I spent the first two weeks in June in Europe, helping out our European sales team and doing one of my usual trips to the office in Toulouse.
The view from my hotel in Paris, near the Eiffel Tower.
Much like I did last year, the timing for the trip made sense to combine it with our annual Innovation Summit, a customer facing event that we do each year. I attended last year, and figured it made sense again this year. In addition, one of the sales team set-up a meeting with a big prospect in Stockholm. So that meant the first week split between Paris and Stockholm, and the second week in Toulouse.
One of the views as I made my way to the Musee D'Orsay.
I arrived late afternoon on Monday, having transferred through Munich from Vancouver. I was pretty tired, but still managed to take the train all the way from the airport into the centre of Paris. Much like last year, we were holding out annual event at the Novotel Hotel near the Eiffel Tower. We had the event all day Tuesday, and the Wednesday was spent with our EMEA Sales team as they had their quarterly sales meeting. It made for a couple of long days, with dinners in the evening and the usual socializing.
My favoruite art museum, the Musee D'Orsay
Thursday, late afternoon I was flying from Paris to Stockholm for a meeting with a customer on Friday morning. As such I had most of Thursday free. So I decided I had lost enough of my weekends this trip, and so decided to spend the morning and early afternoon at a couple of art museums - the Musee D'Orsay and the Rodin Museum.
The famous clock face inside the Musee D'Orsay, looking out over the Louvre.
The Musee D'Orsay with it's famous collection of Impressionist art is my favourite art museum in the world - even more so than it's more famous, deeper and more diverse neighbour across the river. The collection is amazing, but it's the building - an old train station - that really sets it apart. I spent a few hours wandering and enjoying the morning.
There were lots of great flowers in bloom everywhere I went.
My second stop was the Musee Rodin
My second stop was one I had not done before - the Musee Rodin. I'm not a huge sculpture fan, but everyone knows Rodin, and I figured I should see this collection. It was along my way back from the Musee D'Orsay to the hotel, so it was easy to stop in and have a stroll around the grounds.
The Thinker, probably his most well known work.
The house and grounds, which make up the museum are beautiful.
As primarily a sculptor, most of his works are rather large scale and displayed around the mansion and around the grounds of the house. The gardens were spectacular, with huge rose gardens and beautifully manicured lawns. I wandered for quite a while, stopped and had lunch, and then walked back to the hotel through the streets of Paris on a spectacular afternoon.
I worked for a little while in the afternoon before hopping in an Uber to the airport. There had been rotating train strikes all week, so I was unable to take the train as planned. Paris is always lovely, and while being mostly about work, I still had a nice day to explore.