Shopping and night out on the town
Today I slept in a bit, then got up and walked from my house to Opera to do some solo shopping before meeting up with Averill. (I've decided I need more clothes and shoes that don't require heels for walking around the city, and I'd rather do that solo.) The walk took about 45 minutes, but it was a nice day and probably as fast as the metro. On my way down I realized that you can see the Eiffel Tower from my street, if you walk down past a bend in the road. I took a picture, but not sure if it'll come out well.
I decided, too, that I prefer boutiques here to department stores. The department stores are huge here. I went into Printemps and couldn't take it -- picture a store that's as big as Foley's or Dillard's at home that's just dedicated to women's clothing -- and another one next door for men's, another for home, and another for beauty. Too much!
Met up with Averill for lunch and went to Galeries Lafayette, another department store he wanted to check out. Turns out this one's bigger than Printemps, so my button was goin' off after not too long of following him around to look at shoes and dress shirts. So I took off to do a few errands of my own, and we agreed to meet up later.
Headed down to Champs-Elysees, where I needed to return to the shop that gave me a non-working apartment key copy. I was there about when I was there last week, but they were closed -- that was the one thing I wanted to do today, so I don't waste the 30 euro it cost to have the guy hand-machine it -- but oh, well, I'll deal with that later.
Went across to a couple of shops near Odeon, where I'd seen some flat shoes I liked. Picked up two cheap pairs that are comfy, cute, and cheap enough to where I won't care when I destroy them from walking around too much. (Anything nice here I'd destroy promptly.) On the way home I got a call from Loic inviting me to a pre-party at Cyrille's -- these guys apparently hang out a lot, and it's really nice of them to include me. But since I was meeting Averill later, I decided I needed some down-time in-between.
Met up with Averill for dinner near my place. He was 25 minutes late, and since we'd agreed to meet on a street corner, I'm pretty sure a few people thought I was a hooker. (At least that's my impression from one or two looks and kind words yelled at me...) Indian food, then coffee, then Averill went home and i went to meet Loic, Cyrille, and the rest of their group.
The place where we met up was hysterical. It's called Elysees Montmarte, and it looks like it's in an old theater. There was a huge line out the door, which I would probably never tolerate in Austin but is a fact of nightlife in a big city, I guess. The place inside was kinda like Poly Esther's music meets Vaudeville decor. There was a balcony at one end with a bar underneath it, and a stage on the other side. When we arrived (after midnight at this point) they were playing strictly '70's disco music, then they moved to '80's for a bit, and that's when it got interesting. About 1:30ish, I think, a band came out (see picture) and started doing sock-hop stuff from the '50's. Everybody was going nuts over it, too, which I thought was hysterical. (A girl in our group told me it's the same formula everywhere in France -- '70's, then '80s, then this, etc.) Then they launched into all this old French music, complete with guy on the accordion. Everybody's singing at the top of their lungs, swaying back and forth -- it was totally random after the early selections. It struck me that you would probably never find that combination at home, like disco + Harry Mancini or something. Weird. It got a little better, though, when they launched back into the '70's. Much more fun. But by 2:30 or 2:45, after I'd danced a bit, gotten stepped on, had a beer poured on me, and lost my friends, I figured I'd had a full night and it was time to go home.
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Another funky work day and dinner out with Averill
Today was another funky work day, even after traveling for two. We had a closed-door event I wanted to attend in Montparnasse, so I metro'd down there for the morning. Much easier than taking the car. That finished up about 2:00, and even though it took me nearly an hour and a half to get to the office from there (metro, walk to the garage, then drive to the office,) I still had to be in for a 3:30 meeting. It's ok, it's a meeting I really wanted to attend. (I had a very funny experience in the metro, too -- check out the pictures to see it --)
Late in the afternoon I got talking with two of the guys in the office, Etienne and Romain. It was good to start to know some people in the office more personally besides the handful I knew already. They were very eager to help me find flights to Madrid for when Mike's here in a few weeks, and Romain suggested we hang out this weekend if nothing else comes up. He seemed surprised that it would be ok to call me -- not sure why -- but he seems like a nice guy to count as a friend.
Afterwards I metro'd down to St. Michel to meet up with Averill. We wandered around until we found a Thai place and then went for coffee, and made plans to meet up tomorrow for lunch and shopping. Apparently he wants a woman's opinion on the shopping angle. I'm happy to do it -- for a while -- but isn't this a bit of weird role reversal?
