Experiencing Student Travel (2006-10-14)

The experience of walking around Montpellier, a university city in southern France, carrying everything in my backpack, was how I imagined the experience of student travel or study abroad would be. We even stayed one night in an Auberge de Jeunesse (with WiFi!). We took a set of photographs of our walk around the city and our trip to the beach.

Eating in Montpellier, France (2006-10-13)

We stopped for lunch and discovered the "plaze" had WiFi. That evening we had dinner Aux Arches de la Chapelle. The Menu des Arches at 11,9 E was delicious, so we went back the next night.

Discovering Plazes (2006-10-12)

I'm experimenting with Plazes to track my exploration of WiFi locations. On Thursday I went back to Le Cafe les 2 Moulins to "discover" it.

Visiting Chartres, France (2006-10-11)

Ryan's class took a day trip to Chartres, so I accompanied them. We toured La Maison Picassiette, met with our new American friend, had lunch, toured Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Chartres, and returned.

Having Lunch at Sacré Coeur (2006-10-10)

I climbed Montmartre to have lunch in the sunshine in front of the Basilique du Sacré Coeur and to think. The city was hazy from the butte, but many people were enjoying the view and the harp music playing in the public space.

Commuting to Morning Workplace (2006-10-09)

Tuesday through Thursday I plan to walk up Montmartre from Pigalle, from our homestay to the office of Jean Claude, where I'll borrow his Wi-Fi from 10:00 until 18:00 (+01) when he closes. Then I'll walk back down to Pigalle to Le Chao-Ba-Café for a Skype conference call with Seattle at 18:15+01 (09:15-08), and work until 20:30+01 when Madame serves dinner. (Mondays I plan to work at Le Chao-Ba-Café in the evening only; in the morning we'll be returning from our weekend--to Montpellier, Nantes, Chamonix, Berlin, Barcelona, Venice, and London, perhaps.)

Watching Tour Eiffel burn on Nuit Blanche (2006-10-08)

On Nuit Blanche (October 7 in Paris, the week before in Brussels) perhaps one and a half million people took to the streets to view modern art in historic buildings. We met up with new American friends living in Chartres and saw several art installations: the Tour Eiffel with blinking lights; giant black orbs in Hôtel de Ville, accompanied by a band that featured a theremin; a giant glass bead necklace in a fountain in a building in Le Marais; and in a church in Le Marais a large table laid out like Paris, complete with candles in the shapes of buildings.

Working at Le Chao-Ba-Café (2006-10-07)

My dad wrote "AH PARIS... Have you found your cafe?" It appears I have. I have my laptop, and with free wifi (connecting and asking the server for the "mot de passe") I also have email, chat (using trillian), and Internet telephony (using Skype). It's a remote office!

Walking down Champs-Élysées (2006-10-07)

It's difficult to pick just one photograph from a walk from Place de la Concorde down the Avenue du Champs-Élysées to the Arc de Triomphe, and beyond to Avenue de la Grande Armée, where La Grande Arche de La Défense is visible in the distance. Consequently I uploaded several to Flickr, and placed them on the map using the satellite image.

Trying Wi-Fi in Le Cafe les 2 Moulins (2006-10-06)

Near our homestay is Le Cafe les 2 Moulins featured in the movie Amelie. The springs pushing out of the seats made my leg numb. (The Wi-Fi interrupts every half-hour, and resumes five seconds after pressing a button on a Web page. This is better than other locations which require a new login every half hour!)