Paris

Paris.
The city of all cities.
And my place to work for most of the week until mid of July.

I have found the most wonderful place to stay.
Our office in Paris is located northwest of the city center, in Nanterre. (Some 15 minutes with the metro.)
Last week I stayed in a hotel in Nanterre which was not the most charming experience.
Heavy traffic outside the window, and a vintage wall-to-wall carpet.

As a result my collegue Louise from UK and myself surfed the net and found this wonderful little place.
Les jardines de Camille.
It is situated between Paris and Nanterre, in Suresnes.

It is a lovely restaurant and a chambres d'hôtes, i.e the propriator has some rooms for rent.
So Louise and me got fresh, newly decorated rooms (without a wall to wall carpet) with exit to a small terrace.
And the best, the view:

You can see the Eiffel Tower much clearer in reality, my cellphone does not make justice to the view.

Here you can see La Défense, Paris new business area.
And the food.....*sigh*

Duck carpaccio.
Heaven.

View from the window.

And eating the breakfast in the morning sun; coffee and fresh baked croissants, and the Eiffel Tower just ahead of me.
(Might even be worth being away from home for a while?)

On Thursday we went downtown Paris for a dinner,everyone in the project.
The trees were full of lovely blue flowers. Amazing.

We went to Graindorge, a small Belgian restaurant not far from the Arc de Triomphe.

Again, wonderful food. 

And I brought something home:

I thought it would be hectic to take on this project, and it has been, perhaps even more than I thought.

It is very interesting though.

Well at home, we arranged a dressage show today.

I had to work at the arrangement, so no start for me.
But Anna, who is a year older than my daughter and rides Fame twice a week started Fame and won her class.

So did my daughter and Charlie.

So I was both a proud Mum and a proud horse owner today!

Anna and Fame

These are a few of my favourite things...

.

To bury my head in the fur of a sleeping cat.
Feel the amazing softness, and the clean, warm fragance of cat.
Hear the purr.

To hack out with my daughter.
Share a laugh, often about our funny horses.
Canter alongside each other, and feel the togetherness both of us, and our horses.
Enjoy the nature, and the beauty in small and large things.

My horse.
Her eyes.
Her soft nicker.


To sit on the entrance stairs with a cup of coffee, enjoying the last rays of sun and the fresh air after spending the day in the office.
Small things.
Important things.


How about you?

Hannover

Coming down to Hannover, Germany I was met with sun and summer temperatures.
We had some lovely flowers right outside the hotel.


As we were sitting indoors working long days, I started the mornings with a walk in the small park just outside the hotel.
There was a flock of rabbits living there, and they were all out having their breakfast when I was having my morning walk. 
I just love watching those white tails bobbing away when they were keeping a safe distance to me.
There were some very cute youngsters among them too.

One of the evenings I met my friend Anne, who is living in Hannover.
We had a dinner outside in the lovely warm evning, and talked mostly horse - I had a very good time!
In Germany it is Spargelzeit now, aspargus season, something that I took advantage of:

Thursday evening all participants in the project team were transported by bus to a small village outside Hannover.
We were invited into an old restaurant ( building dated 1606) to a medival dinner.

After a short intro from our host, the first meal was served:

The potatoes were just poured out on the middle of the table from some large baskets carried around, lol!
Kind of a rustic way to serve...but as you see all was in the same setting; we had a wooden plate, a knife and a wood spoon.
So it was just to dig in.
Potatoes were served with sour cream and bacon in bowls to be shared with people around you.

We had some very nice meat further on, and our large beer mugs were never empty.
Some of the guys volunteered to get some extra liquor, also served in a rather rustic way:

The atmosphere was rather high after a while, and as there were many nationalities we ended up singing songs from every country.
The buss took the still singing, rowdy crowd home at about 11.30 pm.
Needless to say some were a wee bit tired the day after.
(I was VERY happy I stayed with the beer).

Rounding off this week I was in for a pleasant suprise.
We are to split into two groups after the initial weeks.
One group is to work in Hannover, and the other (where I belong) is to work in......

PARIS!
I was sooo disappointed!
Not.
*tapdances*