[A TRAVEL LOG: PARIS, 10-12 MARCH]
Monday, 10 March
The team left Hong Kong on Sunday evening, caught a plane and 13 hours later (which included a mad dash through Heathrow) we were in Paris. We reached Charles de Gaulle at 8.25am and we had Kaja and Sly cab straight to the ICC (International Chamber of Commerce) for the first moot at 10am while the rest of us dragged our luggages through the metro and RER trains. We should have definitely taken a cab but being the adventurers that we were, we had opted for trains. Such a bad idea but I must say the boys were absolute heroes helping with all the heavy lifting.
roman and dave at the airport
keren, dave, luggage
tired vissies
We finally found our Hotel Bastille and then took a nice walk about the town. I decided to lunch with Keren at a nice cafe and it had the most gorgeous hot chocolate. I shrank in the leather cub seat and looked out of the glass roof overhead and saw the rainy Parisian weather pelting down above me. It was beautiful.
the boys horrified that this was their sleeping arrangement
view from my room
cafe bastille
lunch with keren
We rushed off for Jen and Shen’s moot next and so ten minutes late, we scurried down Cours Albert in our tottering heels and had Phil run ahead of us to try and tell someone we were late. Thankfully though the previous moot was running late which meant we were just in time (!). The moot went fine, considering we were just off a 13 hour plane ride and had to make a run for it down the streets of Paris.
the ICC
As soon as the moot was over we had a cocktail party at the ICC. And as they ushered us into a room with floor to ceiling windows, the view was breathtaking. The Eiffel tower was just in the distance and many amazing buildings outlined the cityscape. With canapés, cheeses, pastries and drinks going round, I was pretty happy.
the spread
most of the monash team
As exhausted as we were, the whole team dragged ourselves to the ICC dinner event. The restaurant we were at was really nice with pretty good food but I think we were far too tired to really enjoy it. The boys had to prop me up on the way home because I was dozing off half the time in the trains. The last thing I remember was a hot shower and crashing into bed and snuggling under the warm covers.
ICC dinner event
seafood dinner
Tuesday, 11 March
Phil and Sly had their moot first up at 11am and after they were done Jen, the boys and me decided to take a walk down the Champs Elysees. Heaps of crazy photos later, we snuck into a cafe for lunch and sipped on coffee and hot chocolates.
jen and her hat!
making our way down champs elysee and phil doing his thing
very dali-like building
arc de triomphe
all smiles
We headed back to the ICC in the afternoon because I had my moot with Alice. And for a moment, as Alice began to speak, I realised how amazing the experience was- mooting in front of a Secretariat of the Asia-Pacific region to the ICC, a partner from Sherman & Sterling and another ICC bigwig. The enormity of the situation almost overwhelmed me but I made sure to focus on the very thoughts that I would be verbalising in my moot and when my time came, I just remember entering my appearance before everything went on auto pilot. It was one of the coolest things ever.
alice and me at our moot- wallenburg room
big wig arbitrators
we headed to the musee d'orsay after where I felt absolutely exhausted and started feeling under the weather. We were looking at Monet's water lilies but I went to to the back of the room and stared at some chair in the corner for a good 30 seconds wondering if it was an exhibit before I sat down in it.
feeling absolutely like crap
clock at the musee d'orsay
sacre coeur from afar
Wednesday, 12 March
We were finally done with the moots at the ICC and had a free day. Most of us split up and it was just Phil, Roman, Jen and me in the earlier part of the day. We first headed off for a breakfast and hot chocolate in Bastille.
pastries galore
roman, phil, jen
on our walk by the eiffel tower and place de la concorde
all aboard
Roman suggested we took a boat ride down the Seine and we even dragged the reluctant Phil onto it. I don’t think any of us regretted spending the better part of the afternoon cruising down the banks of the River Seine even if it was a chilly day. The best view surely had to be when we emerged from under a bridge to find a towering Notre Dame Cathedral overhead.
jen and me on the windy boat ride
sailing along
our little bundle of joy
notre dame behind us
paris boat crew
When we were done with our boat trip, we met the rest at the carousel by the Eiffel Tower. They were taking forever because they decided to walk from the Louvre and so while waiting for them, Jen and me managed a carousel ride and also shared some fries with Rome and Phil.
carousel
jen and me being kids
le french fry
kaja joins us for a crepe
But when the rest finally came, we made our way to the Latin Quarter for some awesome lunch on Shen’s recommendation. While walking down the streets, Phil, Dave and me decided to take a detour from the rest of the team, sneaking into a colosseum and basically jumping about for shots. It was a spontaneous moment but absolute gold.
dave and phil
dave and phil airborne
me
me again
The long journey to Rue Mouffetard was more than worth it because the French Onion soup was absolutely divine and we revelled in fish, escargot and much, much more.
phil and his leprechaun leap on our way to rue mouffetard
the bunch of us
french onion soup
jen digging in
After lunch, it was just Phil, Jen and me who decided to go to the Notre Dame while the rest went to Montmarte and Sacre Coeur. The Notre Dame was an amazing church, needless to say. While looking at the great expanse of stained glass windows, the church began to echo with the singing of the choir and it was beautiful. We spent ages in the church and when we finally decided to climb the towers, it had closed and so we found ourselves outside the church taking in the magnificent view one more time.
notre dame
vaulted ceilings
phil, jen and me
jen
me
phil
And as we made our way home on the train and the walk back down the street back to our hotel with the sun setting over Paris, the three of us realised that this was it-- Paris was over and, for us Vienna mooters at least, the madness would begin in just 1 day and the idyllic afternoon we’d just spent together would not be happening anytime soon. And so there we were, taking pictures on the road side with the setting sun behind us, because we simply had to.
bastille
finally managed a shot with us three in it
we did a round of practice moots but didn't realise that after such a long day it would be pure agony. initially there were plans to go to crazy horse but as the pictures will show, we were too knackered to even get through a decent practice moot let alone have a night out!
sly finding that the only spare power point in the room is next to the sink
timers and arbitrators
it wasn't the moot that was boring, i swear
dave fresh as a daisy
we were up the next morning and made our way to charles de gaulle. I received feedback from Jeff for my ICC moot from the day before as we were waiting around for our flight to Vienna and tried to think through how differently I'd moot in Vienna. It was a pretty turbulent flight so with phil and jen next to me, they distracted me with a round of "questions". Many hand squeezes later, we were in Vienna.
"who knows what happens after here,
let's take each other's hand and jump into the final frontier"
- final frontier, anita baker
