Paris & Normandie

It's been a while since I have been to beautiful Paris last time. Now work gave me again an occasion to come back to France :-)
Reason for flying to France was a big tourism fair (TopResa) held every year in Paris in the second half of September. In previous years it has always been my French colleagues attending this fair. This year, however, we went in five from the office combining the fair with several client visits.

The work part of this trip started only from Monday 19th of September. Two colleagues of mine and I, though, we took a flight already on Saturday 17th in order to use the weekend in France for private plans.
For me this was visiting long-time friends I hadn't seen for ages! One of my oldest friends, Fabienne, I met as 10-year-old on a camp site in France while on summer holidays with my parents. She and her family are French, from the area of Normandie in the North of France. From that summer on we had started writing us regularly letters - first in German and later (when I started learning French at school) also in French - until now :-). The friendship wasn't only between Fabienne and me. Also our parents got along well.
In the past 25 years, I had been quite a few times visiting Fabienne and her family in France - sometimes with my parents and my brother, sometimes without. In her 20s then Fabienne moved to Cologne for 2 years of her law studies and the two families met a couple of times in Germany.
The last time I met Fabienne was in 2012, actually at another occasion where I combined work with leisure. After some business days in Paris I had travelled to the west coast of France to meet her in Pornic where she lived at that time.
However, her parents I hadn't seen since 2007, when I visited them while living in Paris. Now, this September that I had to travel to Paris again, I used that weekend to visit Fabienne's parents.

But before I took the train to the north, to Rouen, I met with yet another friend: Audrey :-)

Normally living in Holland, but that weekend at home and thus also in Paris, Audrey and I had the chance to meet for a couple of hours to have lunch together. So great to see you again, Audrey!!! ...and merci for the "pâte à tartiner" :-)

In the early afternoon then Audrey accompanied me to St. Lazare train station where I took my train to Rouen en Normandie where I was picked up by Fabienne's parents Odile and Lionel.


In the early evening we drove to Dieppe, at the coast. We had a little stroll through town, but just a short one as it was so super windy and grey/rainy.

Later in the evening we had dinner at this lovely place, a restaurant called "Auberge du Vieux Puits". This was not the restaurant Odile and Lionel initially wanted to take me to, but since the original one had been fully booked, they just followed some positive comments and recommendations on tripadvisor which brought us all to this cosy restaurant. And it was super super nice! We had a very delicious dinner - for which Fabienne's parents even invited me (considering my forthcoming birthday). Odile et Lionel: encore un très grand merci pour l'invitation - c'était délicieux et j'ai passé une très bonne soirée avec vous :-)

Some sparkling fruity apéritif, followed by a very very nice cidre and later on red wine for the main course.

The fourth person in the picture, the young blond man on the right, is Olivier, Fabienne's brother. As a surprise to me he was at home as well in those days and joined us for dinner. Fabienne was unfortunately not with us - she currently lives in La Réunion (a French overseas department in the Indian Ocean), i.e. everything else then close enough to just drop by this weekend.

Their wonderful house in Houppeville where I had visited them already so many times.

Saying goodbye to Olivier before heading with his parents to Rouen from where I had to take the train back to Paris.

However, before taking the train, we had a little walk through the city centre of Rouen. I had been there a couple of times previously with Fabienne and/or her family, but many many years ago.

Rouen Cathedral

 

The "Gros Horloge", an astronomical clock dating back to the 16th century.

Timber framing architecture in the streets of Rouen.

The church "Sainte Jeanne d'Arc" at the "Place du Vieux-Marché". This square is famous for being the place where Jeanne d'Arc (St. Joan of Arc) was brought on 30th of May 1431, tortured and subsequently burnt alive.

The "Palais de Justice" (courthouse) of Rouen - Lionel's work place.

Lionel works here as a judge, a circumstance that allowed him to give me a private tour through the courthouse and its rooms which are usually not or only partially (during some judicial hearings) open for the public :-) Very interesting!

In the early evening it was time to say goodbye also to Odile and Lionel and to take the train back to Paris.

An hour later I was back in the capital and met with my two colleagues Stéphanie and Caroline as well as with a former trainee of us (Morgane) and a client of ours and likewise friend of Stéphanie (Sophie). Time for dinner!

Monday: business! Several client visits during the day. In the evening an event organized by one of our biggest French clients - during which Caroline won on behalf of Terra Nova an award for well presenting the uniqueness of some typical Norwegian accommodation.

Tuesday: more client visits, attending TopResa toursim fair and at last dinner with our most important French client. And right before going to bed - just to make the next morning even more difficult - a bottle of champagne among us colleauges.

Wednesday: I don't have to tell you how we felt after a couple of fully loaded long days, a "few" drinks and only 5 hours of sleep before catching our flight back to Oslo. Caro and I had to keep each other awake to not miss our flight falling asleep in front of the boarding gate. Back in the office (we eventually both opted for the home-office version) we both took it pretty slowly - to be back at full speed and energy on Thursday instead :-)

Professionally: I'd say a successful trip. Privately: lovely! Generally: sooo nice to be back in Paris - just love it!