Bill Watt’s Blog

My friends came to town for the French Open so I booked Friday and Saturday night in the same hotel for convenience factor and that meant a move to the Westin Paris. Oh man, the price tag for the room and for Internet access were the only things less than perfect about this place!
The service was awesome, the room was gorgeous, and the location perfect. It was a few minute walk down to the Louvre and from my hotel room window I looked out on a huge park and had a perfect view of all the Eiffel Tower.

Danny was in town for a few days on his way back from a family reunion so we met up and grabbed lunch (the carbonara I got was amazing). After lunch we walked a good bit of the Louvre and then headed to the Eiffel Tower. Since I’d been biking the first part of my sabbatical and then walked a ton my first few days in Engalnd I was a little sore but nothing like what I felt when we started doing the climb up the tower. Oh man, I was hoping my legs would fall off so I’d have an excuse to stop. Danny mocked me a bit for being slow so I had to keep going.

After the tower we decided to head back to our respective hotels, relax, and meet up for dinner when the other guys were done with tennis. I ended up getting a little turned around and walked for another 2.5 hours. It was great though and I got to see a ton of the city in a pretty relaxed manner. When I figured out where I was it was pretty easy to get back, just long. I walked the entire length of the avenue de la Grande Armée, around the Place de l’Étoile, and down the Champs-Élysées. From the Place de la Concorde it was pretty simple to get back to the hotel. I arrived back with my room ready and a shower and nap needed!

I called Danny and it turns out he had wandered too, although he knew where he was. He ended up checking out the wine, cheese and fruit vendors and took some back to his hotel where he met quite a people willing to share in his spoils.

Nirav, Fabrice, and I headed out to dinner in a location pretty close to Danny but the people at his hotel didn’t help him find the place and Google Maps sent him here and there before getting him to the right location. We sat outside and watched people walk past and man, there was a ton to take in.

I am using Twitter for more frequent updates because I can access it (most of the time) from my Blackberry using Google Talk instead of needing my laptop and an internet connection. If you’re interested, read my twitter messages. You can also get from here to the Twitter posts for my friends that have signed up if I’m linked to them.

One new toy I bought for the trip is a DVD player that has a plugin slot for an iPod. I don’t know how long the Best Buy link will be available but I’ll link it here anyway because they do a nice job describing it.

This thing is really nice. It isn’t heavy although maybe a little bulky but it was easy to play my legacy DVD’s or flip to content I downloaded from itunes before I left. Also, plugging in the DVD player recharges the DVD battery and the ipod at the same time so it was nice to only need one cable. This isn’t a huge savings since I normally charge the ipod off the laptop to cut down on adapters and also so I can update with new podcasts or other content downloaded while I am on the road.

Still, it is a really nice until that was great for the plane and the longer train rides. The ipod screen is nice but if I can see the same thing on the 8.5″ widescreen why would I watch the smaller screen?

If you’re traveling coast to coast or longer, let me know and maybe I’ll loan you this to try. It is pretty sweet.

I woke up from my nap, checked for wireless access and found that it was a free city-wide wireless day. I got my code and gained 24 hours of access to the local provider. I checked email and scouted out what was in the area. After a few emails back and forth with Nirav we had a plan to meet up when they got to the city so I decided to start walking and see what was around. After a while Nirav called and said that they had an invite to go to a party thrown by a woman who works for eBay. After walking for a while I finally found an available cab (it was much harder a task than it needed to be) and made my way over to the hotel where Nirav and Fabrice were staying. They had already had a bite to eat so I rushed to catch up and we were off and running.

The party was a really good time. You know me, meeting new people coupled with the not knowing how much English would be spoken made the whole idea a little intimidating but the people were very kind and many folks spoke to me at length. It does make me laugh how embarassed people can be when speaking to me in English while we’re all in Paris. Don’t they know that their English is way better than my French? I appreciated them taking the time and speaking slowly for me.

The party was thrown by a woman who works for Kijiji and she had a couple eBay folks over so it worked out great for me! I am never shy about work talk and it is always fun to see the expressions on people’s faces when they find out there is a group inside eBay that does what we do.

The party was also fun because it was just a normal Thursday night get together in the heart of Paris. If I had been traveling on my own I would never had had the chance to experience such an event or meet those folks. This was also the first night I met Fabrice, a friend of Nirav’s who also came to see the French Open. He had the onerous tasks of (1) being our guide and (2) being introduced as Nirav’s friend. He was an awesome person to hang out with and we had some good talks over the next few days in Paris and then again when we hung out in Luxembourg the following week.