PARIGI!!!! (aka Paris)
Oh Paris…I love you! We took the train to Paris from Florence on February 7 around 8pm. The train was the most interesting part of the trip if you ask me. We partied a while with a few bottles of wine until we were exhausted. We climbed into our hole-in-the-wall bunks…four people in one room! It was fun. Half way through the night, we heard our door open to have a girl standing in the doorway. Thank god we woke up because as it turns out, several people from our school had money, passports, Permisseo di Sigiorno’s, and credit card copies stolen while they were sleeping.
When we got to Paris, we took the subway to our hotel. We landed up staying in an Apart Hotel, which was a 23-story hotel with apartment style housing. Our room had four people with one bedroom, one bathroom, a full kitchen with a dishwasher and sink, and a pull out coach for the other two people in the apartment. Amanda and I got the bedroom thinking there were two to begin with. Guess not! Oops! We unpacked our belongings quickly, washed our faces and such, and then we headed back to the lobby where we left for a day at the Louvre.
I never imagined the Louvre to be so big, but it is mind-boggling! If you compare the property to the movie, it is nothing in comparison. I kid you not, mind blowing. I got to see the Mona Lisa and the Sphinx, as well as DumDum from the movie Night at the Museum. I don’t know how to actually say the statues real name; therefore, DumDum is going to have to work. We caught an amazing lunch near the Louvre. I had French Onion soup that was made without beef broth! Woah!
Also on Monday, we visited Notre Dam Cathedral. The exterior is just as I studied. There are gargoyles on the top of the church, surrounding the streets looking down on people. Watching you like hawks.
Tuesday was a field trip the Louis Vuitton Headquarters near Bourget and the Arc de Triomphe. We got a tour of the entire store as well as detailed descriptions of how the store is visually merchandised as well as how the garments are actually made. It was very interesting especially since Marc Jacobs is now the designer for LV Ready-to-Wear line.
We also attended TexWorld on Tuesday: a very large and famous textile trade show in Paris where millions of buyers and designers visit in just a few, short days. The overall set up of the show was interesting. The vendors were set up in categories of countries. The countries were grouped together in the show, and there were matching restaurants for the countries near each section of the show. One side of TexWorld was textile fabrics, and the other side was fixings: buttons, zippers, lace, beading etc. The show was informational because we had to meet with two vendors and interview each to gather as much information on the company as we could. This is what a buyer would do when they meet with vendors. Find out how business is doing, how are they doing this year in comparison to last year, the average price per meter of their textiles, what they sell best, whom they sell to and their main competition as well as key companies they sell to. All this information is extremely important when it comes to buying fabric because buyers and designers are placing a large sum of money on each order, so they want the best they can get.
Wednesday: We attended the Pierre Cardin Museum in the morning, which was extremely boring to the point I do not even want to talk about it. We also visited a very famous store called Collette, as well as St. Honoree, Palais Royale and Marais (a shopping area in close approximation with Tribecca, NYC).
On Wednesday night, Amanda and I were relaxing with our friend Sayam when he suggested we get Chinese across the street from our hotel. We walked in to the restaurant to see it was more fancy than we expected. Turns out, we sat down, had water delivered to our table, and then we were greeted by warm hand towels to clean our paws before we ate. I knew we were in trouble at that point. Then our menus arrived. French, no prices…oh shit. As it turned out, Amanda and I shared one plate that was 45 Euros alone. It was ‘vegetarian’: a blob of pureed tofu with ground veggies on top a bed of asparagus wrapped in coral, a clear sauce and slices of seaweed. Our meal came to a grand total of 30 Euros per person. We were so hungry by the time we left that we took a trip to the grocery store for wine, cheese, snacks and fruit. Yes, we drank and pigged out. After that, we went to a lounge bar on the other side of the river where my drinks cost me 40 Euros for two beverages. OMG>What an expensive night!
Thursday: We attended a meeting at the OECD called Organization for Economic Development. I decided to go out the night before this meeting with Sayam and Amanda and was exhausted this day so I actually fell asleep in the first row during the presentation! How embarrassing! Obviously, it wasn’t too exciting. I didn’t even make it through the first 15 minutes before I felt my head bobbing around. Oh yea, the economic part of the industry does not entice me in the least bit!
Printemps: The world’s most elegant department store comprised of 6 floors with a mid-high level price point. We attended an informational session in Printemps with one of the general directors of the store. He spoke with our classes about how the merchandise is purchased, how the store functions on a daily basis, and then he went into a PowerPoint on the current and upcoming trends for this season and Spring/Summer 2010. At this point, I again, felt myself dosing off. I guess I fell asleep at one point and woke up to my friend Rebecca (to my right) elbowing me in the ribs saying, “Kristen! Wake up! You are snoring!” How embarrassing…but it was so amusing that our entire row was laughing to the point we almost were excused.
Friday and Saturday were filled with Premier Vision (world’s largest textile trade show), shopping, wondering around Paris, and eating as much delicious food as possible, photography sessions and playing. Overall, Paris was an amazing trip. I fell in love with the people and the city and I cannot wait to go back in the spring. This upcoming weekend we are heading to Roma to visit our good friend from FIT, Brittany. Roma info to follow!
