Meckenheim - Bologna - Paris

Travelling Germany, Italy and France all in a 10-days trip!


Stop 1: Meckenheim

On 6th of October it's my mum's birthday and I haven't been with her for her birthday for ages. So it was time to do that this year! I had booked a flight early on Thursday morning 06/10 so that I was home at around noon.

I helped her a little bit with the preparations for the little gathering at our place later in the evening. She had invited a hand full of people. Among them also the people I used to do jazz-dance and play volleyball with when I still lived at home. They are also pretty active in the local yoga club which my mum and her husband attend as well and during the last couple of years they became pretty good friends. So the little dinner party turned out to be a pretty pleasant and cosy one...

...combined with veeeeeeeeery good food: my mum prepared some delicious creamy "cep soup" (is that the right word for "Steinpilz-Suppe"?) out of the good porcini mushrooms I regularly bring her from Italy, we had a baking tray of yummy "Zwiebelkuchen" (typical local onion tart), I prepared a quiche lorraine, we had a cheese platter and for dessert some indefinable mix of forest fruits, yoghurt/"Quark" and chocolate bits.
Of course this was well accompanied by quite some wine :-)

Stop 2: Bologna

After a short night I just got some things done. And already at noon my mum drove me to the airport of Cologne-Bonn; already in the early afternoon I had my flight to Italy. My stay at home was thus pretty short. It was indeed just a stopover to celebrate my mum's birthday with her after so many years.
I was flying to Bologna as it was Marco's birthday on October 11th. Amore mio turned 30!!! :-) And we hadn't seen for a while. So time to get to Bella Bologna. When I arrived, Marco was still at work, so I just met his brother Dario.

During the weekend we had the pleasure of some visitors, friends of us coming over. On the Saturday 08/10, it was Dario with his Brazilian girlfriend Gabriela who came from Padova for a day. It was really nice. I hadn't met Gabriela before. Together we spent a great and sunny day in Bologna. They had arrived for lunch time, just on time to benefit from Marco's delicious pasta carbonara. In the afternoon we showed Dario and Gabriela the town, though I think Dario had been to Bologna before. However, they were taking some nice pictures... which actually made me aware of the fact that I don't have many digital pictures from my lovely Bologna!
My time in Bologna as au-pair girl is by now - oh my god! - nearly 10 years ago!!! At that time digital cameras weren't that common yet. So all those hundreds of pictures that I have from discovering this beautiful town are actually printed on paper, i.e. no way near to being on my pc to be posted. It seems that one beautiful summer day, when finally having a new camera (you remember, my old one broke and I still haven't bought a new one), I will have to stroll through Bologna and shoot some of all those many beautiful and characteristic spots. This city is soooo beautiful!

So at the moment I only have the pictures Dario and Gabriela shot during that weekend.

in Via Zamboni

chiesa San Giacomo Maggiore

in Via Zamboni

le Due Torri, the Two Towers, Bologna's landmark

in Via Rizzoli, the heart of Bologna

in Piazza Maggiore, the main square

Fontana del Nettuno, the Neptune fountain next to Piazza Maggiore

in the yard of the Palazzo Comunale

Piazza Maggiore

around Piazza Carvour

authentic Italian food shops in Via Pescherie Vecchie

Piazza della Mercanzia

some old ladies in a café at Corte Isolani, a passage between Piazza Santo Stefano and Strada Maggiore

the Piazzetta (square) of Santa Maria dei Servi in Strada Maggiore

in Strada Maggiore

For dinner on that Saturday, we have traditionally been to our favourite pizzeria "Belle Arti" where we even got a table in the cosiest part of the restaurant, in the vault, the wine cellar part :-) Good food, good pizza, good atmosphere and a good time laughing and talking.

On the Sunday, another friend of Marco came: Ciccio and his girlfriend Marina. They had arrived from Firenze, also right on time for good food: gramignia alla salsiccia. Yummy! Together we went out at night, having some drinks and chats. Ciccio had studied and lived together with Marco in Bologna and he enjoyed being back in town.

Monday was pretty unspectacular. Marco had to work and I used the time to get some things done. And Tuesday was then Marco's birthday. He had taken the day off so that we could spent the whole day together. After sleeping in and having some nice lunch we went for a stroll to the "Giardini Margherita" park where we just lay down on the grass enjoying the warm sun. While temperatures in Oslo had already fallen down to some 12-15°C in that period, Bologna showed itself with warm 25-28°C! This felt so fantastic! Skirt, t-shirt, flip-flops...Nice!
In the evening Marco had prepared some delicious pizza which we had with his brother and a friend coming over. In the end nothing spectacular for this 30th birthday.

Unfortunaltely, this was the last day for me in Bologna... for this time. The next day my trip continued.



Stop 3: Paris

On Wednesday 12/10 Marco had to be back at work. So I had to say goodbye to him already in the morning :-(  (How I hate this saying goodbye, every time again!) Thus, it was Marco's brother who accompanied me to the airport in the afternoon. My flight from Bologna didn't bring me back to Oslo, but to Paris, the initial purpose for this trip being work. On Thursday and Friday some client visits were on the programme.

