INDS:250: French Commerce and Culture in the EU.

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January 5, 2007. We arrive in Paris. 21 students and Professors Averett and Bukics. We stayed at the Hotel Minerve

click here to go to the Minerve website.

Our first outing was a walking Tour of Montmartre provided by Paris Walks.

Below is a picture of the group outside Metro Abbesses-- with Chris, our guide.

Here are some pictures of our tour. Montmartre is the area where the movie Amalie was situated and filmed.

Below is poor St. Denis after his head was cut off...fortunately he was able to run to his grave before he died...

Our next stop was our group dinner. President Weiss and his son Teddy joined us as did Emily Katz, class of '06.

On Saturday morning, we walked over to Saint Chappelle. Below are Lan, Luigi, Robert, April and Collette

We were fortunate to have President Weiss take us on a personal tour of St. Chappelle and of the Louvre. Below, students follow the president into the chapel.

The stained glass inside the chapel is magnificent.

President Weiss in action below:

Natalie Folks (Professor Averett's daughter) and Teddy Weiss also enjoyed the tour.

Natalie and Lan in front of Notre Dame (Paris Cathedral) and the Cathedral itself

After St. Chappelle and Notre Dame, we walked with President Weiss over to the Louvre where we received our personalized tour.

Teddy and Natalie enjoyed the tour while President Weiss lectured to our group.

One of the many interesting things that the President showed us is below. From the front, this sculpture has two legs which looks correct when viewed from the front.

However, to also look "right" when viewed from the side, note that there is an "extra" leg...pretty cool!

We then went to visit the Bourse...Napolean had this built to be a "temple of finance." We enjoyed a great historical tour and then had a modern day look at the Euronext.

Here we are standing below the old trading board

We went to ESCP, a premier French business school where Robert Piret, a business professor, spoke to us about the French education system and entrepreneurship in France.

Our diligent students took notes.... and Professor Bukics and Professor Averett posed with our speaker

Our next stop was Brussels, the heart of Europe!! First stop, a group dinner. Many of us enjoyed mussels and Belgium french fries! The restaurant was called

We had a great talk by Patrick Vittel of the European Commission. His talk can be accessed here.

Group picture taken after our talk at the European Commission

We had two wonderful lectures at Vesalius College in Brussels. Unfortunately, we didn't get a photo of either speaker so the one of Professors Averett and Bukics below will have to do.

Dr. Alea Fairchild gave a great talk on starting a business in France. Her talk can be accessed here: Vesalius College - Dr. Fairchild Presentation.ppt

Dr. William Chew gave a great talk on Franco/American stereotypes. His talk can be accessed here: Vesalius College - Dr. Chew Presentation.ppt. Dr. Chew had taught at Lafayette in the early 1990s and spoke to us wearing his Lafayette College sweater.

We left Brussels and traveled to London on the Eurostar! What a great experience. Before our departure, we talked about the building of the tunnel under the English Channel from both an economic and financial perspective.

For more information,click here: http://www.raileurope.com/us/rail/eurostar/channel_tunnel.htm

Our first event in London was a walking tour of the city. Shaughn was our guide and he gave us great insights into the history of the city of London.

Professor Bukics shows her strength by lifting a gold bar as we toured the Bank of England museum as part of our walking tour.

This is the Lloyds of London building. Read more about this insurance company here: http://www.lloyds.com/About_Us/

We returned to Easton at about 5:45 pm on Friday January 19, 2007