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Tuesday, 14 September 2010 (London) - To Paris, again, but this time maybe for a long time...
A while back, the company I work for landed a large client based in Paris - Société Générale. I expressed interest about working over there for a stint by nagging the right people, and that nagging has paid off! I don't have all the details as yet, but currently the plan is to put my ass on the Eurostar through to Paris first thing tomorrow morning, and stay down there every week until further notice. Obviously I can come back to London on the weekends, but to be honest I'm still in two minds about what to do with my flat here - if this Paris gig is to be a long-term thing (and it's looking that way) then there is little point in my wasting money paying rent every month to hold on to it and instead I'll quite happily just spend my weekends in Paris, but that's a bridge I'll cross further down the line when I'm settled and have a better idea of what's going on. In the interim, my understanding is I'll have my own serviced apartment in central Paris just next to the Louvre, and I need to start working on my French. Anyway, watch this space!

Wednesday, 15 September 2010 - Day 1!

A sight I'll need to get used to over the next while - train stations! The trip between London and Paris is a little over two hours. I'm not sure exactly how long I'll be working here, but I'll be heading back to London on weekends for the time being to slowly but surely bring some of my stuff through, not least of all the bike.

My client is based in La Défense - a major business district about 5kms west of Paris. La Défense is Europe's largest purpose-built business district, covering 77.5 acres with 72 glass-and-steel slick buildings including 14 high-rises above 150 metres. 180,000 daily workers occupy its 3.5 million square-metres of office space (thanks Wikipedia ;)				Look, I even wore a tie for the occasion! This is the 110-metre high Grande Arche - impressive stuff!

Thursday, 16 September 2010 - Oh hell yeah!

My first morning commuting to work in Paris hahaha sacrebleu! There were a couple cancelled trains this morning and so this was the result (I've been assured it's never usually this bad). It took my work colleague and I about half an hour to eventually get on a train for the fifteen-minute journey to the office. During that time a fight broke out between a couple of guys on the platform right in front of us (one getting off a train and one trying to get on it), probably over the pushing and shoving that would take place every time a train arrived and its doors opened hehe.

This is my apartment which for the next while I'll be calling my home away from home away from home (i.e. Paris, London, New Zealand :) The apartment itself is fairly basic but it has all the essentials. However, probably the best thing about it is its location! I'm in the area of Les Halles, a couple blocks east of the Louvre so it's really central, and I'm surrounded by an huge number of cafes, restaurants, boutique shops, a mall next door, a park and big cathedral (like a mini Notre Dame) out the back. My wee balcony overlooks a big courtyard and fountain - it's brilliant! I have no idea yet how long I'll be based here, but I'm in no rush :)

Sunday, 19 September 2010 - My first week awaits...

With three heavy bags, I got the Eurostar back through to Paris tonight. I like how they give you these random tapas-type things on board hehe. Friday's tapas had something of an Italian theme, and tonight it was Indian. Good stuff.		The ciew from my fifth-floor apartment by night. Pretty huh!

Monday, 20 September 2010 - Routine

Routine - my life is anything but at the moment, but so far my morning routine in Paris goes like this: I emerge from the Paris Metro (which smells like piss) and admire the scenery of La Défense, and its huge arch on the left there.		Then I venture into Starbucks to get some water that tastes like coffee, and some spongy stuff that tastes like a muffin.		A short walk from there and I'm into those big tall glass things for another day! I'm still working on my evening routine ;) I raided the local supermarket tonight which was an adventure!

This is a French keyboard. The 'A' and 'Z' have switched places with the 'Q' and 'W', the 'M' has moved northeast, all the punctuation has been thrown around willy-nilly (including punctuation I've never even seen before), and if you want to use the number keys along the top you need to use the Shift key. Even something as simple as a backslash ('\') takes a bit of thought. In short, it's a pain in the ass to use for us foreigners! I tried to make friends with it last week, but after taking 20 minutes to write an email today that should have taken five, I'd had enough of it and all its silliness...		...so I found a US keyboard in the cupboard and I'm now using that instead hehe. Much better!

Tuesday, 21 September 2010 - The French way

The view from my 12th-storey office floor looking north. I thought the building over there was ablaze when I saw that this morning, but apparently it wasn't - just steam I guess though I'm not sure why it would be pouring out the top of a building like that. Anyway, I've been here a full working week now (last Wednesday through to today), and in that time I've noticed a few things about the French (or the Parisians at least). First of all, there are very few fatties here, and I put that down to their consistent diet of nothing but coffee and cigarettes. When someone steps out of an elevator in the morning, they will often saying something to the remaining strangers in there which I've since learned is along the lines of "Have a good day". Also, when someone arrives at work in the morning, they walk around the room and give everybody a handshake and a "Bonjour!". So on the surface of it, you'd think the French are a lovely polite bunch, but of course we all know better than that, and you only have to experience the daily pushing-and-shoving ritual that is part of rush-hour commuting on the Metro here to see it hehe.

