Paris – Day 2

Started the day with a phone call from home from Michele and Alex. The time difference is nine hours, so we’ve arranged for them to call me at Alex’s bedtime, which is the time I need to wakeup. We use Vonage phone service, and they’ve just made calls from the US to France free, so we can talk as long as we want at no cost.

Following the call, and and a shower, I undertook a search of the area around the hotel for a breakfast. The “petit déjeuner” is usually a few pastries, such as a croissant, butter and jam, juice, and coffee. No eggs, bacon or sausage. There are many small cafes and boulangeries (bakeries) in Paris which provide to-go and sit-down service, although sit-down service prices are slightly higher. I got a croissant and juice at a local café, and sat at a bench on the Champs Elysées to eat.

There are many scooters in Paris, as they are very practical both for traffic and parking. During the rush hour, the scooter riders are mostly wearing suit coats/ties or nice dresses, and the mandatory helmet. Very chic and urbane.

After finishing my meal, I set off on a short walk to the metro (subway). The Paris metro has a deserved reputation for efficiency. I had spent some time prior to arriving in Paris getting familiar with the metro map, and the location of the stations I’d need to use near the hotel, the office, and various sites. The map is quite easy to read (although the handheld version has small type, so I’ve got to use my reading glasses), and I had no trouble at all finding the right train.

Paris metro riders have an interesting behavior… no eye contact, no verbal exchanges, no facial expressions. I remarked about this later to a few of my French coworkers here, and they laughed and said that yes, this is well-known. Maybe later in the week I’ll have some fun and start talking to everyone I see on the metro, just to watch the reaction.

The work day was quite productive. I’m here to work with the company which publishes software we use for our product. We’re working on some new stuff, and ensuring compatibility. We found and fixed several issues, and I’m encouraged that we’ll get good progress this week.

I was treated to lunch at a local café where I had a very nice seared tuna, garnished with sesame seeds, on a bed of ratatouille. Very tasty! Finished off with an espresso and a dessert crepe.

After work, and an uneventful metro ride back to the hotel, I spent a few minutes in the hotel lobby using the wireless Internet to catch up on email, post yesterday’s blog entry, and then walked down the street to get dinner. In bed around 11 PM, and that was my day.