Today was “Clay goes to the Philips France office” day.  I was able to take the Metro most of the way there, and a street train took me the rest of the way.  My NaviGo Metro Pass THEORETICALLY only works in Zone 1 and 2, but the office stop was the first stop in Zone 3.  Some web research led me to understand that “They really don’t care.”  And it was true.  I got off the Metro and over to the street trains with no problem.  Bought two street train tickets, and made my way to Philips France (which really isn’t in Paris, but in one of the suburbs just a SMIDGE outside Paris).

Home away from home...

The meeting at the office (which took place on the second floor, pretty much right there) went really well.  And two hours after it started I was back out on the street and on my way to the train station.

Got on the street train. Put in my ticket. Rode the train two stops to the end. Went down into the Metro… and was stuck.

My metro card wouldn’t let me in. “Wrong Zone.” The ticket I used to get on the street train wouldn’t let me in.  I was sort of trapped in the middle of all these turnstiles, and I couldn’t get to the other side because I didn’t have the right ticket.  I could *SEE* the machines that would get me the ticket, but they were on the other side.  So eventually I had to go the wrong way through two security exit door things that people were coming the other way out of, just to get to where I needed to be so I could buy a ticket to get to where I wanted to go.

OY!

But I got home.

Michelle returned from Nantes for a few days to crash on my couch again, so we headed out for a night time stroll around Notre Dame, and took the photos that follow the few other Philips France photos… Please to be enjoying.

The view from the street train platform.

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So I woke this morning to my body saying, “Um, yeah, about that ridiculously long walk you took yesterday?  Screw you and your photo taking, dude, today we sit. Sit. Sit. Sit.”

So it was a nice, long, slow morning.  Did a little work first thing (I don’t know why some of my co-workers are on-line at 1AM their time thinking business. Sheesh!)  Showered, and got out of the house in time for lunch at Open Cafe.  The salad dressing they use there is a curry.  It took me a while to identify it, because I’m not used to that flavor on salad, but it goes REALLY well.

Post lunch, I opted to wander through the men’s store at Bazaar Hotel de Ville. Since it’s been chilly and rainy, I’ve been seeing EVERYONE sporting the loose scarf look, and it’s starting to grow on me.  Not totally sold on the idea though, I figured I’d peruse some potential neck warmers and let that influence my final decision.

Honestly, the majority of them… didn’t like.  WAY too European for my tastes. However, I did find one loose knit, dark red scarf that made me say “YES! I’ll join the ranks of the hipsters and wear a scarf EVERYWHERE!!”

Until I saw the €90 price tag.

After that, I was like… maybe I shouldn’t be looking to buy things in the touristy area…

Wandered home after that, stumbled upon the sex toy store — not that I’m in the market, but who knew it was so close to my house — but if Kelly comes to visit there will be somewhere embarrassing to take her. 🙂

Picked up some Guatamalan roast coffee at Monoprix (and some more of the amazing Mustard flavored potato chips), then settled in to work for the afternoon — conference calls out the wazoo.

I did figure out how to use the little single cup stove top coffee pot, and while good, I think I need to start saving up for an espresso machine when I get home.

I'm a little coffee pot, short and stout...

Oh, and this is the first time I went out sans camera, too…

Oh Tuesday. So full of potential thwarted by rain.  But it’s okay.  I made my way out of the house pretty early so that I could get a French sim card for my phone.  I got to the Orange store closest to my place just before they opened at 10, so I took another lap around the block.  That’s when it started raining.  I feared for my afternoon plans to wander the Latin Quarter before going to work, but it was only a light rain…

There were two people in line ahead of me when i got back to the Orange store.  The older lady had a bag filled with something that smelled all at once fresh baked, meaty and TOTALLY delicious.  It was hard not to club her like a baby seal, steal her bag, and run off into the night… but since it wasn’t night, I didn’t do that.

When it was finally my turn, the gentleman at the counter explained that his store was too small to deal with sim cards, and directed me to the Orange store on rue Rivoli, at number 43.  So I headed back out into the (now signigicantly more daunting) rain in search of N° 43 rue Rivoli.

You would think this wouldn’t be all that difficult.  I walked down rue de Temple until I hit rue Rivoli.  The building I was next to said N° 62.  So I went left, since that was the way the numbers decreased.  But when I got to N° 42 and crossed the street, I was in front of N° 19. Muh?  So I turned around and walked BACK the way I came, passed the place I started, and went just as far in the opposite direction until I got to N° 43, which was across from N° 80something.  No cross street synchronicity with numbers.  WHO KNEW?!?!

The young lady at the new Orange store hooked me up with a new sim card tout suite, and I was on my way with a new phone number and €14,90 less in my wallet. That would keep my phone active for a week. Once it expires, I can recharge it at will (supposedly).

By this point, the rain was pretty much telling me “You’re going home to start work early today.” Which is what I did.  But not before stumbling upon la place Igor Stravinsky next to the Pompidou Center and the Cloister of St. Mary’s, where I took a handful of photos, which I present to you here.

Elephant!

Open Café

The view from Open Café.

The street at the north end of my street.

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I stopped at the felafel place on the corner before heading back to the apartment and spending the rest of the day video editing.  I actually ended up working from about 2:00 till about 11:30.  But I got a lot done!

Our plans to visit the Water Gardens were thwarted by a horrible case of Sleeping In.

As such, we decided to just wander for the day, and when Michi checked the internetz, she discovered that there would be a flashmob pillow fight in the courtyard in front of Sacré-Cœur in Monmartre. We totally couldn’t pass THAT up.

So, a hop on the Metro (got me a monthly pass), and we were in the 18th District.  We found this café about 1/3 of the way up the hill to Sacré-Cœur. Probably the best quiche I’ve every had, and by far the best espresso.  I could drink that espresso all freakin day.  And we actually ended up going BACK after the day’s adventures to grab one more before we headed off to dinner.

So once brunch was done, we started climbing the rest of the stairs.  We climbed. And climbed. AND climbed.  All said and done, this is my stair count from yesterday according to my magic electronic pedometer (thanks Bryce!!).

The pillow fight started right on schedule and was epic. As soon as it was done and everyone had posed for photos they all started scooping up the fallen down (ha!) and cleaned the courtyard.  Then we were off to drink wine in a park along with some of Michi and Amy’s CouchSurfing.com friends.

That, too, became epic. 8 or 9 people 4 or so bottles of wine 2 or so guitars (we totally kidnapped this poor kid as he walked by with his guitar and made him play for us, and then another young lady just stopped and joined in) — made for a leisurely afternoon in the shade. 3 Californians, a few Frenchmen, two midwesteners, an Italian, a Pole, a Russian and a few that I couldn’t figure out.

Stanley was, of course, the belle of the ball. 🙂

From the park, we returned to L’Été en Pente Douce for more coffee, and got caught outside in a hail monsoon (thankfully we were under an umbrella.

After that, a quick jaunt down rue de Clingencourt to Michi and Amy’s friend Manu’s house for dinner with his current CouchSurfing.com guests Tim and Femke (graphic designer and PhD candidate studying liver cancer) from Ghent in Belgium.  Good conversation, more wine, tasty food, and late night.

"So then, I grabbed the alligator around the snout and just HELD him there..."

Superawesomest Quiche

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At SFO. Boarding in 45 minutes.