Pyramids of the Louvre

Commissioned in 1984 by French President Francois Mitterand, the glass Pyramids of the Louvre were finished in 1989. The people of France did not initially appreciate these modern, "futuristic" structures juxtaposed with the traditional classical architecture of the Louvre, but they are now helds as icons of the city.

Musee du Louvre

Following the IGS presentation, the group traveled by Metro to the Louvre. Tour guide Antoine helped us get tickets and headsets, and we were off to explore the art and history dating back to the 6th century B.C. This famous museum served the palace of the King until Louis the XIV moved his government to the palace at Versailles in the 17th century.

Doing business in Europe

In addition to knowing the fundamentals for doing business around the world - finance, accounting, computer science, management, and marketing - it's important to understand the historical and cultural perspectives of the people with whom you work. Students learned about doing business, working and living in the European Union by Professor Graham Brown at IGS (L'Institut de Gestion Sociale) in Paris.

The Louvre

On Monday, we visited the Louvre Museum. We walked around and saw many paintings from many different regions, eras, and artists. The most famous works we saw were the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, and the Winged Victory. There is controversy surrounding all three of these pieces of art which is what makes them so interesting. The Louvre was a great museum that I will remember for the rest of my life.

- Kurt Goetjen

Notre Dame

How beautiful to see the moon rising over Notre Dame.

Blog Name Change - "Sparkly Sparkly"

The Bryant London Paris 2009 blog will now be named "Sparkly Sparkly" Dress code was an important part of the trip. There was "dressy casual" for the plane rider over; "business casual" for general touring and activities; "business formal" for business-focused activities such as Lloyds of London, EUSA, and Exxon Mobile; and the new catgegory, coined by Professor Mohan, "sparkly sparkly" for special evening events like theatre night ("Chicago") and the dinner cruise on the Seine. The term "sparkly sparkly" was particularly appropos and often used as we were dazzled by the Eiffel Tour light show from the top deck of the boat.

Day 8: Bryant Goes to Disneyland!

Day 8
January 11
Paris, France

Today a group of students including myself decided to take a trip just outside of the city of Paris in order to go to the happiest place on earth: Disneyland. After a morning bus tour, we set off on a 40 minute train ride to get to the park. When we arrived, we immediately rushed into the park. There was so much to do and only a mere 5 hours to do it all in. We had a good old fashioned American lunch on Main Street USA before heading to the rides. The first ride we headed for was Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril. This ride is exclusive to Disneyland Paris and so we knew it was going to be good.

After the Temple of Peril, we headed across the park and through Aladdin's Village to Discoveryland where we headed to Space Mountain: Mission 2. This version of Space Mountain is much different than its American counterparts in Florida and California. The coaster is housed in a dome-like structure that looks like something out of the Jetsons. The coaster is also faster than its American counterparts and features two inversions.

From there we headed over to the Mad Hatter's Teacups where we spun so fast that Sean nearly lost his lunch hours later.

After that we headed over to Frontierland to ride on Big Thunder Mountain. At this time it was about sunset so the view from the top was quite good.

After the ride, we headed back to Discoverland where we rode Star Tours and Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. After we completed everything we wanted to do, we went for another round on Space Mountain since it was the best ride in the park. We had such a great time at Disneyland that when the park closed, we didn't want it to end. So afterward we headed to the "Downtown Disney" area where we had dinner at Planet Hollywood. We then explored the downtown area for a while before finally heading back to the hotel. I know that for me, Disney was the highlight of my days in Paris and it probably was for the others I went with as well as the group that went on Tuesday.

That's all for now, pictures will be up soon.


Brian Peters
Putnam, CT


Pictured here left to right: Nick Gagnon, Mike Giordano, Sean Haddad, Candace Authier, Brian Peters.






Mad Hatter's Tea Cups pictured to the right: Sean Haddad, Candace Authier, Brian Peters.