6:00 AM, Paris – Clouds, rain, heat
Have you ever wondered how the Sleeping Beauty felt the day she finally woke up after sleeping for so long? Definitely better than me on this last Saturday morning. I remember waking up and feeling so much exhausted that I wished I were the Sleeping Beauty (not for the beauty part, for I only cared about the ‘sleeping’ word which really wounded like a fairy tale by the way). I left my bed without a glance back fearing it would be too appealing. After all, this Saturday wasn’t just any day!
Oh! Didn’t I tell you? We (the french fansites staff members) got the chance to spend the whole day with Mike Zadorojny (Lead Content Designer) on last Saturday. He came to Europe in order to give a several number of interviews about a very secret-and-soon-to-be-released-announcement. As he happened to be giving some in Paris (France), many of us weren’t able to meet him due to their job. He kindly accepted to change his plans and he managed to stay a day longer in our beautiful city! We soon became his merry guides around the city.
Like I said, Saturday wasn’t just any day. I was tired, it was rainy and way too hot… but…but… we had Mike all day long for ourselves only!!!!!
10:00
We went to pick up Mike at his hotel. He was waiting for us in the lobby. We spotted him easily for he was wearing the GW2 ArenaNet official staff shirt. As I expected, he was very kind ! With no delay, we lead him to his first challenge of the day !
11:00
We reached the Eiffel Tower: Mike felt ready to climb its 2nd floors (about 300 meters high) without using any mesmer skill (no teleport – no elevator)! As he climbed the last stairs, he received an IRL jumping puzzle prize for his achievement : a tiny Eiffel Tower and was award with the title ‘Reached Floor 2 in a heart beat’. We took a lot of photos with Mike and we asked a Granny to take some for us (it was comforting to think she wouldn’t be able to run away with the camera).
12:00
Before lunch, we felt like visiting Notre Dame de Paris but there was a religious event taling place inside the cathedral and the door were all closed. ‘Come back after 4:00 PM’ they said.
13:00
Lunch time ! The boys were starting to get seriously hungry. Luckily we had a reservation made in a restaurant called ‘La petite Périgourdine’ (a ‘Périgourdine’ is a woman of ‘Périgord’, a south-west area in France) and Mike tasted a lot of different French foods! Paté, fois gras, saucisson, jambon de pays and aligot ! As we forced him to eat always more food, Mike answered a few more questions that I won’t report here (sorry !).
14:00
Nothing best after lunch than the catacombs and their skulls and bones ! While waiting in the line, we asked again Mike a lot of questions under an unexpected and welcomed sun. Did you know Denfert catacombs were built in an old underground stone extraction site ? In the middle of Paris, cemeteries spread a lot of diseases therefore all bones and corpses were disposed of here, in a very artistic way ! (you can google it). Beware! No living man may enter this place.
16:30
We finally made it into the cathedrale Notre Dame de Paris !
17:40
Our little group started to feel tired of walking. We settled in the café Laurent in Hôtel d’Aubusson, an hotel of the 17th century where lots of philosophers, artists and authors came and argued (Boris Vian, Rousseau, Voltaire, Camus, Sartre etc).
18:10
Sadly, I had to leave before everybody! Leaving them in my favourite café. It seems that they end up talking for a long time and that they had ‘crepes’ for diner (very thin pancakes, either sweet or salty). Thank you again Mike, for following us everywhere in this crazy tour !
It was fun !
Sorry for the mistakes, I’m French and it is getting late
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(edited by Kira Daemon.1032)