Paris, France: May 13th-16th

Tuesday, May 13th:

• Left for Paris - uneventful flight, Lunesta is my friend :)

Wednesday, May 14th:

• Landed in Paris around 8 AM, took a cab to the hotel. Didn't get there until closer to 11 due to the one girl we were traveling with have us take a mini-van taxi for "just us", only to have someone else jump in with us and get dropped off first.
• Hung out in our rooms until 2PM, showered and napped then met up with the group for lunch.
• Went to a little cafe by the hotel and ate lunch. Very delicious apple pie!!!
• Headed back to the hotel to relax and catch up on some emails until dinner time.
• Went to the hotel for dinner because it was raining a lot. Had a wonderful glass of white wine.
• Went to the gym, hit the elliptical for 20 minutes before they kicked us out.
• Got back to my room and realized that I could see the Eiffel Tower from my hotel room and it was wonderful to fall asleep looking at that!

Thursday, May 15th:

• All day meeting with our client.
• Once that was over, we headed back to the hotel to change and then catch a cab to the Eiffel Tower.
• Got to the Tower and hit up the crepe stand...mmmmm so delicious. I had a cheese only crepe, the other had a ham and cheese, and the other nutella and banana.
• Went with 2 co-workers who had never been there before. We didn't get to climb up this time, but it was so awesome again just to go and explore.
• Afterwards we climbed down and wandered around. We were walking to find St. Patrick's Catheral and never did, but we found a great little wine shop. I bought a bottle of wine for 50 Euros...I thought he said 15 and didn't realize until it was bought...but he did give me another bottle of white (approx 26 USD) and let me sample both which were delicious. These are definitely special occassion bottles.
• We headed back towards the tower and I got another crepe...with Nutella and Banana and it was heavenly.
• After that we headed back to the hotel...tried to hit up the gym but it was closed, so we walked around our hotel floor for an hour.
• Got back into the room, did some work until 2 AM their time, then got some sleep.

Friday, May 16th:

• Got up and dressed for the airport, hit up the breakfast, then into the cab for the airport.

Whirlwind trip, not a fan of the people I traveled with, but an all around enjoyable trip!

Paris, France: April 5-8th

Saturday, April 5th:

• Arrived at Philly Int'l. for our direct flight to Charles De Galle airport. My boss, a project manager and myself all packed up and ready to go.
• Flight over was uneventful. Arrived at 7:30 AM Paris time.

Sunday, April 6th:

• Checked into our hotel, http://www.mercure.com/mercure/fichehotel/gb/mer/1546/fiche_hotel.shtml
• Took a little nap, got up and met at 12:00 to go explore.
• Cabbed it to the Eiffel Tower. We walked up to the 2nd observation deck, 700 stairs up, 700 stairs down. Awesome workout and my thighs were burning. Plus lots of awesome pictures along the way.
• Stopped at a crepe stand...sooo yummy :)
• Walked along the Seine river. Awesome views and cool pictures. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seine
• We walked all the way to the Lourve. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louvre That was pretty amazing...saw lots of great art and the Mona Lisa.
• Came back to our hotel around 5. Relaxed and read my book and did some crosswords.
• Met the team for dinner at 6:30 in our hotel. Yummy dinner (and within the points), good bottle of red wine and a yummy Nutella dessert.
• I think we walked about 6 miles today and did 1400 stairs, so workout will not commence today!

Monday, April 7th:

• Got up at 7 AM and got ready for our meeting.
• Met up with my team for breakfast in the hotel...not too bad.
• Took a taxi to our clients and met with them until 4:30.
• Came back to the hotel to de-brief...lasted until 7:00.
• Went to the hotel bar for a drink before heading into town.
• Got ready and took the subway, well their subway, into town for dinner.
• Went to a yummy restaurant called Chez Flottes: http://www.flottes.fr/anglais.html
• After that we went to walk to the train station. On our walk we rounded the corner and the Eiffel Tower was light up and sparkling. It was definitely a take my breath away moment.
• Headed back to the hotel and crashed.

Tuesday, April 8th.

• Travel day.
• Got up and went to the airport and got on the plane.
• Long plane ride but made it home ok!

Pictures located: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AZtG7dw5cM2JB&notag=1