Started this week with a nice Choir rehearsal on Monday.

Then on Tuesday I was invited to the House of Lords to help present on the Camden Digital Inclusion efforts as part of a larger presentation on UK digital efforts. It was interesting to see what their specific goals were and how they were defining success on such a broad and hard to define area. I was able to talk with some of the other stakeholders there and enjoyed it.

Thursday evening, Steph and I headed to Paris. We got in pretty late so just went straight to the hotel, which was really nice. We stayed in a hotel we had been to before, but Steph got an especially interesting futuristic room. It had AC which we turned way down and really enjoyed as sleeping over the past week in the heat had been hard at home.

Friday I joined Tina and Amit going into the Paris Catacombs. It is the old quarries that were used to build the structures around Paris, and they are insanely extensive. In the mid 1700’s they were getting to be too extensive and some started to collapse so they began to just prop them up and monitor all the excavations. Then they decided to move many of the bones and cemeteries down to this one section, which now houses millions of people’s worth of bones. Each section is from a specific cemetery and the walls are built of the larger bones with the smaller ones piled behind them. It was interesting and the presentation of the whole space was really well done with location based audio clips. It was also a hard set of tickets to get as the tickets go on sale one week ahead of time, for each time slot.

Afterwards Tina had to run to get to a rehearsal for her dances, but Amit and I were able to wander some more. We walked up to the Luxembourg Gardens and sat and talked next to a really fancy fountain. It was a lovely walk. We then met up with Tina near the Eiffel Tower. We walked the park, then decided to climb the stairs up. You can only go about halfway up by the stairs, and we were happy with that. The way down was much faster. We went back to the hotels for a quick rest, and AC. Then we met for a really nice dinner with Steph, Amit, and myself. With Tina heading off to a gala. Then after it got pretty late Amit went climbing while Steph and I got another really nice night of sleep in the AC.

Saturday we grabbed a quick breakfast and met Tina, Amit, and Karen at the Dior museum. The women went through the museum while Amit and I walked around the Champs De Mars. We met them and went to a place that served Parisian cuisine. Then we went to the Jardins du Trocadéro across from the Eiffel tower. We went back to our hotels for a rest then met for dinner and drinks. At the end of the evening we got ready for a very early train back to the UK.

We got back and I quickly made my way to Merkato Mayfair to sing with choir. I got there late, but still had a great time. We went for a picnic afterwards, which was lovely. Steph and I went to see the Odessey that evening, and it was a great show to see in theaters.

London Weekly 186