Kris Wallsmith

Blog Post Cut Short

Me < Metro < Paris
I would like to eat a crepe.
What more can I say?

That about sums it up! I’m headed to the symfony live training day, bracing myself for the first of three OSS geek-out days.

I arrived in Paris yesterday morning after flying nine hours up and over the top of the world, getting nary a wink of sleep. This is my second trip to Paris and my first flying solo; so I don’t have my wife’s talented tongue to lean on ( how’s that for imagery?) but am much more comfortable getting around than I would have been otherwise. I know how to read a subway map, buy food and thank people what I hope is graciously.

After I found the hotel yesterday morning, which only took about 1M of exorbitantly priced international AT&T data (read $20), I unpacked and almost immediately went for an aimless walk. I was really just trying to stay away from my bed to help beat this jet lag as quick as possible. I ended up walking about 10k.

Finally, a day in Paris

My wife and I finally got a chance to experience Paris in leisurely style yesterday. We started in Île Saint-Louis around lunch time and had a very nice meal with a great view of the back of Notre-Dame and a pleasant breeze off the Seine.

After our meal and some coffee we strolled the island while enjoying some ice cream and sorbet, supposedly the best in Paris. We bought some gifts for folks back home and sat by the river, chatting about how fortunate we are to be able to do this.

From there we crossed the pedestrian bridge to the cathedral and walked around the gardens. The front of Notre-Dame is always so busy with tourists, but the gardens in the back are very quiet. We thought about going inside, but the line was crazy long.

We then wandered back over the river, this time to the right bank, and looked around to see where we should go next. The Pompidou Center caught our eye, to put it mildly, so we headed there. The thought of exploring the museum was a bit too much for us at the moment, so we just checked out the ground floor and enjoyed the activity in the square out front.

We checked the map and decided to head to the Louvre next. After a walk through Les Halles we entered the museum grounds through the courtyard, which is a fantastic reveal of the magesty of that building. The fountains around the glass pyramids were very pleasant, especially on a sunny day, and gave us some interesting ideas for a water feature back home.

The Louvre is a huge museum. First thing upon getting tickets you need to decide which wing of the building to visit. We hadn’t done any research, so we went with what seemed oldest: the Egyptian stuff. That direction started off Medieval — we walked around the base of a castle and checked out a dungeon — then we got distracted by traffic signs for the Venus de Milo.

We saw the statue and I enjoyed it as much as any untrained eye could. I’m sure there’s a lot I don’t know about that piece that would have enriched my experience. Then we headed through the grand hall and spent about an hour in the presence of some amazing Renaissance art. By the time we got to the Mona Lisa I was pretty tired, but it was a real privilege to be in her presence.

At the end of the day we felt like we had finally experience Paris, and we had done it in a way that didn’t involve a schedule or too much mass-transit. It was definitely a day I’ll remember for years to come.

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Willy Wonka’s Nespresso Factory

My most surreal experience this trip was my trip to the Nespresso store yesterday.

When I came up from the Metro I was greeted by the old Opera house, which is gorgeous. I didn’t have the exact address with me, so I checked my iPhone for an available Wi-Fi network. I was able to connect to one called “Google-Guest” and find the store in the maps app.

The store itself was like a cross between Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory, the milk bar from The Clockwork Orange, and a Banana Republic store.

There were two guards on either side of the entrance. The ground floor resembled a very spacious retail store, but instead of clothes there were little espresso machines on pedestals, adorned with tiny little cups. The floor was a polished white, and in the middle of the room there was a brushed steel and glass spiral stairway down to the basement.

The lower level was definitely where the action was. This area had a more library/den quality to it (think: a milk bar your mom would go to). There were three stations around the edge of the room, each with a wall of cubby holes filled with long, skinny, colorful Nespresso boxes and a few clerks helping select and sell the coffee. There was also a small circular alcove on one side of the room with a well-dressed gentleman in the middle selling coffee and chocolates.

I was pretty overwhelmed — all I wanted was to buy some coffee. Instead of bothering with selecting boxes from one of the walls of coffee, I just picked up a few of the prepackaged collections in the middle of the room. These turned out to be their new flavors and probably cost me twice as much, but at least I didn’t have to communicate.

I got in line to purchase my selection. The line took about five minutes, because the people in front of me each asked for a number of different boxes of coffee and seemed to ask questions about each one. I think the typical shopper walked out of there with about 25 boxes, enough for 250 cups of coffee.

I left there wondering what an equivalent experience in America might be. Something very pedestrian to a resident, but totally far out to a visitor. I haven’t thought of anything yet…

Pedestrian injuries

I’ve seen at least a dozen young people walking around with crutches and one woman being placed on a stretcher after being hit by a car today. Is this just city life or some kind of epidemic?