Sacre Coeur, May 19th 2009
Got back from France just after 11pm tonight.  The whole trip turned out to be the biggest waste of time imaginable.
I travelled on Monday so I could go to a couple of meetings on Tuesday, but the meetings got cancelled – notification came through mid-afternoon.  The only problem was that nobody could get hold of me because I don’t have a company mobile phone, so the only way to tell me about the cancellation was for some one to call at the hotel after I had checked in.The other problem was that I had been trying to save the company a few quid by getting the cheapest fare on Eurostar, which means a non-transferrable ticket, so I couldn’t get an earlier train back. The outcome was that I had to find some way to pass 12 hours in Paris.
Sounds good – but sightseeing is not really much fun when you are wearing a suit and carrying a holdall. There is only so much time you can spend lounging on a park bench listening to podcasts or reading a book in a cafe.
I did manage to take a couple of photos though. Well.. over 200 actually, so I hope that one or two of them turn out to be OK.  Many of them are very similar shots of the Montmartre cemetary, just so I could show Jayne what the place is like. Other than that it was the regular tourist sights like Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower, Sacre Coeur. All places I had been to before, but never took any photos of them – or took photos on a film camera and the prints are up in the loft somewhere.
My feet are killing me now. Next time, if there is one, I am wearing trainers just in case. Actually, if the meetings get re-arranged I am in two minds about going over there again: the whole thing is getting to be so much hassle.
Never mind. Got loads of photos for the Don’t Blink and Vanishing Point groups on Flickr. Might even have one for the phallic tombstones group too.
Statue at Versailles
Another statue at Versailles
Try a video conference next time ?
And yeah travelling on business is always boring
It is only boring if you let it be. I always try to build in a bit of ‘me time’ and do sightseeing – and go out to eat in neighbourhood restaurants instead of the hotel. The boring bit this time was in having a lot more spare time that I was prepared for.
Videoconference would be nice – but a sensitive topic at the moment. I have spent hours over the last few weeks trying to get our VC equipment to work properly.
We did think about attending this one by telephone – but it is difficult when it is being conducted in French with simulanteous translation. Not sure they have the equipment to do all that for dial-in participants.