Paris: Day #7 (Going Home + Final Thoughts)

By Jeff – 9/13/2011

So my trip finally came to an end.  All that remained was a trip to the airport, a 9.5 hour flight to Minneapolis, and then a flight to Rochester after a 2 hour layover. 

The flight, other than being long, was uneventful – with the exception of the lady across the aisle and one row up from me, who hadn’t bathed since . . . uh . . . ever!  The smell was so strong that when I first got to my seat, I thought it was the person next to me.  Thankfully no – but every time she created a small breeze from across the aisle (like shifting her blanket) – my nose burned just a little bit more.

BTW – and your experiences may vary – but for every trip where there’s an option between Delta and American – I’m flying Delta.

Anyway – day #7 consisted of leaving my hotel at 7:30 Tuesday morning and getting home at 6:00 Tuesday night (Rochester time).  Since my body was still on Paris time – that would be 1:00 Wednesday morning.  Yeah, I was a little tired.  However, having a little girl shout, “daaaaaadddy!” out the window, as I was stepping off of the shuttle bus certainly did wake me up.  I walked up the stairs and Grace hugged me so hard that I thought my head was about to pop off.  It was wonderful.  I haven’t been allowed out of her sight since.

So – my final thoughts about Paris (based on my experience – which does not necessarily equate scientific fact):

·         Contrary to what you’ve been told, the French are not snooty, arrogant people, who hate all Americans and would enjoy shooting anyone who butchers their language.  I found them to be quite enjoyable, polite and helpful.  They did not flinch when I mispronounced words – unless it was so bad that they had no clue what I was saying (if I haven’t already mentioned, yes I did “speak” French whenever possible.  It was great fun! – No, not fluent, only have about 50 phrases).

·         The French are terrible drivers – yet, great drivers.  They weave in and out of traffic (and the scooters and motorcycles – oh my goodness, scary!) – but the other drivers let them in.  They are polite on the freeways – not like us with our “me first” attitude on the freeway (think about it, you know I’m right (self included)) – and despite how terrible the traffic is, I only saw one dented car – and I think that was from hitting a power pole or similar.

·         Paris Metro (subway) and train system is fantastic.  I have never been to New York or L.A. to see their system – but some of our cities could learn something from their system.  It took/takes an immense amount of planning to make that thing work.  I realize we’re different here – things are so spread out and we like our cars – but we could learn a thing or two about moving people from A to B.

·         The best food is not always found in the fanciest or most expensive restaurant.  Food in Paris was (in my opinion) quite expensive.  Much of it was similar to what I could’ve got in a restaurant here in the States.  True, there was the tuna pizza – but other than that . . .   However, the best food I had the entire trip was from a little “mom and pop” place in Caen, after the D-Day tour.  Everyone went out to find food before boarding the train back to Paris.  I stumbled upon a little shop that simply had, “Kabab” written on the sign over the door.  It was by far the best food I had my entire trip – for 1/3 the price (seriously a THIRD). 

·         I may have mentioned this before – Paris is called the city of romance or the city of love, and is referred to the most romantic city in the world.  Personally – I didn’t see it, unless they are referring to all of the people who are kissing at the bus stops and street corners.  The city was neat – a lot of cool things to see and old world architecture and buildings that were built before the European settlers even inhabited the land that would one day become the USA – but from a romantic standpoint?  Take your significant other to a warm place in January and hold hands on the beach.

·         Lastly – and this is not meant to sound boastful – it has not escaped me that I am very fortunate to have a job that allows me to travel, quite literally, all over the world.  I am thankful every day, first of all – to even be employed and do something that I enjoy – but also to be able to go places and see things that I had previously only dreamed of.  Life treats me very kindly, and God has been very good to me.

That wraps up the notes from Paris.  Thanks for reading.  If you ever want to hear more about one of the days or events – don’t hesitate to ask.  I always love to tell stories (even true ones).

