La Defense Hypermarket

May 24:  The French marketing professor at the school took our whole class to La defense a business district located just outside the city core.  The area has many skyscrapers, the Grand Arche, and a huge shopping mall.  In the mall our professor took us to Auchan, a French hypermarket with a grocery store and a department store.

La Defense

La Grand Arche

Update-Day 6

May 23:  Not to much to highlight today.  Long day at school, over 5 hours of long but interesting lectures about French and European taxation, accounting, finance, social welfare, and economic issues.  One thing about the French, they love strikes.  Instead of negotiating first, they strike or protest first.

 

I finally got to go inside Notre Dame today.  I could not view the cathedral during my last visit two days ago because a troubled man committed suicide by the altar inside Notre Dame. 

View from inside cathedral



Versailles Palace

 

May 22:  After morning class we took a short train ride to Versailles palace.  Versailles palace is such a massive, giant structure that I could not even take a picture of the whole front of the palace in one picture.  Inside, there are literally hundreds of sculptures, paintings, and other works of art.  The gardens behind the palace were enormous; it was longer than the eye could see. 





 

The famous Hall of Mirrors



The Gardens behind the palace




 

 

 

 



First Day of Class and Notre Dame

May 21:  Today was the first day of school at Novancia Business School.  It was about a twenty minute walk from the hotel to the school.  The teacher for today was a Dutch lady who lectured about Intercultural Communications and Management.  She taught us how different cultures approach time and communication whether its a Monochronic or Polychronic culture or a Low or High context culture.

What happened later that day after school was quite shocking and dramatic.  After my roommate, Margaret, helped me learn how get around the city using the subway, I decided on a whim to visit the Notre Dame Cathedral.  I first decided to take my time and take pictures of the outside area first before waiting in to go inside.  The line was quite long.  Half way through the line, about 15 minutes later, most people suddenly started to scatter.  Some people ahead of me, with a shocked and frantic look on their face, shouted and waived their arms to tell their group something.  I wasn't sure what was going on so I walked up to the entrance to find out what was going on.  The church was closed.  Nobody around me spoke English, but I was able to figure out from the policewoman guarding the entrance that she did not know what had happened inside the church and she did not know when the church will reopen.  That night back at the hotel, I learned what had happened inside Notre Dame from the news:  A man committed suicide by shooting himself at the altar.  The man, a 78-year-old named Dominique Venner was a far-right activist and historian.

 

 

 

Near Notre Dame is an archeological crypt well worth visiting.  I was able to see remains from the late Roman Period till Medieval times.  The nearby Latin Quarter with its narrow cobblestone streets was a wonderful place to take a stroll.  It contains many souvenir shops and many reasonably priced restaurants. 

Normandy D-Day Area

May 20:  Up early in the morning to take a train ride to Normandy France, the sight of the Normandy Invasion.  It was a two and half hour train ride through the countryside to Bayeux, France.  From there we took a tour bus to see two Normandy invasion areas and an Normandy American Cemetery.  European countryside looks so much more interesting than American rural areas.  Yellow canola fields, light colored cows, old stone homes and barns--it all looked so antique like it was several centuries old.  The small towns with the stone buildings and the church with the tall steeple looked so much like my grandmother's Christmas decorations.

Parachute memorial of John Steele

 We checked out a World War II museum in Sainte-Mere-Eglise dedicated to the allied forces who fought in Normandy.  The church's steeple still contains a parachute memorial memorial in memory of Johns Steele and American paratrooper whose parachute caught on top of the church.  The incident was portrayed in the movie The Longest Day.

Afterwards we visited two Normandy beach landings:  Pointe-du-Hoc and Omaha Beach.  Pointe-du-Hoc is still battle scared after almost 70 years.  Bomb craters and German casemates are still visible till this day.  Omaha Beach, the sight where Saving Private Ryan is based on, is now a beautiful beach and a memorial site. 




Pointe-du-Hoc
Bombed out craters are still visible from WWII

A German Casemate





 

The Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial is the burial ground of thousands of Americans soldiers who died in World War II.  It is actually owned by the United States government.

 

Sightseeing!

May 19:  My first full day in Paris!  We all went out for a bus tour of the city to check out all the main sights of Paris.  Arc de Triomphe, Champs Elysees, Notre Dame, Bastille area, Luxembourg gardens, Opera House and many more.  I already knew that the Statue of Liberty was a gift from the French, but I learned that there at 2 other smaller Statue of Liberties in Paris.  We passed one at the Luxembourg gardens.  At the end of the tour, we stopped at the Palais de Chaillot, the best spot to view the Eiffel Tower.  Our Student Advisor took a group picture of all 19 of us students.

Later that evening we were treated to a Fancy French restaurant located on the famous Champs Elysees near the Arc de Triomphe.  A French dinner consists first of an entrée then the main plat and third the dessert.  That was a whole lot of good food.

First Day!

May 18:  It feels like I'm in a dream.  After a sleepless night while on a 9 hour flight, I am finally here in Paris.   I didn't get to see much today.  But I did get to buy dinner with my roommate at a French supermarket called Marché Franprix.  Tomorrow I will get to take a bus tour of the city.

All Ready!

May 16:  The big day was tomorrow!  I was leaving for Paris, France tomorrow!  For two weeks I will be a student at a French Business School and staying a few extra days afterwards.  It will be my first time ever going to a different country.