that was another spot and another medium, the pastel artist on the Pont Neuf.

Flea Market

The Paris flea market is very bizarre. It is like walnut. You come to the edge of the flea market and and it is dirty and harsh. There are strange vendors selling shoes, CD's lighters, and knock-off designer clothes. Every 50 meters there is a a guy playing 3 card Monte surround by other men pointing at the cards and shoving 20 Euro notes at him. It feels like a tough yet interesting crowd.

At first I wasn't very impressed with the flea market. Then we broke the shell. In the middle of the European swap-o-rama chaos there is a sanctuary. A small island of peace. Here you'll find amazing antiques and oddities. Beautiful art and really cool things to look at. And best of all no one hawking fake D&G belts from there coat pockets.


The entire place was very inspiring. I found myself taking photographs at every turn. I was so interested in recording everything on film that I forgot to actually buy anything!

Travel

I have had an extremely busy last 10 days. Between work and vacation travel I am just exhausted. In the past 7 nights I have been in 6 different beds. I am really looking forward to sleeping in my own bed tonight.

I was in the Alps skiing with a friend for a few days at a resort called Arosa. It was very nice. Then back home for a day trip to Bern. This was followed by a quick flight to Paris for a seminar near Chantilly, a small town just 30 km outside of Paris. I ended the business trip with a few days in Paris. We stayed in Monmartre near the famous Molin Rouge.

I'll have to fill in some of the details of all of the travel later, but for now, I have posted a picture of the Sacre Coeur. This beautiful church was only a few blocks from our hotel.

Frogs

I am a terrible blogger. I have not posted in so long. I was on business travel this week and I just did not have time to post.

I want to Paris for a few days of meetings. The hours were long, and now I am happy to be home. Strangly enough my trip to Paris and a few very interesting olfactory expereinces.

When I was going from the airport to the city we were stuck in very heavy rush hour traffic. In the stop and go traffic the car seemed to fill with horrible desiel exhaust. Not having a car, this was the first time in months I had been exposed to exhaust, how disgusting. It almost made me want to vommit. I couldn't believe the physical reactions I was having to that horrible smell.

The second experience I had was fresh cut grass. I was walking along a park on the way to the office and I smelled the sweet, damp smell of fresh cut grass. What a wonderful frangrance. I truely miss that smell.

This weekend we are taking a short trip to Salzburg and Munich. Not too long, just 4 days. But it is a much needed trip for me. I can't wait to get out of here and away from work for a few days.

Did I mention they were serving frog legs in the cafeteria at the office. I just had to try them. Luckily I had my camera phone to grab a quick picture. Yes, they do taste a little like chicken.