Be well,

Jeff

Paris: Day #6 (Normandy Beach / D-Day Tour)

By Jeff – Sept 12, 2011

Okay – when we left off, it was 1:00 a.m. and I was going to bed, so I could get up at 4:45 to get on the train for my tour of the Normandy Beach / D-Day museum area.

So – yes, I did manage to get up at 4:45 and be out of my hotel by 6:00.  The 2 hour train ride to Caen was scheduled to leave the main train station (Gare Saint Lazare) at 7:05 a.m.  We arrived in the city of Caen, were promptly picked up by our tour guides and taken to the D-Day museum. 

The museum is quite spectacular.  As you enter, the first two things you see are an English fighter plane that is hanging from the ceiling – it is facing right toward you.  My first thought (after “whoa, cool”) was, “I’d hate to see that thing coming at me.”  The other thing you see is an enlarged picture (like larger than life-size), taken from the inside of a landing craft (Higgins Boat) of soldiers exiting into the English Channel, to storm the Normandy coast.  The picture’s caption says (in French, English and German), “On the 6^th of June 1944, on the beaches of Normandy, over 10,000 young soldiers paid for our freedom.”  Among its many displays, part of the exhibit talked about events starting in 1918 (just after WWI) that impacted Hitler’s rise to power.  Interestingly, the museum did not shy away from anything.  As an example – our tour guide was French and did not omit that the French made many errors in Hitler’s early years, turning their eye from some of his actions and choosing to do nothing – when doing something could’ve possibly prevented further actions (possibly including the invasion of their own country) from happening.

After touring the museum (which I will not cover all of it here, there would be too much to write.  Please check out the pictures – they are captioned) – we got into mini-vans  that took us along the north coast of France to see some German gun batteries, Gold and Juno Beaches, the American Cemetery at Normandy Beach, another German gun position and yes, Omaha Beach (the most famous of the landing sites).  (by the way, this  was a great way to take a tour – only 8 of us, plus the guide, in a mini-van rather than taking 30 people in a big bus where there is constant chatter)

To speak briefly on each portion – The 2 German gun batteries were interesting.  It showed what the Allied soldiers (mostly American soldiers on this part of the beach) were up against.  It also showed the living conditions of the “German” soldiers while in this area – and yuck, I wouldn’t want to live there.  You’ll notice that I put German in quotes there.  Something I didn’t know – 80% of the soldiers in the German army in the Normandy region we not actually German.  Many were coerced into fighting for the German army (“fight for us or we kill your family”) – which would explain why, in some areas, they gave up without much of a fight.  Why fight and die for a country that is forcing you to do their bidding?

The American Cemetery was quite moving.  It covers 172 acres and contains the graves of 9387 of our military dead.  Most were killed on the D-Day invasion, but there are a few others as well.  For more information, visit their official site at: http://www.abmc.gov/cemeteries/cemeteries/no.php.

The 9387 grave markers are lined up in exactly straight rows both east/west, and north/south.  It is amazing how much thought and effort went into creating the cemetery.  For example – all of the grave stones face west – back to the USA.  At the western end of the cemetery, a part of the wall is left open – this is to allow the souls of the soldiers to exit and go back home (west, to the USA).  The northern side of the cemetery (closest to the English Channel) is slanted down towards the water.  This gives the grave markers an appearance of coming up out of the water – as the soldiers came out of the water onto the land of France to liberate the country.  Overall it is terribly moving.  While I was there, all I could do was stand among the markers and say, “Thank you, guys.  I know you can’t hear me – but thank you.”

As mentioned we also went to Omaha Beach.  The main thing that struck me about Omaha Beach was that it is not the same as it is portrayed in the movies (Saving Private Ryan, for example).  In the movies you are led to believe that 20 feet from the water is nothing but straight cliffs.  Actually, the cliffs are about a quarter mile from the beach at low tide and many of the soldiers didn’t climb the cliffs, but rather attacked the Germans in the natural ravines that led to the hilltops.  Now – that being said – the differences from film to real life do not make it any less imposing or less terrifying when you stop to think that thousands of German troops were firing at our soldiers as they landed on the beach.  Oh – and yes, if we wanted to, we could go and dip our hands in the English Channel where our troops actually stood.  Yes – I did walk the quarter mile to the water to dip my hand in the Channel.