I also heard from Loic (the crazy/fun guy from the metro) that they're going out tomorrow to a discotheque sorta near my place. Apparently they usually arrive at 11:30, which seems super late to me -- but I guess when 9:00 is an early dinner, your whole evening shifts. I might have to meet up with them just to check it out...
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Home from Portugal
Today was the work event for which I came to Portugal. Started off the morning pretty sick, which was really not fun, but at least it passed quickly. The work event was good, except that I had serious computer problems before my presentation, which always seems to be the case but is never fun. (Ended up being a problem with wireless, and I had to go into the BIOS to disable it...ick.)
Had an interesting conversation with the local guy on Portuguese national pride. Apparently they'd rather have someone present in English than have a Brazilian present in Portuguese. I guess they've had an influx of Brazilians lately, and they don't appreciate it, particularly how the Brazilians use a few different words than here. I mentioned to one of our local people here how I'd seen something in Portuguese at home, and she said, "No, it probably wasn't Portuguese, it wasn't Brazilian." I can't remember the whole context, but it struck me as odd. Spanish is still Spanish in Latin America or Spain, even if they have slightly different dialects. Same with English (despite what the Brits would probably say.) Interesting.
Cabbie was very young and friendly on the way to the airport. Everybody here has been really friendly! Must be that southern European sun they get down here (although it's been drizzly the past two days.)
I got into Paris too late to make French class, but I'm hoping this is the only class I'll miss. When I went to pay for parking for one night, I nearly died -- 47 euro! At home it would be less than 10 bucks. Crazy! I knew it was more expensive than home, but come on!
It was nice to come home to the apartment, though. I felt even more like a fish out of water in Portugal, knowing absolutely zero Portuguese. It's a little strange to think about coming "home" to this place, but it's starting to feel a little more personal to me now. I still can't think of it truly as home, though, since that feels like it implies I don't have my home in Austin...but I think I'm definitely starting to settle in more.
Flying to Portugal
Wednesday. No school for kids -- that's something else I learned at Sophie's house. Some kids do go on Saturdays, but hers don't. No school on Wednesdays for kids is sortof the kid version, I think, of the seven weeks of vacation the adults get here. They're always on vacation.
We had an all-company meeting in the morning, which was all in French, of course, but they did introduce me and a couple of other visitors. (I appreciated that -- at least now people are starting to discover why I'm here for so long.) A highlight of the meeting at the end was champagne to celebrate something. I love it -- I was drinking champagne at 11 AM. In what other country could I do that?
Headed to the airport to fly to Portugal for an event we have going on in Lisbon tomorrow. I decided to drive, which was fine except that they'd closed the parking lot for the terminal I needed. It was no big deal -- I parked in an adjacent terminal and walked over -- but it just seems to me that it's always
something every time I fly in that airport. (Also weird: the check-in desk for my flight was removed from all the others, and I had to go through security just to check in, in addition to going through security to actually get to the gate.) I was on the same flight as Frederick, the branch manager. He seems very impressed that I'm taking French and uses it as ammunition for Dave (his boss, and the guy I ate with on Wednesday.) He loves to give him a hard time about the fact that he was here for three months and learned zero French. Something interesting I learned from Frederick on the flight was how maternity leave works here. (This came up in reference to someone in the office.) Women get one year off paid, I think. One year is pretty incredible. Then after that, they can extend it for one additional year unpaid, and then one additional unpaid year after that. So in essence, they can hold onto their jobs for three years. (Great for them, hard for employers.) The interesting thing is that they can notify the employer literally the day before they're supposed to return to work and say they want to extend their leave. This came up at NI here. The receptionist we used to have called at 5 pm on Friday, the Monday before she was supposed to return, and informed them that she wouldn't be in on Monday. At that point, of course, the temp had been relieved, so I'm not sure what they did on such short notice. Interesting, though, and indicative of how the government and employment laws work here. Very interesting.
When we got to Portugal, we were picked up by the local guy. (He likes to pick up the branch manager.) Looking out the window in the car, it looks like Portugal is a very pretty country but clearly poorer than other European countries. I didn't get to see much except the suburbs, but that was my impression. Went to the event site -- uneventful, except that a bunch of stuff broke that we had to fix. (Isn't that always the way?) Checked into the Holiday Inn Express and had dinner at this hole-in-the-wall place nearby. Food was good, but I don't know how they get enough patrons to stay in business! Came back and crashed -- we have another long day tomorrow...
