Sunday at the Louvre

Today, we took a trip to the Louvre. We spent most of the time in the Denon wing which is where you find the Mona Lisa and other Italian painters. I also ventured over to the Sully and Richelieu wings to see ancient Egyptian pieces and Norther European artists (like Rembrant) respectively. It was quite busy around the popular pieces, but I was able to get quite close. Mona looked a lot better than when I last saw her. I think she has been restored and lightenned quite a bit. Venus looked good as aways.

After closing, I wandered along the Jardins des Tuileries to Concorde and then took the metro home. The sun had come out and the parks were full of people - families, couples, tourists. It's a great place to watch people. I got home too late to grab any dinner, so just ate cheese, hard salami, olives, crackers, a banana and apple (and a couple Kronenbourgs). Not too nourishing, but tasty.

Finished the evening watching some French Open in German on Eurosport tv station. And then CNBC is available - on weekends I guess it shows re-runs of the Tonight Show. This past week must have been Jay Leno's last week before Conan Obrian takes over, so I've been watching that. It has been fun because it has clips from the past 17 years - sort of a "Best of" week. Hard to believe - I still miss Johnny Carson!

Laundry, Roland Garros & a Fries sandwich

It was a busy day for me. I started with a run down to Nueilly and back. Then my main goal of the weekend was to do my laundry. I'm down to the last pair of underware! The hotel has a laundry room, but machines operate on tokens. You need to buy the tokens in a machine. The machine has been broken for over a week now. So there is a nearby laundry mat - but it doesn't work like those in the US! I discussed this with Marwan, the owner of the Lebanese restaruant I've eaten at. In France, you put all the money in a central control (see in the wall next to the driers). You select your machine number (or soap dispenser) and click "#". Then you load up, lock the washer door and press the Marche button. It was a bit intimidating at first, but I succeeded and now have clean shorts again!

After the laundry, I called Jay and we journied to Roland Garros, to see if we could wander around the French Open. It was a convaluted ride requiring 3 metros (and the purchase of extra tickets in a machine). We emerged from the metro at Porte d'Auteuil into a sea of ticket scalpers. We found you can't get into the venue at all if you don't have a ticket. So we just wandered around the outside. We did find a spot to see some doubles through the fence. And we had a small section to view Maria Sharapova warming up. So I can say I saw her at the French Open. Even though we could see empty seats in the stands, the day was completely sold out. You can wait in a line (a big line) for 5pm when they sell the seats of those that leave early - half price (like 37 Euros). The scalpers were asking 200!
As we wandered, we found the Botanical Gardens and spent a little time there. When done, we ordered hot dogs at stand near the metro entrance. We got a bagette with 2 hotdogs (more like sausages, not you usual Oscar Meyer), mustard and a bunch of french fries on top. So it was basically a french fry sandwich! Washed down with a couple 1667 beers.

I exited the metro early at Nueilly to look for a Boulangerie that I bought a quiche at last week. It was so good, I wanted another. I found it and snagged the last piece (looked like it was close to closing time). Returned to le Defense on foot - it may have been the busiest day I've seen (for non-work day). Lots of people taking in the sun on the benches and grass. Very nice!

Aberdeen

Hello from Scotland. I left Paris on Monday afternoon and flew to Aberdeen Scotland. We were greeted by grey cold weather (15 deg C). We took a cab to the Westhill Holiday Inn.

We had a workshop the following day. Afterwards, one of the local guys took me, Muriel and Olivier on a drive around the country. We were fortunate to have the weather clear up for us a bit. The previous day, the cab driver told us that this is the rainy season. I asked him which season was NOT the rainy one. He replied, "the snowy season". And, indeed it did rain each day we were there. Anyway, you can see some pictures of the green Scottish countryside and the Banchory Golf Course - quite lovely. I also was reminded that I don't like driving those windy roads in the back seat!

We also stopped by a nearby castle (one of many) - Drum Castle. One side was the original castle and the other was the "add on" - a relatively new, house like section. If you look from the new side, you don't see a castle at all. After our drive, I needed a walk. I found a path that took me up a hill into a residential neighborhood. It was a nice area. When I looked back towards the hotel, I see a big old Costco in the distance. I guess you can leave the USA, but you can't escape American retailers! I also learned that all the houses in the area are made of stone and masonry with slate or metal roofs. Wood won't stand the climate.