I had arrived at the secondary, remote airport Paris-Beauvais from where a shuttle bus brought me to Porte Maillot on the west side of Paris. From there I took a taxi to the hotel which was a really nice drive through central Paris, passing the Arc de Triomphe, the Champs-Élysées...When I checked in at the hotel (All Seasons République) I just stayed in the room. I waited for my colleague Elisa to arrive as well from Italy. By the time she arrived it was already pretty late, so we immediately went out for dinner in a close by bistro while discussing the next couple of days.


On Thursday we met four clients, two in the morning and two in the afteroon. With one of our best clients we actually went out for lunch which turned out to be a good occasion for discussions and talk about business. Later in the afternoon, in the early evening, also Franck arrived in Paris. Before going out for dinner together he offered Elisa and me the long promised bottle of champagne as a reward for the good business we've done over the past year :-)  Franck being originally from Alsace, we ended up - of course - in an Alsatian restaurant which I didn't mind at all, because the food served wasn't too far from German cuisine (e.g. Sauerkraut).


The evening ended pretty late, so I was a little tired when waking up the next morning. On Friday's programme were again some client visits. While Franck visited some group clients, Elisa and I said hello to some FIT relevant clients and a potentially new client. Only for our last visit Franck joined us.

All in all I would say it was two successful days with the clients being happy having welcomed us and discussing the next season. From our last meeting Elisa went straight back to the airport and back to her family in Italy. Franck continued for the weekend in Alsace. I, however, used the occasion of being in Paris for work, to combine it with a private stay during the weekend. I mean, the company pays you a flight from Paris to Oslo, no matter if on a Friday or a Sunday. Who wouldn't use this occasion to spend a weekend for leisure in Paris???
I just loooooove this city and France in general. Thus, I so much wanted to use this weekend and benefit from this sponsored trip :-)


Audrey, my French friend from Oslo, comes from Paris. And exactly that weekend she was in Paris as well, visiting her parents. After several considerations of what I could possibly do during that weekend, I was actually visiting Audrey at her parents' place :-) Thus, after my last appointment on the Friday I went back to the hotel, took my suitcase and made my way towards the "banlieue" (suburbs) of Paris, to Sannois. I arrived at Audrey's parents place even before Audrey who was only arriving later in the evening. The idea was a bit strange, because I didn't know her parents at all, but it was absolutely no problem. Her parents are really nice and were really welcoming. So I was eating dinner ("quenelles" - a sort of dumplings, traditionally from Lyon) with them and Audrey's sister and brother, before we drove together to the airport Charles-de-Gaulle to pick up Audrey.

The plan for Saturday was to visit the factory of Louis Vuitton. During that weekend there was something going on in Paris called "Les Journées Particulières" (The Particular Days) organised by the group Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH), a French multinational luxury goods company. Various companies of this luxury goods group opened (partially for the first time ever) their doors to the public: Louis Vuitton, Moët & Chandon, Bulgari, Berluti, Veuve Clicquot, Givenchy, Christian Dior, Guerlain, Fendi, Hennessy, Emilio Pucci and others.

The initial plan was to get into the manufactory of the fashion designer Louis Vuitton in the suburbs of Paris, kind of close to where Audrey lives.

However, though we arrived there pretty early, we weren't able to enter anymore. They only let 10 people enter at a time for a tour of about 45 minutes starting every half an hour. This makes in a whole day from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. (10 x 2 x 8) 160 people being able to enter. When we arrived the queue was already soooooooooooooo long that we wouldn't make it to enter - even if we had waited the whole day in the queue... which we definitely didn't feel like doing.
Alternatively we decided to try and get into another factory, that of the luxury men's shoe manufacturer and retailer Berluti. They are famous especially for their tailor-made shoes... for those who can affort it (prices start at 4.200€ !!!). Past Berluti clients include Robert De Niro, Andy Warhol, Gérard Depardieu, Yves Saint Laurent, Arnold Schwarzeneger, Elizabeth Arden and Bryan Ferry.
When we arrived we still had to queue, but "only" two hours, before we could get in in a group of 5. It was pretty interesting to see how a hand made shoe is created and produced from the very beginning of measuring a client's foot to the final product. However, orders for personalised shoes take about 9 months to be delivered!!! 

Of course, we weren't allowed to take any pictures inside the factory, so no more pictures from that visit.

After that informative visit we just walked around Paris. Though I was in Paris - a place which just calls for taking thousands of pictures - I didn't take many as I still don't have a proper, new camera. I had a borrowed one with me to take at least a few. However, I know Paris pretty well, not only from my time when I was living there and during the many times I've been to Paris, I've taken already a lot of photographs. But still, I took at least a few. Paris is simply too beautiful for not taking any pictures :-)

Right after the Berluti visit, we stopped for a little exposition at the Petit Palais...

... and from there further on over the Champs-Élysées and just strolling along the Seine river. The weather was just gorgeous!

the Musée d'Orsay

We have been walking the whole day long, on a beautiful sunny day. In the early evening we returned to Audrey's place where we prepared - also pretty traditional - some tasteful crêpes!

There was not much on the programme for me on the Sunday. I had my flight back to Oslo. However, since I was flying again from Paris-Beauvais airport, I had to leave from Audrey's home at around noon to get to the city centre and from there to Porte Maillot from where the airport shuttle bus leaves. Thus by the time I arrived at home in Oslo, it was already evening and nothing much to do anymore except for going to bed.

I had a really good time in Paris with you and your parents, Audrey :-) And I thank you and them very much for having me welcomed at your/their place! It was really nice to get to know your family and to see where you live(d).