Day 8

Saturday we were on the 11-hour flight home and extremely jet lagged by the time we arrived. Thus is the end of my wonderful trip to Paris and now the end to my wonderfully long blog about my wonderful trip to Paris. Time to start a adventure!

Child, Day 1 – Saturday

Hi I’m Katie. I’ve never written a blog before so this will be fun and with luck not too boring. Happiness! One thing you’ll learn about me is that I’m funny or at least I think I am, so do me a favor and just grin and bear my sad attempts at humor. Speaking of putting up with craziness, I am writing my blog a little differently, because it’s my blog and I’m weird like that. Instead of having the first day be the last post you read, it will be the first post. So instead of this post being the last post you read, hey it’s the first, it’s what I like to call the intro!  Ok so we’ve established that I tell bad jokes and my blog is backwards, awesome we’re off to a great start.  (By the way Child is my last name, I’m not some kid impersonating an adult, I get that a lot.)

Child, Day 2 – Sunday

Ok, so after four chapters of my western novel, two movies and a sleepless night full of crying babies we arrived in France, Paris to be exact. It was just passed 6 am when we arrived and all of Paris was covered in darkness.  The sky was turning a beautiful red ocher that was reflected in the street lamps that lined the streets. After 9 hours on a flight at 31,000 feet in the air though, any land looked gorgeous, but Paris especially. We landed about a half hour later and made our way to the shuttles that Maria had booked for us to ride to Hotel Malar. Twenty-five minutes later we arrived at the hotel, only to discover that we couldn’t check in till 2 pm. So we dumped our luggage in the corner of the lobby and headed out to sight see.

We passed the Hotel Des Invalides and made our way along the Point Alexander III Bridge and crossed the Seine River. Then we walked along the Seine towards the Eiffel Tower and the Palace De Chaillot which is just north-west of the tower. This gave us a great opportunity for tons of beautiful photo –shoots for our group.  Around lunch time we headed to an awesome little market just around the corner from our hotel and got yummy French food! At this point myself and my awesome friend Mercedes got separated from the group so we decided what would be better than eating our spoils of French bread and smelly cheese right at the base of the Eiffel Tower? Not only were we camped under one of the most beautiful feats of architectural integrity but we got to PEOPLE WATCH! It’s a fun game the French play, it’s when you sit down in your fancy clothes (only were American and too focused on comfort to wear fancy clothes) and watch other people walk around in their fancy clothes. After we finished eating, we decided to explore a bit by ourselves, oh adventurers were we! We stumbled upon the Arc De Triomphe Etoile, its this huge arch with intricate designs in the middle of this huge round-about. By the time Mercedes and I made it back to the hotel it was time to check into our rooms.

I loved my room even more so because Mercedes and I got to room together, OK, so imagine a match box with two smallish beds, a TV that speaks French at you, a vanity, and a closet hutch. I felt like the Clifford in Emily’s apartment.  Everything is tiny in France because you have all these people practically living on top of each other. For a country girl from the states that was a huge claustrophobic moment. Along with our bedroom we had our own bath room with our own toilet, which in France you come to appreciate very much because the French do not believe in public toilets, needless to say I didn’t drink much water. It also held a shower, also a blessing after about 14 hours of flying. J

Our hosts in Paris were amazing, Carol one our guides/mentors/translators lead us as a group to the Seine where we went on a boat ride that enabled us to see Paris from a nautical view. We traveled down and around the Ile De La Cite, or the Island of the City on which Notre Dame resides.

From there we were invited to the home of Elizbeth Hochman; she is a lawyer and real estate consultant in Paris and a member of the Center Board. She had such a beautiful home and so many yummy treats to eat, it really was a great chance to meet everyone --the students from the University of Paris, the students from North-western and the students I didn’t know from Washburn along with the entire faculty. Lee Huebner, an Airlie Professor of Media and Public Affairs at the George Washington University, was introduced to us. Later that night we met Christian Malard, an established French television journalist who covers international affairs for France 5 television. He had a ton of stories to share with us.

Child, Day 3-Monday

On Monday we all met in the hotel lobby for a day of field trips. Our first stop Publicis Groupe, one of the world’s largest advertizing agencies. The best part was it was on avenue des Champs Elysées cattycorner to the arc de Triomphe! They let us go up on their terrace to get great pictures of the arc and the surrounding neighborhoods. Then we were ushered into Marcel Bleustein’s, the founder of Publicis Groupe, original private viewing room.  We learned about Publicis’s clients and how they handle their business. It was so cool to realize that a ton of what we would consider American commercials are made internationally and that we in the US are not the only customers of these products. Like Coca-cola, that’s become a huge international brand, as well as Disney -- I even got a flyer of the Disney theme park in France!

