| PERSONAL & CONFIDENTIAL SECTION |
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January 23, 2011 |
Personal
photos, September 2005
Serbia, France 2005 Departure from Serbia, Zurich, L'Etoile by Night... and Later by Day, Too |
FROM PARIS, FRANCE
Departure from Serbia...
Paris, France, Sep 17, 2005 - Before I left Sremska Mitrovica, I stopped once again at the cemetery and placed new flowers at my parents' grave...
...an orange set of gladiolas on my father's side (left) and a pink one on my mother's (left).
I said goodbye to Serbia on a hot and muggy day, and flew to Zurich on this modern Airbus 320 jet. By contrast, the aircraft Swiss Air uses on the Zurich-Paris route was a dinky 97-seater RJ100 that's too small for jetways. So we had to be bussed over to it, both in Zurich and in Paris. Strange...
The Zurich weather was overcast, as you can see, and quite cold (probably in the low 50s F).
Arrival in Paris...
I got to Paris on around 8PM to witness this pretty sunset on the bus I took from the Charles De Gaulle airport to L'Etoile, where my hotel is. I realized by the timing of the sunset (one hour later than Belgrade) that Paris really should be in a different time zone.
This is the French soccer stadium at which the World Cup of 1998 was held. France, the host country, of course, won it. I remember being here only a day after the final game against Brazil. All of Paris was still euphoric over that victory.
During a late night walk around my hotel's neighborhood, I took this photo of a full moon over the Arc de Triomphe.
In the distance, one could also see the upper section of the Eiffel Tower...
...and the same view the following morning.
Right next to Arc de Triomphe is Capgemini's world HQ. This is where I have held workshops in 1996, 1998 and 2000...
...and the same building the following morning...
...and from the back, where the entrance is, in the afternoon.
Finally, this is the view of Arc de Triomphe from Champs Elysees, where throngs of people were still milling around even though it was 11PM. The lineups at McDonald's, for example, were 10 people deep and 10 rows across the width of the counter. So much for the French rejecting the American "culture."
...and the same view the following morning.
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Bob's birthday 2005 & Part 2.1 & Part 2.2
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