The tour ended by taking us back to the Caen train station, for the 2 hour ride back to Paris.  I left my hotel at 6:00 a.m. and got back at 11:00 p.m.  It was a full day.

I will not say it was a fun day.  Nor will I say it was awesome, as that implies fun – like, “the roller coaster was awesome.”  It was an awe inspiring day.  It gave me great respect for those who participated in the landing, and also for anyone who has seen combat.  As I looked at the beaches and the ground that the troops had to cover – all while having gun-fire rain down on them – it became more awful than I could’ve previously imagined.  It was a worthwhile trip and I so very glad that I went.

Now to packing up and getting ready to leave on Tuesday, the 13^th.

That’s about it for Day #6.  Sorry that this one was so lengthy.

JBD

Paris: Day #5

By Jeff 9/11/2011

Well, our conference wrapped up today.  If you remember, during my Day #4 note, I commented that things had gone off without a hitch – causing me to joke that I was setting myself up for disaster.  Well, all I can say is, “me and my big mouth!”  Everything was going fine – and then suddenly my colleague Scott’s computer crashed.  And you know, they only crash right at the moment you need them.  They never crash with enough time to reboot and catch up – GRRRR!  We were running the audience polling system on his computer.  Everything was fine until the presenter said, “so can we see the results from the question [that we just asked]?”  Wouldn’t you know it – Scott punches the keyboard and boom.  “Uh, sorry – our computer just crashed.”  We had 2 computers go down this morning (maybe a 3^rd one, I can’t remember now – it’s all a blur).  See?  That’s what I get for being cocky.

After the conference was done, Scott and I tore down and packed up our equipment.  We then had some time to kill before Karol, the meeting planner, would be ready to go out.  We all planned to go to the Eiffel Tower later in the evening.  So, Scott and I went out and got lost (again - on purpose) and got to see quite a bit of a residential part of Paris.  Again, it was awfully neat.  It was very different, yet very much the same as being at home.  Kids playing in parks, rollerblading down the sidewalks with mom running after them shouting (which I can only imagine was) “slow down and come back here!”

I cannot forget to mention that on Day #5 of my Paris adventure, someone FINALLY flirted with me!!  Scott and I were walking down the street, and this young lady gave me the eye – so I said “hi” and waved.  As we passed, I looked over my shoulder to see her looking back at me.  Again, she was giving me the eye.  I waved again.  I looked once more – I couldn’t help it – and there she was staring back at me giving me the eye again!  Even Scott recognized that she was a total flirt.  Okay – yeah, she was only six, but she had some serious attitude going on.

After getting lost and re-found, we made our way to the Eiffel tower area, with tickets to go up in the tower at 8:00 that night.  What a great view!!  We stopped on each level on the way up, and got various views of the city.  It is cold and windy at the top of the tower.  BTW – there is an apartment at the top of the tower, where Mr. Eiffel would entertain prominent guests.  The apartment is still intact, with a replica of Mr. Eiffel’s daughter serving tea to him along with his guest, Thomas Edison.  The whole Eiffel Tower area is abuzz with activity.  There are floating restaurants that travel up and down the river, as well as gift shops, sculptures and such.  One thing I found neat was the September 11^th memorial (as Paris day #5 is September 11^th).  On the other side of the river, in a small plaza, were 2 towers (you can find this pic in my folder).  Both of the towers had an inscription – one in French and one in English that said, “September 11, 2001 / The French will never forget.”  I thought that was awfully neat, that they would remember us on the 10^th anniversary.

