Barbara Angely : Executive Assistant to Mercure Paris CDG Airport and Convention
“Initially, I come from the restoration. I studied 4 years at the Jean Ferrandi school in Paris and then I went to England. I worked in different positions as receptionist, breakfast manager, butler in a Parisian restaurant… I wanted to discover the different horizons of the hotel industry.
I arrived here more than 20 years ago, it was still the Sofitel hotel. My first mission was commercial catering manager. The goal was to pick up customers in the primary zone for the lunchtime catering, it was a great discovery for me! Afterwards, I was also responsible for an Air France floor. The company reserved a floor for us every day for their VIP clientele. It was a great project…then many other missions and responsibilities.
Indeed, in this establishment, I experienced a lot of beautiful moments, a lot of transformations, different directors, a little more difficult events such as the crash of the Concorde. We had accommodated the families and I was the “privileged” interlocutor. It's important to remain professional and not let yourself be overwhelmed by your emotions in order to distance yourself and make everyday life at the hotel easier for people who are going through these dramas.
It's true that I saw the hotel evolve, it went from Sofitel to Pullman then Mercury, with a beautiful renovation in 2013. In 1998, the birth of the "Board Meeting" which was innovative, pioneering and unequaled to this day on the Roissy platform. Some tried to copy us, but they did not succeed!
I am very attached to the hotel, to the Mercure brand, to the Accor and ACCORINVEST groups and of course to the region. What I really like about Roissy is that it's an intermediate solution between the capital and “the countryside”. We are not far from Chantilly, Senlis, Paris and the Villepinte exhibition center. We can offer our customers the opportunity to do different activities, outings, not to mention the Parc Astérix and the proposals that are really amazing, and then also this little "preserved" village of Roissy which has evolved enormously in terms of its layout and its opportunities. I was lucky to have seen the Tourist Office grow.
A lot of things have been done so really, I think we were lucky to be positioned in this geographical area, for me, it's a strength. It responds to requests from our customers who come from Europe, around the world or from France. Really, it's the ideal stop here! »