First Week in Paris

On the picture, the white monument @ the end of l'Avenue de la Grande Armée is la Grande Arche de la Fraternité. This shot is taken from l'Arc de Triomphe. La Grande Arche is located in the business district of La Defence west of Paris. I work in one of the towers beside the Arche. A cool thing about my workplace is that it has 2 squash courts :)

So here goes my first 2 weeks in Paris. There was allot of work and going through my task list. I had to open a bank account, shop for my cell phone, shop for Internet, find an apartment which will be in the 3rd district until I find something better, in between Le Centre Pompidou and Le Louvre ...

Currently my hotel is in Neuilly, a rich neighbourhood of Paris really close to where I work. I guess I wouldn't mind staying @ the hotel more than the 2 weeks planned. Since I've been here, We've been working hard, the project we our working on was kind of doomed and we are trying to save it, but let's say french politics are quite different and we've been having a hard time to have a good chain of commands. Plus we are outsourcing part of the programming to Vietnam which has not proven a successful partnership up to now.

After all the hard work we go out for diner or for a drink with a bunch of Alex's(Alex is the guy that brought me here) friends, he knows so many people. Last Saturday, after I learned that I couldn't go to the Vitalic concert because it was sold out, I went for a chill night by myself to a cool little restaurant playing house music beside my hotel. It's called Epices Riz - Tapas y Pasta and it's a mixture of Italian/Spanish food. I ended up meeting a bunch of people staying @ the restaurant with the staff and friends and drinking their private collection of wine and champagne. A couple of "Someliers" Mathieu and Charlotte invited me to stop by the store to taste a few more wines when I'll have time. Since then, Ive been eating to that restaurant every night I can, Alex loved it also.

On the week-end I went running twice in les Bois de Boulogne located right beside the Hotel.
I also went for a walk/shop @ l'Arc de Triomphe and Les champs Élysées.

Last night we went to a Pierre Lapointe concert @ La Cigale with a bunch of Quebecois, it was a good show and we had a great time goofing around @ the concert and @ the bar after that. Going in to work this morning was a different thing though. Every Thursday night there is le Pot Québecois, a gathering of Québekers going for drinks somewhere in Paris. We should be looking that out tonight.