February 10, 2005
Two Parisian Observations
I've been working in Paris since the second week of January. I am at our customer's office during the week. One observation I just have to share with you. When you walk into your office/desk area in the morning, it is common practice to go and shake the hands of your coworkers. This is mostly a male thing. I have not seen women do this. If you are a visitor, like me, then they don't really shake your hands either.
I have to point this out because the act of shaking hands is something you normally do if you are meeting someone for the first time or if it is someone "important" or "high-up" in the company, basically, someone you don't see often. However, in Paris, it is a common practice that I witness every morning. By the way, people don't really show up until right before 10 AM. They leave around 5-ish. We are normally the first ones here and the last ones out. FILO!
Second observation pertains to the Metro. I love public transportation. They are so easy to get around with. The one thing that the safety police would not like is that the Metro trains' door are "unlocked" before it's completely stopped. You have to manually open the doors with a latch. If you try the latch while the train is moving, you'll see that the doors have been locked. But at some point the doors are unlocked, so before you are completely stopped, the doors can be opened. It's quite strange, and no one has complained.
Lastly and not a Parisian observation, I was walking down Grands Boulevards one night and saw this magnificient bulletin for the Bellydance Superstars show. They will not be going to London this Spring tour, so I will have to catch the show here.
Oui! Oui!
