Tuesday, December 20, 2011

One crazy week in Paris

7 days of meetings and interviews….7 days of madness…my feet do not touch the ground but it's all for a good cause!

My trip starts with a quick stop in Salt Lake City, and I arrive to beautiful blue skies in spite of the forecast. Still, it is a few degrees colder than San Francisco, but fortunately your coach always knows how stay warm...with EXERCISE!

On the program: just after arriving on Saturday, I go for a 5km walk in the sunny capital
, not only to burn the calories from my terrible in-flight meal, but also to effectively fight the jet-lag and readjust my body clock :)

Sunday brings meetings and even more walking - 8 km!!! I love exploring Paris by foot, discovering small streets off the beaten path, to go to see Hotel du Nord, Canal Saint Martin, La Concorde, etc….and of course, the banks of the river Seine - there's nothing more relaxing!

As far as food goes, since I'm jet lagged I eat at very late hours, but rest assured that my hotel is so badly organized that they don't expect that tourists are coming from another timezone, so there's really nothing available to munch on at night. It is then that I realize I am not in the USA where food is available at any hour of the day and wherever you are ;).

I eat richer than at home, and I let myself go a little on some fries to indulge, but I walk nonstop between my interviews, so at the end of this week I haven't even gained an ounce ;).


On Monday, the French team meets for a day: we discuss 2011 achievements and new strategies for the coming year. Beautiful initiatives are taken....great things are in store. I really have a dream team! Gwen, who's been here since the very beginning, works with me through all the successes and dramas and manages the French team and international projects with an iron hand; Nicolas, our Global Marketing Director, who's transformed our old-fashioned site to a modern version, and whose strategic ideas are very exciting; Denis, our Corsican brain who implements these ideas with clever codes :) Of course, the day finishes off with an interview, and then dinner...finally a nap!


Between all of these strategic meetings, we have an M6 interview for 100% Mag to be published on January 2nd, two interviews on CHERIE FM, one on December 24th to talk about yummy Christmas menus (that's right, I do not like depriving myself during the holidays which arrive only once a year!), and then on December 26th, on how to handle weekend parties.

I also meet Nathalie Hutter-Lardeau of Atlantic Sante, who has accomplished tremendous things! She and I are the ones behind LeBootCamp Stop Cholesterol :). And quick chat with BigBen, producer of my MyBodyCoach game for Wii.


Many more meetings with partners and producers… in short, I cannot reveal everything here, but all in all it's been a packed week… and then, as fate will have it, my plane is delayed for 3 hours because of stormy weather just as we're ready for takeoff...

Time to prepare for the holidays and then we'll be returning to Paris again soon for all those projects to come!