Paris - April 30th

Our second day in Paris started with the cleaning lady kicking us out of our rooms at Noon so she can do her work. ... *Correction, Nick never woke up. Like a man in a coma we left him there by fear of losing precious hours in Paris.

So John and I, found a really good coffee shop and savored ever last drop of it. We then made our way to la Basilique Sacre-Coeur to soak in the panoramic view of Paris. It's the second time I went, since last time I was in Paris I visited the Basilique too. This time though there was about 10 times more tourists... (Not only at the basilique, but every tourist attraction) I can't believe how many tourists there are...

John and I walk around the little streets of Monmarthe having a Grand time and sat down on the steps of the Basilique to enjoy the view for a good half hour. By the time we got back to the Hotel, Nick was taking his shower (5pm). Talk about a wasted day for him... too bad... thats what you get for blacking out.

We went to the market across the street and and bought a little something to eat and then took the metro to Champs Elysees, where we then walked towards the Louvre. The scenery is 20 times more beautiful then when I went in the winter! Truly stunning! We walked on les champs elysees to the Gardens leading up to the Louvre and then to the front of the Louvre. We didn't go in the Louvre, since they already spent a day there and I'm saving it for another time, where I'll be able to spend a good 2-3 days just for le Louvre.
Jesus isn't the only one who can walk on water.

After that we took a 5 minute walk to the gardens of the royal palace and then I unfortunately had to take my train back to Lyon. I slept most of the way back, leaving from la gare de Lyon at 10pm and arriving in Lyon at midnight. I'm exhausted, and tomorow I'm going to relax, and maybe go see Spider-man 3!!

Paris - April 29th

So you guys are probably wondering why I'm back in Paris eh? Well John and his little brother Nick just landed this week in Paris to debut their 2 and a half month EuroTrip, and I figured I'd be the one to give them a proper welcome. Plus, I've got unfinished business in Paris, Last time I was only there for 2 days so I figured I'd to another 2 with some close friends.

So I bought my train tickets for Paris 50$ total... pretty awesome eh? and thats for the Round Trip. I left Lyon at 11am and arrived in Paris at 1pm. After a little confusion with the rendez-vous spot, I met up with John and Nick. It makes for automatic smiles, 2 friends from west-island finding each other in Paris.

So the first thing we did was start walking towards the Notre-Dame, since they hadn't seen it yet. Always amazing to see!! After that I suggested we go visit les Catacombes which I heard was amazing. We took the metro there and barely made it in before closing time. Les Catacombes, are extremely impressive.... It's basically a mass grave under Paris that runs for Kilometers.... bones bones and more bones, strategically placed... and can easily be debated as Art. These remains are from a multitude of events, mostly the black plague..

After les catacombes, we made our way to their hotel where I was hoping there would still be place for me. They did , great! It's about a 10 minute walk from Moulin Rouge.

So Evening came along, and out came the bottles of wine... naturally. There was a lightning storm for a little while so we stayed inside until it cleared up, and then we took the metro to the Eiffel tower. Now I will be honest with you guys, I'm telling not you what went on that night, because this is a G rated blog eh! No but seriously, there's so much that happened that night (including missing the last metro), that it became one of those nights you will never ever forget. Lets just say we checked into the hotel around 6am.

Nyons - April 22nd

Aujourd'hui, nous nous sommes réveillés vers midi. On c'est posé au soleil du sud en discutant avant d'aller au élections. J'étais curieux à voir comment les Français font pour voter... En fait, c'est la même procédure que chez nous. Depuis que je suis arrivé en France j'entends parler des élections. Ils sont fortement axé sur la politique ici, et c'est beau à voir. Les Français ont une fierté pour leur patrie et tout ce que ça représente et ils on voté à un taux incroyable. Près de 86% de la population on participé aux élections. et les 2 vainqueurs du premier tour sont Sarkozy et Royale.

Nous avons fait un BBQ en après-midi et ensuite nous sommes dirigés vers Nyons... Une petite ville de toute beauté sur la route de vins. Nous nous sommes posé près de la rivière dans un soleil à 35 Degrés Celcius pour un après-midi tranquille.

Mon weekend était vraiment agréable! Un gros Merci à Laurent et sa famille pour tout!

Avignon - April 21st

After visiting Orange, we made our way to Avignon. The city is surrounded with fortified walls dating back to the roman empire. The first impression that I got when I walked in the city was that this place would be absolutely perfect for a student. Not too big of a city, friendly, warm weather... ideal is the word really.

So we walked around at first, and we quickly stumbled onto Le Palais des Papes, which was the Popes residence in the 14th Century... absolutely gigantic and beautiful too. So we spent the evening relaxing, drinking a couple beers and ordering a pizza before crossing the city to reach the Pont d'Avignon, ... Famous bridge that was never completed and eventually became a tourist attraction and also the object of that song we all know and loved as a child. So we stayed there for half an hour before making our way back to Valréas for the night.


