ZeroGrav – June 2019 – to France!

I traveled to France this past week for business, it was a whirlwind of work by day, explore Paris by night! I don’t travel frequently so this was quite an adventure, and I tried to pack in as much as possible in the short time I was there (Mon/Tue – Fri).

To begin on Monday, I had a 3 hr meeting in the morning here in Boston, and then headed to the airport in the afternoon to catch a 6:00 PM flight. Air France was quite nice, although there were very energetic little kids sitting to my left, so I certainly didn’t sleep on the way there, haha. Arriving around 1:00 AM, however due to the timezone difference it was 7:00 AM Tuesday in France, so right to work for me!

Actually it took a solid 1.5 hrs to get to the office from the airport, the traffic in France really surprised me. Comparable if not worse traffic than Boston. Lots of motorcyles which go in between the lanes to save time, and this is normal and acceptable in France, which I found interesting. So, by this time it was Tuesday mid-morning, and I had been up since early Monday, however I had mentally prepared so it was fine.  🙂  Upon arriving at the office I met with my colleagues who I had only previously spoken / video-conferenced with, they are really a great group! Plenty of meetings however I quickly learned the team goes to lunch together every day, and then has espresso after, it feels more relaxed than the US.

After leaving the office on Tuesday I was exhausted, so had dinner at the hotel. Oh, this was actually after taking a bus to the wrong hotel, woops. Found my way back and had some really good food – Spinach raviolis, carrot smoothie with cocoa, and I mistakenly ordered an entire liter of sparkling water. Yeah! After dinner decided to just sleep for 5 minutes, which turned into something like 11 hours, waking up on Wednesday I had no idea what time it was. Plus the clock in the hotel room said it was January 3rd, 1:00 AM, which didn’t help my confusion. Haha quickly sorted it out though and began the next workday on Wednesday…. by the way, I was mostly taking Uber everywhere I went, it is prevalent in France.

Wednesday regular work day, then at night I really wanted to explore as much as possible. I first went by the Eiffel Tower, and it gave me a sense of wonder and awe to see it in person for the first time in my life. I then took a boat tour for ~1 hr along the Seine River, it was a beautiful 70 degrees and it is a great way to see everything in the area. When the boat passed by Notre Dame, everyone including myself seemed compelled to stand up, it is truly a powerful sight. Along the way I observed many, many, many people out and about, it is a very social city – Lots of younger generation out enjoying, tourists everywhere, busy restaurants, countless taxis and activity. After the boat tour I high-tailed it to the Louvre Museum, to see the one and only Mona Lisa. I felt this was a deep experience, viewing this painting in person, after so many years of knowing of it. The Louvre itself is an incredible place, I viewed as much as I could in the short amount of time left (stayed until closing @ 9:45 PM), a person could easily spend two full days there seeing everything. I still had not eaten dinner at this point, however again wanting to do as much as humanly possible, hiked it back to the Eiffel Tower with the plan of going to the top. After some internal struggle (thinking to myself wow that is a really small elevator going up REALLY high), mustered up the courage. However I then found the ticket line to be over 1 hour long, and then the boarding wait to be another 1 – 2 hours, so after all that I couldn’t go up! An activity for next time… (apparently tickets can be reserved online weeks in advance, as it is super busy all the time). Got back to the hotel around 11 PM, had some dinner, not sure how wise that was though because then I couldn’t sleep at all. :()

Thursday I went to another of the company’s office locations, and had meetings with numerous people whom again I had only spoken to via e-mail/phone, it was a very productive day. After work a few of my colleagues offered to take me in Paris to see it from a local’s perspective. We went to a different part of the city, and apparently drove by the building the President of France was working in, it was heavily guarded. I found it interesting as it is a nice, non-descript, small/mid-size building, nothing like the White House. In fact all the buildings in the area were maybe 4 stories tall and had detailed stonework and architecture, no skyscrapers. Then walked by the Moulin Rouge, this area of the city was a bit dicey, and climbed up about 12 flights (literally) of stone stairs, to reach the higher point of the city. It’s funny the higher we went up the nicer the neighborhoods became. Did one more touristy thing once we reached the top – Went to the Sacre Couer, which I must say is amazing. The outside of the church is beautiful, however once you step in it is truly a holy place. A priest was saying mass, and tourists are allowed to walk around the perimeter of the pews, where there are beautiful statues and other relics for viewing. Humbling. From there we went to a restaurant with an outside sitting area, and had a great ‘team-building’ exercise. i.e. French wine and beer! This was good fun and were out on the streets of Paris until around midnight.

And just like that it was Friday, back to the office early in the morning for a 3 hour training session. The espresso really helped at this point, haha. From there one more team lunch, and then I said my goodbyes, prior to being picked up by the taxi in order to make a 6:20 PM flight. Glad I had booked it early as there was 2 hours traffic to get back to the airport. There apparently was a car accident a short time before, as I saw firefighters putting out a blaze on a vehicle that had completely gone up in flames, very sad and I hope everyone was OK. I would comment there were lots of police/ambulance and sirens every time on the highway, the traffic and congestion is problematic and I wonder how it can be addressed. Arrived at the airport and the flight was delayed, however was back at home by 4:00 AM France time, or 10:00 PM EST time. And just like that the week flew by!!!

Now all of the above details might be a bit boring, so what I really want to say is what I learned about the French culture. Having only minimal knowledge and interaction with French people just a few months ago, I admit I held an unconscious stereotype thinking French are a bit arrogant, possibly thinking they are higher than others. In fact I can say I have learned the French are a wonderful people, they welcomed me (the somewhat ignorant American), with open arms and much hospitality. Anything I needed or didn’t even know I needed, every single person I met with was open, genuine, willing to take time to explain things to me, and to make my stay as comfortable as possible. What really impressed me was the willingness of any person I met with to dive into deep discussion on any topic – Rather than a quick 1 – 2 sentence exchange (i.e. How’s it going, what’s new), I feel when someone asked How’s it going, they actually want to know and take time to understand how my day was going. Or in the example of a situation where there are different viewpoints (i.e. One person thinks we should proceed with a business project, the other does not think so), rather than quickly disagreeing and escalating to superiors (as seems to be common in US business), there is a deep conversation exploring the topic from all angles. I really appreciated this aspect of having open, thoughtful debate on any number of topics. And most importantly, I have learned that the French culture values personable, genuine, strong relationships built upon trust and openness. You could be the smartest business person, scientist, or doctor in the room however no one would care, what matters is how you get along with others, are you willing to work as a team, to consider others viewpoints, to really make the effort to connect with others.  Put this together with a very chic sense of style and incredible architecture, I must admit I am impressed.

In this experience I have found France is a beautiful country characterized by a strong and authentic culture, France has my admiration and respect. It is a wonderful thing to travel and broaden one’s perspective!

– Zero