You've Got a Friend Part 2

Continuing our scrapbook of friends' visits, next appeared Shari Burgess.  She was in Paris and various other destinations on business as Treasurer of Lear Corp, but she made time to spend a day with us.  So off we went to the Louvre.  Below is an all crystal dressing table and chair positioned behind Shari which once belonged to a member of the nobility.

We finished the day off with dinner at Fermette Marbeuf.  In renovating an older area, this belle epoque glass room was discovered recently and turned into a restaurant.

Our friend Cindy arrived as well.  She also was traveling on business but squeezed in a day with us in Paris.  Here is a bit of info on Cindy:

Cynthia Niekamp, PPG Industries' senior vice president and highest-ranking female executive:

Cynthia Niekamp grew up with four brothers, studied industrial engineering at Purdue University in classrooms filled mainly with male students, and cut her teeth in business working during summer breaks on the production floor of a General Motors Corp. subsidiary in her hometown of Dayton, Ohio...Ms. Niekamp oversees about 4,000 employees at 18 plants around the world.  

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/business/news/taking-charge-cynthia-niekamp-ppg-industries-highest-ranking-female-executive-295101/
So now that you know about Cindy's background, you will understand why she and Ron were so enthusiastic to visit the site below:

Can you guess where we went?  Ta Da - the sewer system of Paris.  In the second photo, Cindy and Barb are standing next to one of the huge balls that push sewage through the system.  There is a complete museum display of the history of sewage during the centuries.  For you engineers, here is some of what we discovered.  Until the Middle Ages, the drinking water in Paris was taken from the Seine.  The waste was poured on to fields or unpaved streets and filtered back into the Seine.

Around 1200, Phillippe Auguste had the Parisian streets paved, incorporating a drain for wastewater in the middle. Under Louis XIV, a large ring sewer was built.  Under Napoléon, the first Parisian vaulted sewer network was built.  There is a major display in the museum, which is located right in the sewer network, dedicated to Jean Valjean.  Victor Hugo was friends with an executive of the sewer system.

Try and guess what the next two photos are:

They are photos of stuffed rats sold in the sewer museum gift shop - honestly!