Day Trips From Paris

We spent seven days in Paris, enough time to find our way outside of the city to see some of the nearby areas. We managed to visit two Chateau's close by, the very popular one in Versailles, and the less visited one in Fontainebleau.

I am sharing below our experience. Hopefully, you find it helpful and are able to pick up some tips.

Versailles

We visited Versailles on a Friday, trying to see the Chateau before the weekend crowd arrived and were disappointed to find out that this place is actually almost always filled with visitors. It is filled with visitors for good reason of course: it is beautiful, it is historic and it is an easy commute from Paris.

The commute to Versailles is very simple as it is connected to the RER metro train line. We just purchased our tickets from the ticket window of the nearest Metro station and found our way to the RER line via a series of transfers. To give you an idea of how convenient it is to visit here, the RER line also stops at the heart of the city such as a stop at the Eiffel Tower.

This beautiful site will greet you upon your arrival at the Chateau

In Memory of A Friend: Javier Camelo

Last Wednesday, we received the unfortunate news that one of the victims of the terrorist attack in the Bardo Museum in Tunisia was a dear classmate, teammate and friend. It came as a big shock to the IE community as we had just been with Javi a few days before to celebrate our graduation. It was such heart breaking news. You never expect that something so terrible happen to someone you know.

Team photo taken during our Global Immersion Week in Shanghai. Javi is seated on the far left across me.

Our First AirBnB Experience

We had our first AirBnB experience in Madrid and below are some of my initial thoughts:

Picture of the street: Jose Ortega y Gasset

1. We could not have asked for a better host. She was very accommodating prior to the trip, happily answering our questions on the area, how to get from one place to another and check-in details. She also constantly check-up on us and even provided a change in towels and bedsheets mid-way through our stay.

Graduation Week

Last Friday, we officially graduated from IE Business School. We had spent the past year and a half working hard to earn our MBA's. I am truly proud to be part if such a great and talented group of people, people who I now consider my friends.

Class photo taken from Anderson Barros

Net Neutrality

A few weeks ago, as part of our Business Government and Society class, we were given a case study on Net Neutrality. I must admit, I knew very little about this topic when I first read the case. In the 3 hours we were given to process the case into an action plan, I picked up quite a few points and learned quite a few things.

A few days ago, news came out of the United States that, in effect, protected the idea of net neutrality. This article from BBC lists the highlights and main points of the ruling by the Federal Communications Commission.

From what I gathered while I was reading through the case a few weeks back, there was significant lobbying done by the internet providers to allow them to charge content producers/distributors a fee to send information on either a "fast lane" or "slow lane". Fundamentally, consumers and content producers/distributors were up in arms with what appeared to be an attack on a fundamental right -- the right to access and send information equally.