Holiday Inn had your "English Breakfast" with a Scottish twist. There was porridge available (complete with a bottle of scotch to lace it - I asked and was told that it's a Scottish thing, but only on weekends probably). Also tried some haggis - not bad at all if you don't know what's in it!

Parks

Today I took a long walk. There is an island in the Seine as you cross into Pont de Nueilly from Le Defense. Usually it is closed off in the evening, but today it was open. I found various sport complexes on the island - crew (see the top picture), rugby, track and field, football (soccer - of course), swimming and more. I followed the island to the next available bridge and crossed over to a huge park on the west side of Paris - Parc de Bagatelle. Rolland Garros tennis center is at the south end of the park. I foolishly thought I might walk to it. I turned back after only getting perhaps half way there. I found equestrian facilities, cricket players, some rugby, lots of soccer, and even a couple softball games going on. The big field above probably had about 15 games going. You can see it was a nice day - well it was hot also. I returned to the hotel to switch to t-shirt and shorts and went down to the park by the hotel to read in the shade.

Paris is quite progressive in providing lots of parks and green areas. However, once you get to the parks, there is a noticeable lack of toilette facilities ("WC"). In this huge park, I noticed only one toilette identified on the park map as I entered. I think there must be more, but in my hour walk around, I didn't see any! Also, I didn't expect to see many runners in Paris, but there were plenty out today (even if I wasn't one of them).

Marais

It was a busy day sort of - we met Eve Langlois at Place de Bastille in the morning to discuss
getting a flat. The column is all that is left in remembrance of the famous Bastille prison. We had coffee in one of the cafes around the plaza and discussed. Here is the deal - we need a letter from our company stating that we are "permanent" employees, how long we are expected to be in France, and how much our salary and per diem will be. Without that, no one will rend us anything. Then, once we find a place, we need 2 months rent as security deposit, one month rent up front, the realtor fees, and Eve's fee. For a "normal" 2 bedroom apartment, we expect monthly rent to be 2500 - 3000 Euros ($3,375 - $4,050). Our hotel room is costing about 3200 Euros/month also. So, the day we rent a flat, we need about $16,000. Quite a big amount I would say - usually people take loans for that amount. Anyway, Eve is to provide an example of the letter (which IFSNA will need to sign for us) and start to look for some places. She recommends the 3, 4, 15 and 17th arrondissements which she says will have some areas we will like, won't be outside our budgets, and will be pretty convenient for the #1 metro to Le Defense.

After our coffee and talk, she walked us over to Place des Vosges, the location of Victor Hugo's home. It is a pleasant park area surrounded by pink brick buildings so the entire park is enclosed. Jay and I decided to explore the are as it is one of the locations we will search for apartments. This is one of the oldest historic parts of Paris - the Marais. Small streets, lots of shops and markets. It has a lot of character. We took a short detour to see the Picasso Museum. It is a small intimate place. There are quite a few pieces, but only one that I really recognized (the harlequin boy in the picture). It was my first museum since coming.

After the museum, we stopped for lunch at a very popular cafe (Cafe' des Musees). I had noticed many people eating steaks, and it made me want one. We struggled a bit with the menu, but the man next to us, helped us out. I had read before that you can't get a steak well done in France, but Jay had a pepper steak last week that was well done. I asked for my steak medium-well and learned that means the outside is cooked, but it would qualify as rare in the US. If you ask for rare, I doubt it is even heated through. Well, I'm a medium-well guy. I did eat it, but it did sort of gross me out! I filled up on the fries instead. Next time, I'm going for quiche instead!

After lunch we headed for the river and took in Notre Dame again (picture shows it from behind). It was quite busy on the streets with tourists. Even Ile St. Louis was busy. Then back to Le Defense and the hotel.

Friday at IFS France Office

Hi - yesterday and today were "bank holidays" in France and was shut down. So Jay and I have been working at the IFS office (which is conveniently located one street over from the hotel). See the picture of the glass building - we are on the 2nd floor. It is mainly a sales office, but the director of services (Michel Berthet) is here at least a couple days a week. The main office in France is actually in Mulhouse (south of Strasbourg in Alsace near Germany). Today there were only 3 people in the office (almost more Americans than French).

Weather has been beautiful and the area is full of kids. There is a small park behind our hotel and there always seems to be hundreds of kids out there having a great time. You can see all the apartments around the park in the picture. I guess maybe people want to live here if they work nearby, but to me it would be pretty dull to spend all my time out here when Paris is just a euro metro ride away.

