Wednesday – in the Lyon office

Wednesday was just another day at work… but obviously, being in a different country where I don’t speak the language etc., well it wasn’t just another day at all…

Tuesday night amazingly I’d slept pretty well – making it to about 9pm before finally giving up and going to bed, and then sleeping pretty much all the way through with just a 15 minute "dah – I’m awake" period about 3am. So after a decent night’s sleep, shower etc. it was time to figure out breakfast once again… this should be easy thinks I, as I’ve already ordered breakfast once in French, and I know the hotel staff speak English !!!

Hmmm… not quite… the girl working in the dining room where they serve "le petit dejeuners" doesn’t actually speak English, so after the normal "bojnours" etc. there’s a new question for me…. "qui est votre nombre le chambre"…. OK, I can do this…. "trois cent trois" says I somewhat confidently (my room number), and yep – got it right. CHALLENGE #3 PASSED.

Julia from the Lyon office was set to pick me up from near the hotel and take me into the office – about a 40 minute drive. After some initial confusion as to which corner I was meant to be on, I was soon ensconsed in her little Puegot Diesel as it buzzed in and out of traffic – par for the course when driving in France it seems.

Once in the office the day was pretty normal… the French are definitely not rude as the myth goes. I’d say they’re extremely polite and friendly actually, as there were bonjours’ and salut’s from everyone who comes past, and quite a few "welcome to France" sort of conversations. 

Lunch wasn’t quite my idea of normal though – sorry guys but the cafe in the Brisbane office isn’t a patch on what they have in Lyon – would you believe a private dining room complete with wait staff when entertaining customers !!! This sort of deal I get get used to, with a three course meal and a good bottle of red… just brilliant !!!

In the evening no-one was available to run me back to the hotel, so Julia set me up with tickets and instructions for taking a tram and then the Metro back into Lyon… this was a bit of an adventure, but good preparation for finding my way to Le Hive (head office) in Paris using a mix of the TGV and the Metro which was to come on Thursday.

Tuesday – Paris to Lyon

Although spent mostly travelling, Tuesday was a day of challenges for me… trying to cope in a country where I don’t really speak the language has turned out to be a great and fun experience !!!

Challenge #1….
getting through the airport using my recently acquired smattering of
Francais… amazingly with a few well placed Bonjours and Mercis, plus what was
probably a very stilted “Je viens d’Australia” and a “Deux semaines” to the
immigration officer and I was through without a single word of English.

Challenge #1 PASSED.

Charles de Gaulle
airport in Paris is fairly unimpressive… inside basically just a big concrete
hallway. Arriving at 7am it was pretty gray looking outside – France has had
Autumn hit pretty suddenly I’m told. The airport train system was pretty cool
though – jump on a small shuttle train that runs between the 3 terminals and
the carpark, and at terminal 1 they have a Metro and TGV station.

Challenge #2…. finding
where to buy a ticket to Lyon, then getting something for breakfast and finding
the right platform.

So… the now
comfortable bonjour’s et merci’s, and an “un billet pour Lyon Part-Dieu sil
vous plait” took care of the first one….breakfast worked well too…. “un
crossaint et un bouteille d’evian svp”… and finally “ou est la train pour
Lyon Part-Dieu svp”… and I was done. 

Challenge #2 PASSED – Teacher would be proud !!! 

(Note to Mike
– I owe you several beer’s I reckon… feel free to print out this blog post and redeem at a time of your choosing 😉 )

Now all you good reader’s out there have heard
how the trains in Paris NEVER run late, yes ??? Well although the train system is excellent, it’s just not true !!! 

The reason I know this is that my
TGV was 50 minutes late arriving due to a problem with the train ahead
of it. Surprisingly to me though, they announced in both Francais and English that as an apology every passenger was
entitled to a fare reduction on their next journey…. and to make sure everyone knew, they put staff at the exit points on the platform handing out "how to claim your reduction" information. So… although the trains might
sometimes run late, but with a business model like that it can’t happen too
often !!!

TGV if you don’t know stands for Train a Grand
Vitesse, which means “Very Fast Train”… and yup – they’re right. Up to as
much as 300km/h apparently… though you can’t tell from the ride inside
them. As beautiful and interesting as the countryside is out the window,
man it rushes by pretty quickly !!! It has to… the TGV I was on did the 425km
from Paris to Lyon in 1 hr 40 minutes, including a 3 minute stop at a station
along the way… how does 262km/h grab you for an everage speed ???

The hotel that I am in is quite close to the train station in Lyon, but wouldn’t you know it… NONE of my French resources prepared me for the phrase "I’d like to check in please". Luckily the hotel receptionist speaks English quite well, so the final challenge overcome it was off to my room to try and make myself feel human again after all the travelling.

Off to Europe !!!

Time for me to do some travelling
again for work, and luckily this time I’ve had a bit more notice than usual….
with the possibility first coming up about a month ago and then getting definite (flights booked) during the week beforehand

Plan & Prep

The plan is for 2
weeks in France, based out of the Lyon office and visiting some customer’s in both
Lyon and Paris. On the way home will be going via the UK to both check out London and spend a few days with a colleague/friend in Bristol, helping her get up-to-speed for working with us again after maternity leave.

The advance notice
this time has been nice – it’s given me some time to learn a smattering of
French with a lot of help from one of my friends at work whom I call Canadian
Mike…. I call him that since his name is Mike and he’s Canadian ;-).

Anyway, Mike being Canadian knows French quite well, and he’s helped me out heaps – there’s been semi regular French "test" conversations, and even making up some palm cards with important phrases on them such as the usual "where is the", "I am from" sort of thing. I also have some One-Minute
French podcasts on my iPhone, and a Lonely Planet Mediterranean Europe
phrasebook that I got from the airport…that should be plenty, right ???

Monday – Brisbane to Paris

OK… so I suppose
should really write that as Lundi, jour 1. Oh well – maybe the French will kick in a bit later on… but no comments about French accents pls people !!!

My Monday consisted of 2 long flights…
Brisbane to Singapore which was about 7 and a half hours, then Singapore to Paris which was something close to 13 hours. This time on Singapore Airlines rather than the usual
Qantas. This turned out to be a nice change actually… the service is excellent, and the entertainment system they run is VERY cool with nice big screens on the back of the seat in front, and even some "learn a language" self help programs. The second leg turned out to be on an Airbus 380… and although kitted out the same as the Airbus 330 from the first leg, you definitely can tell you’re inside an absolutely massive plane. The most noticable difference was a much lighter and airier feeling inside…. also a bit quieter I think… but best of all was the spacing of the seats gave a bit more legroom so actually managed to sleep quite a
bit !!!