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French class and dinner with Dave (NI)
Had French class again, and solo again. I love it! A woman was about to join our class until she was redirected to a more advanced one. I think she was happy to stay in beginner, but I was really happy to get another private lesson. The teacher said that the German guy had called and said that he had too much work and would return to class next week or the week after. Not sure how that's going to work after he's missed at least two weeks, but oh, well.
After French class I met Dave Freeman, the guy from NI who manages the French branch (and others) from Austin. He happened to be over here. First I showed him my apartment, which he wanted to see after living in this exact same building for three months last year. (That was coincidental, too -- we both happened to choose apartments here; it's not that NI has corporate apartments in this building or anything.) After that we went by this French restaurant he'd heard was good but was closed when we went by last September (while I was here for another trip.) They were open, and it looked very charming, but we both sheepishly agreed we were sick of French food. So we went back to the same Italian restaurant we ate at when I was here in September, and ate at the exact same table. After dinner, a walking chocolate crepe, and a quick drink in a corner cafe, it was getting rather late and time to head home. It was freezing cold with the wind, so we taxi'd back to my apartment, and he continued out to his hotel near the airport. (50 euro one-way, by the way...)
Oh, and I forgot to mention also that I heard from three of the French guys I met in the metro. So it looks like I might have made some friends after all!
Meltdown over the car
Today was uneventful except for one thing. I got a new car. I was asked to trade my new, clean, tiny Ford KA rental for a BMW the company already owns. (It used to be a company car for a guy who's "no longer with the company.") Yes, the car is beautiful, but it's also huge and smells like smoke. It's some giant sedan thing that's so big that I can barely reach the pedals. It also has so many bells and whistles (with a poor interface) that I can't make anything work. I sat in the parking lot for 20 minutes today trying to program my radio stations in. It's got a single telematics system to control everything on the car, and a single dial and button that you have to use to control all of it. The interface is bad enough, but to make matters worse, I can't understand any of it, being in French. So after 20 minutes of trying to program the blasted radio stations, I had a minor meltdown, called Stephanie, and asked her who else in the company has this kind of car. I'll just have to get a run-down on how to work everything tomorrow, and I told Stephanie I was driving my KA for another day. Basically I just couldn't take it anymore. Parking this thing is going to be a nightmare, too -- I already have to do a multipoint turn to get out of my parking garage space in the mornings -- so I'm not sure if this car is even going to fit in my space. It's a beautiful car, but your whole concept of space here gets altered. This thing feels like a boat! We'll see about it tomorrow...
I did hear tonight from 3 of the French guys I met in the metro on Saturday, though, including the crazy one I thought might flake out. Plus they all seem keen to do something, so I might've more than doubled my number of friends here. I hope!
You can check out pics of the before & after cars here:
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Visiting the Pompidou Centre
Woke up today to rain. Not bad, though, since it made me feel less guilty about being lazy. (It turned out to be a beautiful day, of course, after raining the entire weekend Neil was here.) After getting my act together, I headed to Abbesses to take the metro to the Pompidou Centre, the only major museum in Paris I hadn’t yet visited. And since most of the museums here are free today, being the first Sunday of the month, I decided to take advantage. The building itself is almost a work of modern art – the architect basically turned the building inside-out, putting all the ductwork in color, and on the outside of the walls. Very interesting. I toured all the permanent exhibits, some of which I thought were wonderful, and some of which left me a little cold. (They did have the requisite giant blue square required of all modern art museums.) My favorite was definitely Matisse collage “Sorrow of the King.” (Katie – took a picture of it thinking of you!) There’s also a great view over the city from the upper floors of the building, where I took a few more photos. After being in there for a couple of hours (it took me a while to figure out how to get to half of the exhibits) it was time for fresh air. I walked across to the flower market on the Ile de la Cite for more fresh flowers, but didn’t see anything, and headed back home. Got off the metro again at Place de Clichy, just to see what it looks like in the daytime. It looks like a great place to grab a drink or dinner, and it’s got a movie theater, too. That’ll definitely become one of my hangout places – no metro required!
Came home, did stuff around the house, and got ready for the week. It’s a busy one coming up…
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