My after-thoughts on Avignon are axed on itès historical richness... kindof reminds me of the same ambiance you can find in old Quebec City.... but European.

Valréas / Orange - April 21st

Bonjour,

Je vous signale que je suis toujours vivant, que j'ai reçu ma lettre d'acceptation pour Concordia, et que le stage va toujours bien. J'espère pouvoir finir le MVC cette semaine.

Cette fin de semaine j'ai décidé de descendre dans le sud, question de prendre un peu de soleil et reposer mon cerveau informatique. Il annonçait super chaud pour le weekend! J'ai descendu avec Laurent en auto vers midi, et à 14h nous sommes arrivés à sa ville, Valréas. J'ai rencontré sa famille bien sympa et nous avons mangé déjeuner! Le sud est de toute beauté, jusqu'à date j'avais seulement vu Marseille et la cote d'azur mais je n'avais pas encore vu la vrai France du sud. Et laissez-moi vous dire que c'est de toute beauté. Des caves à vin tout partout, des champs de vignes, d'oliviers, d'abricots... et toujours de belle grande montagnes dans la distance.

En face de la maison à Laurent

Nous sommes partis en après-midi pour la ville d'Orange... Il faisait déjà une chaleur insupportable... Les shorts et les T-Shirts étaient au rendez-vous. La ville d'Orange, ou Laurent a fait sont lycée est une ville de taille moyennes typique du Sud avec des vestiges de l'époque romaine. Parmi ces vestiges est un genre de théâtre qu'on peu faire des visites payantes. Par Contre, Laurent connaissait une place sur la colline juste en face qui nous permettrait d'avoir encore une meilleure vue ... et qui nous couterait rien.

Nous sommes ensuite descendu vers Avignon!

Martin

Lyon - April 2nd

Ladies and Gentlemen, ACTi = Class!!

I don't recall describing ACTi's work environment so here it is: We are a staff of 12 Employees, 1 president, 1 chief of projects, 3 project managers, 4 graphic artists, and 4 developers (including me). Aside from the president, we all work together in the main room... It's a modern approach to "team work" I'm quite fond of. We're positioned in a circle and constantly help each other out. Everyone has a dual processor pc with Dual 20" widescreen monitors.... CLASS.

Today was my first day in the company. I arrived at 8 and at 9 we had our weekly meeting where we discussed progress on our approximately 40 ongoing web projects. Surprisingly, the meeting is in English so everyone can practice they're English since a certain percentage of our clients only speak English. Let me tell you, If It wasn't my first day at the job I would have laughed out loud. I applaud the concept and the effort, but hearing them talk in English for over an hour is hilarious... Before lunch I was briefed on what my role will be for the upcoming weeks, and let me tell you... it's a doozy. 1 of the big projects they're just starting is for the TCL here in Lyon (Equivalent to the STCUM in montreal)... so needless to say it's a huge contract and involves lots of people.

/** Caution **/ /** Geek Section **/
Without getting into any of the client's specs, they will be keeping their current servers and certain modules from their current site... we will be forced to mostly write this site in ASP (Not .NET) ... I'm not too familiar with the language but then again to my knowledge, VBScript is about as easy as it gets. I will not be writing any of the content or html whatsoever. My job is to write the framework for an MVC (Model View Controller). Talk about diving head first into uncharted territory.. Unlike J2EE where MVCs are integrated in the language and PHP where many MVCs are of great quality and often times open source, there are very few MVCs out there for ASP (Not .Net) and since they are extremely expensive and not exactly what we are looking for, ACTi decided it would be best to develop our own.
/** End of Geek Section**/

JON I know you did some JSPs this semester, did you guys touch MVCs? if you did, send me an e-mail with whatever you can. Furthermore if you can ask Mr. Simonelis and Mr. Fogel to maybe send me an e-mail with tips and pointers on how to go about this, it would be greatly appreciated!

Needless to say I'm really excited about being given such a crucial piece of the puzzle so early on. Not only will this be great experience wise, it will also be impressive in web dev portfolio.

Well aside from the stage, everything is good. Friday I had a bunch of friends over at my place and we did "l'apero" before going to a show with Laurent and Thomas, 2 good friends. We saw "Les Cameleons" kind of like a "Catch 22" over here. I also learned that The Mad Caddies, Suicidal Tendencies and The Exploited will be playing a show here this month... a must see!

Saturday I went out with Thomas and Laurent to a bar and also watched OL lose to Bordeaux...
Thomas in the middle and Laurent on the right.

Martin