From there we journeyed to the International Herald Tribune where we ate lunch and Anne Bagamery, the senior editor of the IHT,  explained how the paper medium  is being replaced by internet or iPhone apps. Personally, I‘ve been meaning to add it as an app on my iPod, I really enjoyed the newspaper they gave to us and thought what better way to stay in touch with the world outside my own?

Between 3 and 7 pm we had some free time so we decided to check out the arc de Triomphe as a group and visit some shops along Avenue des Champs Elysées.

We finally made it to the home of Lee and Berna Huebner who were kind enough to feed us and allow us to mingle in their beautiful penthouse apartment at the top of a beautiful building off of rue Lalo. Trust me -- I got very well acquainted with those stairs, 7 floors or them. For that night our guest speakers were Patricia and Walter Wells, Mrs. Wells is an author and award winning food critic while Mr. Wells was the former executive editor or the International Herald Tribune. Mrs. Wells showed us that through her writing she opened up the door to let people see the global impact people had on French food. French food was one of the key factors of why I wanted to go to France, I like me some baguettes! While Mr. Wells was involved in reporting on some major events abroad as well as at home, events like Watergate, Princess Diana’s death and the fall of the Berlin Wall.  They are truly a fascinating couple!

Later on in the evening we met a remarkable young woman from Rwanda, named Patricia Sugi. During the civil war between the Hutus and the Tutsis, the radio was used to call out hits on specific members of the community and their families. Patricia is working valiantly to establish a new look on media; she is trying to prove to the civilians of Rwanda that media can boast a positive and even helpful role in their economy. A fight I fear will take a great deal of time and energy from her and aspiring media students like her.

Child, Day 4-Tuesday

 

Tuesday we were in house from 9 am to 1 p.m., by in house I mean we attended lectures at the beautiful American University of Paris (AUP), in one of the upstairs classrooms. The first speaker we listened to was Jean-Marc Illouz, the senior international correspondent for France 2 TV. The key idea he left us with is that “perceptions are stronger than facts”. No matter how many times you throw a fact at someone or tell them how it really is, if they’ve been trained to think one way all their life that’s how they will continue to think. That is until they go out into the world and experience different cultures and peoples for themselves, this allows them to create their own perceptions and perspectives instead of just accepting whatever was spoon-fed to them through the media. He even went so far as to congratulate all of us on the fact that we had a passport and had used it.

 Following him was Elizabeth Detmeister, the deputy press attaché at the US Embassy in Paris. She did her lecture over “Diplomacy and the Media.” This talk gave us an inside view of what it was like to work for the US Embassy abroad.

Next, was Washburn’s own Professor Maria Stover. Her lecture was over “Media Transformations in Post-Communist Europe: Challenges and Opportunities”. She used many examples from international history such as the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Czechoslovakia revolution and the Romanian revolution, more recently though she included the 2011 Jasmine revolution in Tunisia. Each of these movements underlies one fact: that media is an agent used for change; sometimes it’s bad sometimes it’s good.

Perhaps one of my favorite speakers from the seminar was Harriet Welty Rochefort; she is the author of the renowned book “Celebrating French Food” in which she writes about…you guessed it ...French food! Along with her two other books “French Toast" and "French Fried” she explores the world of France keeping a log of taboos and the dos and don’ts of the French.  The reason why she wrote her books was all thanks to a Frenchman who stole her heart and whisked her away to Paris, where she quickly found out that there were distinct differences between here and back home. To lay down just a few: the French like to sit and watch people—all day, I think they deliberately make time for it. Another is unlike Americans they work to live, they do not live to work or make money. But the one thing that gets me the most is that they don’t smile, at least not a strangers. You have to join a level of informality before they twitch those lips in your direction. I agree with her when she said you have to be accepting of another culture and not run in to pointing out the stark differences.

After 1 p.m. we were able to explore the city. We made our way to Montmartre -- a picturesque shopping and eating district nestled just beneath Sacre Coueur. The church is breath taking, if ever you wanted to see a stunning basilica simply look atop the tallest hill in Paris and there she rests.  This neighborhood of tourist trap shops is where I found a good portion of my souvenirs for my friends and family, I suggest going even if it’s only for the experience or to say that you were at the tallest point in Paris.