After going up in the Tower, we decided to find something to eat.  No one in Paris eats dinner/supper at 6:00 – so the restaurant was still busy at 10:00.  After eating and talking for a while, the 3 of us decided to catch the train back to our hotel.  Can you believe we caught the LAST train??  If I would’ve known the cut off time – I would’ve suggested we leave much sooner!  I finally got to bed around 1:00 a.m. - having to get up at 4:30 on Monday morning for my D-Day / Normandy Beach tour.  Not going to get much sleep.  Oh well.

That’s it for now,

JBD

Paris: Day #4

By Jeff - 9/10/2011 (or 9/10/11 if you prefer)

The second day of our conference went off without a hitch (which means I am setting myself up for disaster tomorrow!).  All that’s left is Sunday from 8:00 – 12:30.  Then tear down, pack up and fill out some shipping paperwork and then we’re done.  It’s hard to believe, since just a few days ago it seemed like a long time, and now it’s almost time to go home.

Once the conference let out for today, Scott (my colleague who is also here) and I hopped on the subway (or the Metro, as it’s called) and went down to the Notre Dame area.  It is so cool to be able to figure out the subway map and then navigate the city on our own.  Upon exiting the subway tunnel, we saw a building and said, “that’s impressive”.  Then we turned to the left and saw something more impressive – then further to the left, more impressive and then we rounded the corner and came face to face with the Notre Dame courtyard, and the cathedral was staring right back at us.  Now THAT’S impressive.  We were truly in the “old world” Paris – or at least it seemed like it.  The same as in my trip to Hungary – I look at buildings that were constructed before the USA was even a country, and in some cases – before North America was even settled by Europeans – and stand in awe of the work they were able to do without so much as a Skil Saw, or a Menards or Hardware Hank on the corner.

I was a little bummed about Notre Dame though, as when you go in, it is quite dark.  It is so dark that you cannot marvel at the size of the structure.  Perhaps that is intentional, as one should enter a church to seek and marvel at God.  Yet, at the same (and Christian friends, don’t think less of me for saying this) I didn’t go to Notre Dame to seek God.  I wanted to see a really old, historical and massive church building (yeah, and the bell tower to see if Quasi could’ve really jumped – and uh, yeah, it’s a long way down).  Seriously though – it has to be as long as a football field (if not more).  After now looking it up, I find that it is about 1.5 football fields long (see dimension info here / http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080912212529AALVR8l ).  Also, they don’t let you take pictures in there, so I didn’t get any for you.

Dinner tonite consisted of tuna pizza, from the Auberge de Notre Dame (Notre Dame Inn) across from . . . you guessed it – Notre Dame cathedral.  Everything in the surrounding blocks has a Notre Dame theme to it.  Anyway, the pizza was pretty good.  Plus I ordered a chocolate milkshake – thinking, “cool, a French milkshake.”  When it arrived, it was nothing like an American milkshake.  It left me thinking, “darn, I just paid 6 Euros ($9 - $10 U.S.) for a glass of chocolate milk (and not a good one, at that).

Uh oh – it looks like I am now getting longwinded.  So to wrap up – after dinner, we went down to part of town, near ND, that is not listed on your tour map – but it should be.  There were about a thousand shops with every kind of food I would want to eat.  You could eat there for a month, and not have to repeat.  There were street shows – it was loud – it was GREAT!  We really were IN Paris tonite.  It was fun!  Then we had to find our way back to the Metro station – quite a feat, since we were totally lost (in a good way).  As you can tell, I made it “home” safely.

That’s about it.  Have a great rest of your Saturday (it’s now Sunday here).

JBD

Paris: Day #3

By Jeff 9-9-2011

Hello again from Pairee!  First thing – I don’t know why they call this the city of love – it’s not all that romantic to me.  I see a lot of old architecture, and I say, “cool” but nothing has made me go, “ooh, this city is the romance capital of the world!”

