Paris and Brussels

2001 December

Paris and Brussels

This was my second trip to Paris and what would turn out to be the first of five trips to the city of lights in 2002. Through the magic of Jay Higa, I was able to get the ticket for $674.59, a good price for the holiday season.

Emily had been in the city for a few weeks, getting ready to spend the following year at Le Cordon Bleu Culinary School. Her grandmother, parents, brother, and her brother’s girlfriend had all arrived the day before me. I think that I arrived on Christmas day and stayed through the New Year although her family left earlier. We all stayed at the house of Julian’s parents who were spending the holidays with relatives to the south. Emily met Julian, his sister, and their parents when we were all at Berkeley and have been close since. It was an amazing gesture of them to let us use their beautiful house, in the suburbs and just a short train ride into Paris, for the holidays.

We did the usual tourist stuff with Emily’s family, despite the biting cold. My return flight was out of Brussels, not Paris, so Emily and I took the train there the night before my flight, explored Brussels, and of course, bought chocolate. During my layover in Washington D.C., I happened to run into Paul Bach, the President of my company, who happened to be on the same flight as me.