Well, here it is Saturday morning. I have now been in Paris for one full week. It feels so much shorter than that. The time has been flying by! I have been making good progress with the work I was sent out here to do. The office I am in is very nice and the people are very friendly. I think I commented previously that Parisians 'look miserable'. This is simply not the case. They are just in a hurry to get somewhere. My wife often complains how fast I walk and leave her unable to catch up. Here in Paris I am constantly mowed down by people walking at something just short of a jog.
The Parisian lifestyle is amazing. And, I have been living it for the past week. Having a coffee in the morning, showing up at the office at 10am, working till about 1pm. Around 1pm the office often goes to lunch together, choosing one of the seven trillion resturants in a four block radius. Lunch is leisurly and a great pleasure. (On other days instead of going to a resturant we simply buy a sandwich at a local shop and carry it back to the office.) We then work until 7:30 or 8pm. I have had a nice dinner at a different resturant each evening.
That's about it. The Parisians are very annoyed with the 'news' about the riots in France. Oh, there may be some riots, somewhere, but they are nowhere near Paris. Life here is completely unaffected in any way. The guys here at the office are annoyed at how their American friends call and ask them "are you safe?", "are you ok?".
I am only out here for a few more days and I am going to spend most of that time working. I don't think I will do many more touristy things. I want to go to catacombs since John suggested it so strongly. Tomorrow I would like to see Mass at Sacre Coure and then walk around Monte Marte. I finaly was able to ride the Metro, it is really quite simple once you can convince someone to sell you some tickets.
I hope this project is very successful because I would love to come back again. I chose to take this trip over Thanksgiving holiday because I had so many things going on earlier in the month. My wife and I had no big Thanksgiving plans anyway. Then, at the last minute, my wife ended up hosting Thanksgiving at our home for both families! She served twenty people on Thanksgiving Day! I got to chat with my entire family on Yahoo Messenger, which was not quite the same thing as being there.
I have taken many photographs while I am here. I am hopeful that a small fraction of them will be interesting. I hope to post them online shortly after I return.
The Parisian lifestyle is amazing. And, I have been living it for the past week. Having a coffee in the morning, showing up at the office at 10am, working till about 1pm. Around 1pm the office often goes to lunch together, choosing one of the seven trillion resturants in a four block radius. Lunch is leisurly and a great pleasure. (On other days instead of going to a resturant we simply buy a sandwich at a local shop and carry it back to the office.) We then work until 7:30 or 8pm. I have had a nice dinner at a different resturant each evening.
That's about it. The Parisians are very annoyed with the 'news' about the riots in France. Oh, there may be some riots, somewhere, but they are nowhere near Paris. Life here is completely unaffected in any way. The guys here at the office are annoyed at how their American friends call and ask them "are you safe?", "are you ok?".
I am only out here for a few more days and I am going to spend most of that time working. I don't think I will do many more touristy things. I want to go to catacombs since John suggested it so strongly. Tomorrow I would like to see Mass at Sacre Coure and then walk around Monte Marte. I finaly was able to ride the Metro, it is really quite simple once you can convince someone to sell you some tickets.
I hope this project is very successful because I would love to come back again. I chose to take this trip over Thanksgiving holiday because I had so many things going on earlier in the month. My wife and I had no big Thanksgiving plans anyway. Then, at the last minute, my wife ended up hosting Thanksgiving at our home for both families! She served twenty people on Thanksgiving Day! I got to chat with my entire family on Yahoo Messenger, which was not quite the same thing as being there.
I have taken many photographs while I am here. I am hopeful that a small fraction of them will be interesting. I hope to post them online shortly after I return.
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