That being said – if it weren’t for having to live amongst 3 million people (12 mill in the surrounding communities) – and being away from the rest of my family – and the $12 bottles of pop (yes, $12) – I could do this.  We have had a good time, just traipsing around town seeing what is where.  We even went out and got lost yesterday (on purpose).  But tonite was really fun.  No one wanted to go out, so I just went down to the corner deli – 1/3 – 1/2 mile away, and picked up some pop (much cheaper than buying at the hotel) and a sandwich, and some other snacks for my room.  I got to shop, and interact with other customers and the sales clerk and such – it was GREAT!!  I also wandered around in the subway tunnels, trying to learn the best way to get around.  I love that stuff.

Other than the store, I didn’t go anywhere tonite.  It was the first day of the conference, and it gets quite hectic.  After we reset all of our equipment Saturday night (we had to set up extra for Saturday, and then will tear it down again for the Sunday portion) we plan to hop on the subway and get down to the Notre Dame Cathedral.  I hear it is supposed to be pretty cool.  Of course, yes, I will be looking for the sign that says, “Quasi slept here.”

Anyway – that’s about it for now.  Don’t want to be too long winded.  The plan for the rest of my stay (along with actually working) is – Notre Dame on Saturday night, Eiffel Tower (le Tour Eiffel) on Sunday night, and Normandy Beach/D-Day museum on Monday (all day).  I will let you know how it goes, and post pictures.

Be well,

JBD

Paris: Day #2

By Jeff – 9/8/2011 (p.m.)

It is now Thursday evening.  Set up was this afternoon.  It didn’t go well.  Due to the power issues (Europe is on 220 volts, and USA is 110) – we burned out one of our items, and one of the hotels pieces of equipment as well.  Coupled with that, we kept blowing breakers in the room. 

After a lot of messing around, we finally found the culprit that was giving us so much trouble, and removed it from the equation.  Unfortunately, it was a rather significant item.  So, with an hour left in the business day, we had to sprint down to the nearest electronics store and buy some new equipment. 

We will have to go to another store tomorrow.  That one will require a ride on the subway, and then a transfer to another train to get there.  Aye, aye!!  And you thought it was all fun and games over here!

After this evening’s run to the store – we got everything up and running and it looks good for the opening of the symposium on Friday morning.

That’s it for now.

JBD

Paris: Day #1

By Jeff - 9/8/2011

Hello from Paris (that would be Pair-ee, to you)!  Things seem to have gone well so far.  The plane ride was uneventful.  Thanks to a 100 mph tailwind, we actually arrived an hour early – still 7 ½ hours in an airplane is a long time.

We left Rochester at 12:50 p.m. on Tuesday, and our plane landed at 6:15 a.m. Wednesday (Paris time – or 11:15 p.m. Tuesday, Rochester time).  After clearing customs, getting our luggage, filling out a lost luggage claim (my colleague, Scott, lost one of his bags), and then a taxi ride, we finally arrived in our hotel about 9:30 a.m.  Then we checked in, “sorry, but your room isn’t ready yet, Mr. Duncan” – and finally got into my hotel room at about 1:00 p.m.

After meeting with the hotel staff, finding all of our equipment (by the way, I am here for the International Vascular Symposium.  If you remember, this is the same program that took me to Budapest, Hungary in 2009) and a short nap, it was out to see the town.

First thing to know about Paris – don’t rent a car.  Leave the driving to the locals and just hire a cab or take the subway.  They are CRAZY here.

We walked to the Arc de Triomphe, and went to the top of that.  The Arch is amazing, and the view from the top was outstanding (see the pictures at the link on the left side of this page).  It really gave you an idea of how large the city of Paris is (about 3 million in “Paris” and a total of 12 million when you add the surrounding area).  After that, we continued walking down the avenue Champs Elysees which is a street full of shops and stores that seems to go on forever.  If I get a chance, I will get there during the daylight and get some descent pictures.

Anyway – I am going to cut off here.  We have to get out and take care of some business before setting up at 3:00 today.

So – bye for now.  Will write more later.  So far, so good.  Oh yeah – the food is good, but expensive.

Be well, be safe.

JBD