Wednesday, 22 September 2010 - Terror threats, already

This is the view looking north from the 24th storey of my office building - smoggy! That's a cemetery down there on the right, with another one far-left.

And these are the steps of the Grand Arch of La Défense during the lunch hour (which generally lasts for two hours; welcome to France). We've had absolutely perfect weather over the last week, and around this time of day those steps are always full of Parisians eating, drinking coffee, and smoking up a storm! Last week France passed a law banning the wearing of burqas (an all-enveloping cloak worn by some Muslim women) and niqabs (face veil) in public places. This has enraged a lot of Muslims living here, and already there have been terrorist threats against the public transport system. Just last Thursday (my second day here), a female suicide bomber apparently plotted to blow herself up in a "busy part of Paris" (thought to be the Eiffel Tower). Exciting stuff!

Thursday, 23 September 2010 - Terrorisme

I can't read French (yet), but I get what that says hehe. Apparently France has done well lately to piss off the extremists, and as such they're now all planning an attack on French soil. According to Sky News, the threat is "very real" and the powers that be are looking into reports that a female suicide bomber may be preparing to strike in Paris. It is also mentioned that the Paris Metro could be a potential target - my main mode of transport just now until I bring the bike through from London. In other news I'm off to Lake Como and the Cinque Terre in northern Italy tomorrow for a long weekend to meet up with Kristina (and her mother believe it or not, long story). Good stuff!

Friday - Monday, 24 - 27 September 2010
(Long weekend in Lake Como and the Cinque Terre, Italy)

Thursday, 30 September 2010 - Phew
After the long weekend away it's been a busy week at work so I've had nothing to put up really. I'm back in London tomorrow for some work thing and bringing the bike through here on Sunday, and I can't bloody wait - the legs are getting itchy and that Parisian traffic is calling me ;) By the way, the photos from my weekend in Lake Como and the Cinque Terre are here.

Saturday - Sunday, 2 - 3 October 2010
(Weekend in London)

Sunday, 3 October 2010 - And on the 7th day, God created the bicycle, and he saw it was good, damn good!

Back from London after spending the weekend there and this time I've brought the bike through too! I did a quick 30km burn tonight to figure out a good route between my apartment and work. This is looking along the Champs-Élysées, which will be part of my daily commute.		A couple people have already asked the question, and the answer is yes the ride will also involve Place Charles de Gaulle (historically Place de l'Étoile) - the monster 12-road 'roundabout' surrounding the Arc de Triomphe hahaha - awesome! Car insurance companies don't cover vehicles on this road, all the guidebooks strongly advise against ever cycling around it, and if you've ever been to Paris and witnessed this mayhem for yourself then you'd no doubt be asking why I will be, and the answer is simply it's the most direct route and by definitely the most fun. I had my last bike here for a weekend last year and went nuts all over Paris, including several laps around this thing and had tourists taking photos of me hehe. Videos of that here. But seriously if I felt at all in any real danger then I wouldn't do it, but as it stands I don't and realistically if I'm going to get smacked by a car in Paris my money says it won't be around this thing - everybody is way too cautious of the chaos going on around them.

From choatic 12-road roundabouts to gorgeous little quiet ones - my route will cover them all.		Cycle lanes!
After the fun of central Paris I head into some slightly quieter and nicer suburbs, and eventually over the final river into La Défense (where I work).
The route is about 10kms one way (slightly longer than my commute to the office in London), and with the traffic in mind it will probably take me 35-40mins with rush-hour traffic in mind. To mix it up a little, there is an off-road path I can take through the massive Bois de Boulogne here.		Part of the route back to my apartment is along the Seine (rhymes with "Ten").

Monday, 4 October 2010 - Traffic, Paris style

Enough said hehe. This is all part of my daily commute.				Hahaha! Suit, tie, and a Parisian hire bike - if that man can do it then so can I! Incidentally there are banks of those hire bikes all over Paris for anyone to hire, though they do tend to go missing - I've heard stories of them being found in rivers in far-eastern Europe for example hehe.

Place Charles de Gaulle around the Arc de Triomphe - my new favourite piece of road ;) I did see a couple other cyclists on this today, so I'm not the only idiot. Be that as it may there seems to be far less cyclists on the road here than in London which surprises me.
Some other random sights on or near my route. I gotta say, Paris is a beautiful city (at least in the centre of it)!
While busy in town, at least the traffic was moving. Near my apartment however, it was completely gridlocked and it horns ahoy.		And after busting out a round trip of 20-something kilometres, I have to haul the bike up five flights of stairs since it won't fit in the elevators of my apartment building.

Tuesday, 5 October 2010 - Oh naughty!
I've only been here a few weeks, and already my client (Societe Generale) are making headlines after one of their traders turned rouge, gambled some €50 billion of SocGen's money on dodgy trades supposedly without their knowledge, which ultimately culminated in the bank losing about €5 billion on the deal hahaha! So he's been jailed for three years and SocGen have been fined €4 million for allowing that to happen. News article here.

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