The perfect day

Christina and I one our way to Versailles!

The whole gang except for a couple of people in front of Versailles!

Sarah, Adam, and I thought that we would become the art inside the Chateau. The hall of mirrors depicted our bodies very well.

This was by far the best hall I have been in. Out of all the art museums and architectural structures, I loved this room. Even though it was of French victories, I enjoyed the paintings as well as the infrastructure.

Rogelio and I with some nice hats!

I was so lost in the gardens that I was constantly checking my map. However, the Grand Canal behind me was a good indicator of where I was.

We be fly! I do not think you can find a better looking group of dudes! ha!

Versailles from our rowboat, which only cost me three Euro. It cost 11 Euro for a half-an-hour.

I was having so much fun rowing!

Heather and I  spending some moments in front of the gardens!

Arc de Triomphe from the Eiffel Tower!

The girls could not resist what I had to offer. Honestly, I had nothing to offer, but the girls could not resist me!

Sarah especially could not resist me! Adam was admiring the success that I had!

5/23/11

 If I could pick a favorite day this trip, it would be today.  Everything worked out perfectly. Even though there was some resistance and we lost some people along the way, it was well worth it.  The morning began at Mercer. Mercer deals with investments, consulting, and outsourcing. During the meeting, I wrote down some notes because Paris is a very unique place to work. France is one of the most productive countries in the world; however, the average person works about 20-25 years. The country also requires five mandatory vacation weeks, which honestly does not sound bad. Most of the time you can take eight weeks off. Also, the average workweek is around 35 hours. Even though the above information is interesting, I will explain why working in Paris is nice. Every company provides a company car. They have this 2/7 deal where you only pay for weekend use. Also, if you have more than two kids you are paid 825 EU a month for each child.  The company receives tax breaks if they look more family oriented.  However, the downside to Paris is their labor force. France does not fire people that often. When you fire someone, you must pay them for two more years. You may be able to negotiate or take to courts, but the courts favor the employees. This issue causes slackers to stay in the system, which could end up hurting the company more than if they had to pay them.

Following Mercer, a group of us walked over to the grocery store near our hotel. We all planned on going to Versailles today, so we thought it would be fun to have a group picnic. Once the items were purchased, we made our way to the hotel where we quickly changed from business casual to touristy outfits. After five minutes of prepping, I made my way down to the lobby where I joined the others. As soon as we got everyone together, we headed to Versailles. We had to take the train to get there, since it was outside of the city. From the train we walked to the Chateau. The Chatteau was not as impressive as the Louvre, but the gates in front where sold gold, which is not too shabby. I would not mind having those outside of my estate when I am older. We all entered the Chateau and quickly broke into groups of two to five. I was with Ashlyn, Adam, Sarah, Butters, and Heather. The Chatteau was not impressive in my book. The hall of mirrors was not the hall of mirrors that I wanted it to be, but there is a hallway that is lined with huge paintings of French victories. It was by far the best room in the Chateau.

As we were exciting the Chatteau, we ran into Regilo, Shardae, Christina, Bristal, Luke, and Michelle. We looked around for the other four couples before we decided to head into the gardens. It was three at this point and we did not want to wait till four to enter the gardens. So we went without them. We knew that John and Cort would be fine as well as Cory and Jack. However, we did not know how Kandace and Chad would take the separation. Hmm!

The gardens were amazing. We made our way down the hundred step stairs where we found this nice patch of grass to eat lunch on. We were there for about an hour because most of us decided to take naps. Afterwards, we wandered around and took hundreds of pictures. We ended up running into Jack and Cory who were heading home. Our initial target was the Marie Antionette’s estate, but we would never make there in time. Instead, we took a rowboat out onto the Grand Canal, which was so much fun. The rowboat made Versailles that much cooler. Around 6:30 we began walking back to the entrance of the Chatteau and then to the train station. We were all excited for our next event, which was the Eiffel Tower.

Before the Eiffel tower, we went to a pizza near the grass areas. It had Rick Steve’s all over the windows, so we decided to try it. I still do not know if they were lying or telling the truth. The pizza was pretty good. At the base of the Eiffel Tower, Ashlyn, Christina, and Shardae decided they were not going to join. The rest of us decided to climb the stairs up until we could take the elevator to the top. We saved about 4 EU. We watched the sun go down as well as watch it sparkle three times. Total time spent on the Eiffel Tower = three hours. We spent the most time on the top taking pictures, which will we represented in this post because some of them are hilarious.

We arrived home a little bit after 12, but we did not care because we could sleep in the next morning due to our business visit at 12.