Recently, I was offered the opportunity to travel to France for work. I had the chance to travel to 2 picturesque cities, Paris and Béziers where I was able to explore and work for a few lively days.
Paris
My Project Manager and I flew from Montreal to Paris on a Friday night and I had the chance to stay in Paris for the weekend. On board of Air France, complimentary wine and champagne were offered even in economy class, which was a nice surprise that I may or mat not have taken advantage of.
By the time we arrived, it was 7am Saturday morning in Paris. I Dropped off my luggage at the hotel and immediately hopped on one of those touristic buses that take you on a tour of the city’s most iconic landmarks. The Louvre, Notre-Dame, Champs-Élysées and the Arc de Triomphe were just a few of the stops on the list. It always amazes me to see the difference between magnificent architectures in pictures and in real-life. It’s always much more beautiful when it’s right in front of you and you can take the time to admire the creativity, history, and story behind the designs.
The following day was a beautiful sunny Sunday in Paris which I took full advantage of by walking along the Champs-Élysées. I was surprised to find that “La Durée” on Champs-Élysées is an actual restaurant where they serve “real” food (I’m sorry but macarons are not real food), I believed La Durée to only be a patisserie so it was a real treat to get the chance to sit down and have an actual bite to eat in such a beautiful setting.
Business in Béziers
My Project Manager and I met up at the gare de Lyon train station on Sunday afternoon to travel from Paris to Béziers in the south of France.
We were bumped to first class in a quiet area where we were able to get a lot of work done on the journey to Béziers. The view was breathtaking; there were so many beautiful villages to admire on our way to that it was hard to focus on the screen in front of me, but somehow a few coffees later I was able to focus and get to work.
Once in Béziers, it was
“WORK WORK WORK WORK” – Rihanna
We did, however, have a chance to do the tourist thing the night before our return to Montreal. Béziers is one of the oldest fortified cities in France and is packed with history and historic architecture that tells a story. The old bridge and streets of Béziers were a delight to experience, I imprinted the details in my memory as I strolled through the fortified city and when I finally forced myself to head back to my hotel room I laid there hoping that I would have the chance to experience such beauty again in the near future.
In short, it was great a great experience to travel for work. Although in the end it is a bit tiring because of the jet lag and long working days, it’s definitively worth it and I appreciate the opportunity given to me by Big Bang ERP so much and look forward to travelling for work even more so in the future.