 

Child, Day 5-Wednesday

Wednesday was possibly the longest day dedicated to our mass media seminars..  First up was Anne Swardson, a senior editor of Bloomberg News. Her lecture was entitled “Business News in Europe-covering the Economic Scene.” She started with explaining how Bloomberg was founded and moved into how it functions and who it serves. It all started up in 1985 after Mike Bloomberg had been fired from his stock holding position; before he was fired he was sent to I.T. (Information Technician) to work in the “mail room” of stock holding. He realized that brokers trade not on stocks but on information. They needed to know when to trade, when the best opportunity was.  So he created a little box-like device called a terminal and made big money off it. Since the establishment of his fine company Bloomberg News serves 130 to 150 bureaus worldwide…FYI: that’s more than any other company in the world, including the one that originally fired him. J Karma!  Love it!

 Jon Randal arrived at 10:15 to give a talk over “Foreign reporting in a dangerous world.” Mr. Randal is a former international and war correspondent for the Washington Post based out of the US. He was truly a man who enjoyed what he did, while commenting on his work he passed this piece of advice “only believe what you see, then only believe half of it.”

Eileen Bastianelli, founder of Milestone Media and former executive at BBDO Advertizing agency, introduced us to “New Media—New Horizons.” She emphasized the importance of Brand Content -- that is any form of media that in some way tells the story of a particular brand. This could be films, TV, internet or a special event. Getting results wouldn’t be just more people buying the brand product, no, even if it’s just getting the brand out to the public and getting people to talk about it is a great way to advertize and boost profits. 

The AUP was so kind as to offer us some time for lunch and provided us yummy sandwiches and cookies that are ‘da bomb!

After our tummies were full, the next lecture covered was “Reporting across the World’s Great Divides” by Celestine Bohlen. Mrs. Bohlen was the former senior correspondent for political and international affairs; she worked for Bloomberg News and was a Moscow correspondent for the Washington Post and New York Times. Her talk focused on how media and technology have altered the playing field for keeping the public in the dark.

Ann and Don Morrison, the media couple of the century, between the two of them I’d say they’ve had over at least 50 years of experience in the journaling world. Formerly both of them were co-editors of Time Magazine Europe.  Ann herself was editor for Asiaweek, Hong Kong, as well as executive editor for Fortune Magazine in New York.  While Don has been executive editor for Time Magazine Asia and assistant managing editor for Time Magazine New York. They briefly went over their life stories of how they both got into journalism and ended up in New York and Asia, competing for two different magazines. They commented that journalism as a job hasn’t changed much, the medium of how it’s transmitted has however.

The last speaker for the day was Jim Bittermann, from CNN. His talk was over “Television news and the European Scene." He mentioned new inventions that Europe has come up with to make life and interaction easier and more efficient. For example in 1980 they came out with a Mini Tell a device similar to the internet that would allow you to look up phone numbers. France mass-produced this and got rid of phonebooks in France altogether.

 

Child, Day 6 - Thursday

Thursday was a very momentous day indeed! I ate my first real French crepe with Mercedes! For anyone who doesn’t know what a crepe is, it’s a very flat pancake often served with some kind of fruit mix or sauce. But there can be ham and cheese or broccoli and cheese crepes as well. To me its French deliciousness!

Peter Barnet started off our lectures with “Confessions of a lifelong International Marketer.” Mr. Barnet is an associate professor at the AUP; he is also the former VP for international advertising at Young and Rubicam along with other global ad agencies. He explained to us the transitions of power between the manufacturer, the reseller and the consumer over three decades from 1875 to 2004. With each new decade a new invention of some form of media or another had in some way shifted the balance of power from group to group.

After lunch we got to take a little field trip to visit the Libération, which is a left wing news paper in. Paul Quinio, the deputy editor of the Libération, told us how the paper was founded, its rocky start and who it speaks to today.

At 3:30 p.m. we arrived at the home of John Morris who is now 94 years old. He is considered one of the leading photo news editors of the 20^th century. He was the former head of  Magnum Agency, senior photo editor for Time Magazine, the New York Times and the Washington Post, as well as the author of “Get the picture: A personal history of Photojournalism.” This seminar I believe was my favorite for two reasons, one I am a visual learner so his entire presentation was based on pictures either he took or one of his friends took that allowed me to follow more closely the story he told. And two, he talked about history (I love history!). A lifetime of pictures you could say.   

That evening we all went to see the Notre Dame and all of my childhood dreams of seeing where Quasimodo and the three talking gargoyles lived came true! Yes Disney freak here, don’t even challenge me to play Disney Scene it----you will lose. Such is my love for all things manipulated and reanimated. The cathedral was so beautiful with the vaulted ceilings and stained glass windows I was completely blown away.