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France day 1
Feb. 25th, 2007 12:59 pmSo, off I go to France again. The trip is mostly normal - hop on plane, wait n hours, get off plane - until I arrive at Charles De Gaule airport. CdG is a big concrete monstrocity of an airport, and wandering around it always reminds me of those dystopian science fiction films of the 70's, particularly Logan's Run. One really odd thing I did this time was I took a moving walkway through a tube that crossed the empty middle of the building and then deposited me on the other side, something that was very new.
However, after finding my way to the TGV (high speed train) train station at CdG, and after having gotten into the correct line for a while, I was informed that I couldn't take a train to Montpellier because they were all full. My employers had had the clever idea of sending me to Paris by plane and then to Montpellier by TGV to save money - and then suddenly I find myself getting a small hotel room by the other train station so that I can make a very early train ride to Montpellier. Oh, fun.
And small it is. It's a tiny little triangle of a room, with a bed that barely has room to walk around it and a thermostat with a missing dial. It's clean, but it's very compact... which didn't mean much to me. After having been travelling since mid-day the last day in a different time zone, I was completely tired out. I tested the alarm function on my phone - the one on the tv not working - and decided a short nap was alright, as I suddenly found myself unable to get out of the bed. The short nap was then exteded to a four hour nap after I found that half an hour didn't give me the ability to leave the bed yet! So finally I was able to drag myself out of bed, throw myself into the shower, and feel human once more - after which I then was able to call my wife and chat with her about how things had gone.
And then it was out onto the streets to find some food. Search here, search there, and then I found myself at a small cafe with a bilingual menu that let me order Steak & Fries. The steak was a little tough, but still good, and the french fries were french fries x2, ne? (I recently had some absolutely fantastic fries from a BBQ place in Denver. Mmmm... got to get those again.)
After that I walked around a little, turned down a nice girl who wanted me to pay her for sex, and then wandered back to my hotel, where I hooked up with wireless internet, which lets me send this out.
Tomorrow: TGV, and getting to work late.
However, after finding my way to the TGV (high speed train) train station at CdG, and after having gotten into the correct line for a while, I was informed that I couldn't take a train to Montpellier because they were all full. My employers had had the clever idea of sending me to Paris by plane and then to Montpellier by TGV to save money - and then suddenly I find myself getting a small hotel room by the other train station so that I can make a very early train ride to Montpellier. Oh, fun.
And small it is. It's a tiny little triangle of a room, with a bed that barely has room to walk around it and a thermostat with a missing dial. It's clean, but it's very compact... which didn't mean much to me. After having been travelling since mid-day the last day in a different time zone, I was completely tired out. I tested the alarm function on my phone - the one on the tv not working - and decided a short nap was alright, as I suddenly found myself unable to get out of the bed. The short nap was then exteded to a four hour nap after I found that half an hour didn't give me the ability to leave the bed yet! So finally I was able to drag myself out of bed, throw myself into the shower, and feel human once more - after which I then was able to call my wife and chat with her about how things had gone.
And then it was out onto the streets to find some food. Search here, search there, and then I found myself at a small cafe with a bilingual menu that let me order Steak & Fries. The steak was a little tough, but still good, and the french fries were french fries x2, ne? (I recently had some absolutely fantastic fries from a BBQ place in Denver. Mmmm... got to get those again.)
After that I walked around a little, turned down a nice girl who wanted me to pay her for sex, and then wandered back to my hotel, where I hooked up with wireless internet, which lets me send this out.
Tomorrow: TGV, and getting to work late.