Our progress towards getting flats continues slowely. I have been in touch with a woman Eve that was referred to us by Michel (she is a friend of his girl friend!). We will meet with her tomorrow. Jay is in charge of getting us there as I have lead the way the last 2 weekends and we decided he would need to figure his own way around sometime. Anyway, she seems helpful in screening areas and making recommendations. We have learned that in France, you will need to pay 1 month's rent up front, 2 month's as security deposit, plus an agency fee that may be about the same as a month's rent (depending on how long you will rent). That comes to 4 month's rent (which is 2500 - 3000 Euros or around $4000/month times 4). Do you have $15,000 handly to rent an apartment? Nor do I. So I have been in touch with IFSNA to see about them either paying for it or at least advancing the amount so we can pay it back out of the per diem. Note to future projects - figure this out first. At this point, pickings for apartments available for 4 months have decreased as people rent them out by the week over the summer.

One thing I am learning is to be flexible... I also have almost convenced myself not to worry about it (almost).

Italian dinner

Strange as it seems, I have had almost no French meals here. Chinese, Italian, Thai, Lebanese - and what I've picked up at the grocery store. Tonight we had a good Italian meal in Pont de Nuelly which is right across the river from Le Defense. The area has a number of nice little restaurants - I've eaten there 3 times in a week and a half and every meal has been excellent. That's an olive pate' Jay is eating with a "new wine".

Evening meal time really gets rolling at about 8:00pm. Jay and I went early at 7 and were the only ones in the restaurant. By the time we left at 8:15, it was close to full. Some of our colleagues couldn't get into this place until after 9pm last week. We have not quite adjusted to the late lifestyle. I still awake at about 6:00am even when having dinner at 9 the previous night. I would like to get into the later style since I end up working until about 6pm no matter when I start. And no one eats lunch until at least 1pm.

Le Gran Arche

The weather has been lousy since arriving (except the first day and one evening). Right now it is cold and rainy. No change between UK and France right now. I did go for a run today - ran for about 35 minutes and never left Le Defense - but the cement is hard on the legs. The entire area has pedestrian surfaces that are above the roads and trains. As you walk along, the cement squares will rock on the metal frames that hold them. A bit tricky to get used to. The main sight in this area is le Gran Arche. This is a huge structure and is right next to the building. You can take an elevator to the top, which I might do if we get a nice day.

Two weeks abroad

It's been almost 2 weeks since leaving Tucson for first England, then France. Here's some notes on eperiences to date...

Got to Heathrow in spite of flights being cancelled, and found my co-worker Jay there with a cab. We spent the rest of the first week in High Wycombe, England at the Holiday Inn. We had meetings each work day at the High Wycombe office and left for Paris on Saturday, so no time to sight see at all. An old friend Jorgen Rogde (from Norway) now works in the UK office, and took care of us, taking us to his favorite pub The Royal Standard of England (reported to be the oldest "freehouse" in England, over 900 years of service).

Our trip to Paris was uneventful - neither of us had to say or do anything for either passport control or customs (no question of work, or when returning). We just walked on through. We are stationed in Le Defense right now at the Residhome (a "residence hotel" that has a small kitchenette - this is handy for me to save take out dinners and beer in the fridge, but not getting too much action). Our work is about a 5-10 minute walk from the hotel. Le Defense is a busy area during the week, but pretty deserted on the weekends. We had difficulty finding someplace to eat our first 2 days. On weekdays, it's quite busy, but once again closes up pretty tight in the evenings. I found a Lebanese restaurant I like to get take out from. There is also a small grocery store where I can buy instant coffee, apples, milk and beer...

The IFS group seems good, and our project manager Jeremy Cronshaw seems reliable. We had dinner with him across the river in Pont de Nuelly a couple times - once at Chinese and once at more of a bisto. Both were quite good. But I will be glad to have a regular flat to prepare some meals. Hopefully, someplace near some open markets to pick up fresh stuff.

We met with Michel Berthet of IFS France on Friday, and it appears we are set to move forward in finding a flat. He says he will provide some agencies to work with on it. This weekend, Jay and I roamed around some areas to see what looked good or not ( I'm hoping for the 7th Arrondisement as it is cool and also convenient to work via the metro). The entire Left bank looks good, as well as the 2nd. I did NOT care for the 1st - too upscale for me. We shall see.

That's a brief update. I'll start to add bits for each day - probably something small and unique to Paris (or wherever). I'll try to keep it brief as the only people who could possibly really enjoy all the details are probably my parents.

Au revoir