Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Day 3

Today was by far the longest day so far! We were going all day with no break but we did see plenty of new things! Today we started the day meeting with Dr. V recapping our first day trying to get interviews and talking about the other assignments. We had a few hours Before we had to meet the accounting class and Dr. V at the counterfeit museum so we decided to try to get some more interviews. Once we arrived at the counterfeit museum we met with our guide Bernice and she showed is around and told us a lot of things people don't know about counterfeiting and how many things our actually counterfeited that we don't think about. The most interesting thing to learn about that was counterfeited was the bic brand ink pens because most people don't think of that being something to copy. I also enjoyed seeing all of the early counterfeit items because it's amazing to think that people really bought these items just for the name even though they didn't  look authentic and were not copies of an original, they were just items with designer names on them. 

There were also the more common things like designer shoes and handbags. Once we left the counterfeit museum some of us went to Champs Elysees and to the forum shopping mall. Champs Elysees is a beautiful part of the city and I really enjoyed seeing it. We saw Louis Vuitton headquarters, Gucci, Lamborghini's everywhere, and the Arc de Triomphe. To get a full picture of the Arch of Triumph you have to stand in the middle of the street by the medians while traffic is zooming by you but, it was for sure worth the risk because it was a great view! I had a difficult time getting interviews here because it was pretty busy and some stores couldn't talk about their brand in the retail store it had to go through corporate. Next we went to forum a shopping mall that's partially underground, inside, and outside with 4 floors of shopping. There were so many sales in every store it was a little overwhelming but I did get some great deals. After going all day we realized we really hadn't stopped and sat down and had a meal we just had been snacking all day so we found a pizza place to eat at in the 1st arrondissement close to the mall. The pizza was okay and very reasonably priced. By this time we were all aching, our feet hurt, and were extremely tired so we decided to end our night and come back to the dorm, relax, and get ready for tomorrow which is Bastille Day!