May 27th -
Today was my first bike ride through Paris! It was great to get my bike put together and take if for a spin. I found some great links and maps on-line (thanks Google) to help me navigate my way around. One claimed over 350 km of bike trails within Paris. The bike trails were easy enough to find. They all had arrows and pictures of bicycles every 10 meters or so. However, there’s also a stop light almost every block and navigating the circulars is near suicide! I found out very quickly that these trails are meant more for general transportation or touring around. I was trying my best to get a good work out in and I wound up in a version of an old Atari game with cars, motorbikes, buses, families, and tourists flying out at me from every direction at the last minute. It was kind of like navigating time’s square at rush hour. Despite the hazards, I was able to cover a lot of the city, riding past the Eiffel Tower, down St. Germain, Past Notre Dame, the Louvre, Montparnasse, the Arch de Triumph, down Champs Elysee, etc. 30 miles in all.
Ahh the French system…. As most of you know, it took my nearly 6 months to get my work visa approved so that I could come work in France. Well, now I’ve been told that I can’t leave France until after June 26th, which was the earliest appointment they could make for me in order to get my card de sojourn, which is my 1 year residency card. This was discovered after I had a work trip planned to Spain and the HR folks caught wind of it and decided to check on my Visa details. Sure enough, the trip was cancelled because my 3 month visa is only good for 1 entry to the country!?!? I’ll be breaking this law when I head to Boston this Friday for Rajko’s wedding. I don’t understand…. Although, I now can sympathize for all of those who have moved to the US and have probably had to deal with similar circumstances.
My time as a host started early. Saturday of my second weekend in Paris, Deepak and Rashani, friends from the Bay Area, arrived from southern France (and previously Italy, India, and Shrilanka). The next morning, Tim Shaw, a good friend and mentor of sorts from Berkeley arrived. Deepak and Rashani stayed for a week and explored Paris, relaxed in preparation for their trip back to the U.S. and decompressed a bit after 5 weeks of traveling through various other countries. I was most impressed by their packing. They each walked in with just a day pack on and 1 suitcase between them. Tim meanwhile spent the week charging hard each day into the city to see everything Paris has to offer and following some of Amy Reynolds guided tours. (For those that don’t know, Amy is a friend of Tim and myself from Berkeley and has spent several months in Paris on 2 separate occasions. So, she’s practically a local. And the walking tours she put together for Tim and I have been great! Including, among other things good restaurant suggestions and the best croissants in Paris – Thanks Amy)
The first week my guests were here I got to head south for 2 days of training in Annecy. Annecy is just south of Geneva, located right on a lake and nestled between the mountains. It seemed like an ideal place for outdoor adventures, and this was quickly verified by some co-workers who are based in the Annecy office. Swimming in the lake during the summer, mountain biking, and skiing in the winter are all common past times. I’ve got to figure out how to talk my way into working from Annecy during the winter. To get to Annecy I took the TGV. After a while it didn’t feel like we were moving very quickly, until we past a TGV heading the other way. They looked to be only a foot or so apart and as soon as I heard the train start to pass, it was already out of site. The trip took us through the long rolling hills south of Paris. The country side just outside of Paris reminded me a lot of Northern California in the Spring, before everything turns golden brown. As we continued south, the landscape became rolling hills with horses running through the fields and cattle grazing. It was a very nice ride.
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