Paul's Down-Home Page

I was missing two pieces of hardware for this trip: an airplane power adapter (have one, can’t find it) and a small portable wireless router. I didn’t miss the adapter because I have a spare laptop battery; I did miss the router, though, because if I’d had one I could have worked on my hotel balcony. So, I now have a Linksys Compact Wireless-G Broadband Router WRT54GC on the way; Devin has one and recommends it, so I figured I’d give it a try.
If I can’t find my power adapter, I know there are several now that take an Empower plug and have a regular two-prong, 110VAC outlet. That’s the kind I want, since I can use it with whatever device I happen to have.

Getting out of France turned out to be more of an adventure than I wanted it to be. I arrived about 0845 for a 1005 flight, which I figured would be plenty of time. Unfortunately, when I went to the Air France check-in desk, they couldn’t find my electronic ticket because when the helpful Delta TA in Detroit rebooked me, I’d ended up with a new number. After 15 min or so of fumbling, she directed me to the Delta desk. More fumbling ensued, then they produced an itinerary receipt. I returned to see Air France again and waited while my agent tried to reach the ticketing desk. When that failed, she walked me over to the ticketing desk; more fumbling, and I was the proud owner of a paper ticket for NCE-CDG. Apparently there’s some lingering animosity between the respective computers at DL and AF. Paper ticket in hand, I went back to the AF check-in desk and checked in. A short walk took me to my departure gate, where I boarded. The first thing I noticed was the unfortunate fact that the plane stank like a locker room. The second thing I noticed was that, after our departure time had come and gone, we were still at the gate. It turns out that some of the folks in the back weren’t in their seats; for whatever reason, the cabin crew didn’t do anything about it. Once everyone was finally strapped in, we’d missed our arrival time slot into CDG, so we sat for another 45 minutes, departing at 1110. The rest of the flight was uneventful, but I really had to hustle to make my CDG-CVG flight.
Security procedures were essentially no different than they are at US airports; the French equivalent of the TSA is no more or less efficient or polite than the average in the US (excepting such places as EWR and SEA, where TSA is chronically rude, and MCO, where they’re practically Italian in their efficiency).

Wednesday night, I fired up the ol’ Citroen and drove to Monaco with fellow MVPs Jim McBee and Sue Mosher. We took le moyen Corniche to get there, a coast road that overlooks some beautiful scenes of the Meditarranean and more than a few fancy houses. (In Nice, given that a 700-square-foot apartment might set you back 120,000 euros or more, I can’t imagine what some of these houses must have cost!) When we got to Monaco proper, we drove around the town a bit until we got to Parking les pecheurs, the big parking garage downhill from the aquarium. Sadly, the aquarium was already closed, but we had a nice walk around the area, followed by supper at Le Pinocchio, an excellent Italian restaurant.
The highlight of our outing actually came as we were returning to Nice. We’d decided to take the A8 autoroute back so I wouldn’t have to drive the Corniche in the dark; we followed the signs in Monaco faithfully, but the road we wanted to take was blocked, so we had to go in the opposite direction. As a result, I got to drive about a mile of the course for the upcoming Monaco Grand Prix. I can now add “Grand Prix driver” to my resume and be at least partially accurate.

This was my first full day in Nice; I arrived mid-morning yesterday and got settled in to my hotel (le Palais de la Mediterranee— extremely nice). For some reason, when I checked in at the DTW ticket counter, the DL TA called the international routing desk and changed my routing from DTW-JFK-CDG-NCE to DTW-JFK-NCE. This was a great optimization, as it got me 3 extra hours in Nice and saved me from having to change planes in CDG.
Yesterday I spent some time exploring the immediate area around my hotel, combined with a little shopping and a hunt for the nearest Carrefour. I found it, bought some snacks and a pair of shorts (which I inexplicably forgot to pack), and drove around to find the conference center where Exchange Connections is being held. For dinner, I met my friend Jim, after which I collapsed in an exhausted heap at the hotel.
Today was day 1 of the conference. I only had two sessions, and they were spaced well apart, so I got some work done in the speaker lounge. As you might expect, the convention center food was good (we’re in France, after all) but not as good as restaurant food (it’s a convention center– what do you expect?) The sessions both went well, with lots of audience interaction. By the time I got done, it was late, so I stopped back at Carrefour for some ibuprofen, went back to the hotel, then walked around the pedestrian district some. It wasn’t as crowded as it was last night.
A few random observations:

• There are lots of scooters here, and it’s not a good idea to follow them through traffic unless you want to end up playing chicken with a bus. Trust me on this.
• Apple is maddening. I heard some songs I liked on the local equivalent of MTV. iTunes will show me the French version of the music store, and it will let me search for songs– but I can’t buy them. To make things worse, the prevailing price for a CD single with two songs on it is €4.99, or about $6.20. To make things worse still, don’t even think that anyone will sell you an iTunes Music Store card in France– even Carrefour, which sells iPods.
• Parking in downtown is very expensive, but forget about parking on the streets! Even with the little micro-cars people drive here (like the Citroen C4 I rented) it’s a very tight squeeze.
• It’s hard to beat French bread dipped in olive oil.

It’s time for me to hit the bed; I’ll try to post some pictures tomorrow.