50 - The French Connection: Part Deux
Weekend, March 23/24 2024 - Anglet & St Paul les Dax
That's right, I'm headed back to France!
Based on the quoted processing time required for a long-stay visa and work permit, the team and I had been expecting me to miss an equipment test at the end of March and not be able to travel until mid-April; but lo and behold, the French consulate turned my application around in 5 days. So I'm now approved to reside in the EU till the end of August, but based on HR wishing me to avoid tax residency in the EU my total time will likely be limited to <3 months; let's hope we've worked out the biggest issues with the project so we can wrap up in said time frame. To that end, I will be visiting the site for ~ 10 days to support an equipment test and then return to the US until we know the rest of the mechanical changes identified as needed are installed (expected mid-April). When I return in mid-April, I'll be sticking around for longer to help spin up production.
I left a very rainy Jersey on Saturday. Constant downpour that flooded some roads. Fortunately, I was able to make it to my office parking lot as well as find an Uber capable of picking me up and going to the airport, I think two drivers gave up once they came across flooded roads between Newark's Ironbound section and Port Newark. Once at EWR, the rest of my travel went smoothly.
In preparation for an overnight Saturday flight, I had patched together a plan of attack for minimizing jet lag:
After a taco-fueled farewell shindig Friday night, I planned to tucker myself out during the day to improve my chances of sleeping on the Transatlantic flight. This included waking up at 7 and using the home gym in the garage at lunchtime. With an early rising, I finished packing my bags as well as doing my Duolingo lessons and a few last games of my latest online obsession, Helldivers 2 (an online game pitting players against bugs and robots to conquer liberate the galaxy in the name of Super Earth's managed democracy).
A friend from college joined one of my games and we played for a bit and then chatted to catch up. He'd done a lot of time zone crossing in his previous job and wished me luck with the upcoming jet lag whiplash. Figures it'd be the day I leave for France again that we catch up, but I suspect both of us playing simultaneously was more related to the buckets of precipitation dropping from the sky.
I'll add one last tidbit about Helldivers 2 here: in an effort to put French in more of the media I consume, I set the game's language to French. This changed all text and voice lines into French. I'm not sure why this is surprising, but a lot of the expressions are literally translated; so it doesn't matter which language a player has, you can bet that we're all hearing the equivalent of "sweet liberty, my leg!!" as a landmine blows my character (~20m) into the air. Figuring out the names of the enemies and gear was a bit trickier but I can put all that to the backburner for the immediate future.
Anyhow, ultimately my plan to obtain 8 hours of sleep on the flight to Paris failed. I think I got maybe 2 hours; between the light of my neighbors' screens and in-flight turbulence, I couldn't get comfortable enough to catch more zzz's.
Turnaround in Paris was quick and easy. I arrived in the 2G terminal while it was mostly empty, so I took a spot on a couch to put my coat over my eyes and sleep for an hour. When my alarm went off an hour later (signaling 7:45 AM) I found the terminal had filled up a lot more and I made an effort to stay awake now that the sun was "shining" in Paris. I think I half-slept almost the whole flight to BIQ; my mouth was certainly dry enough to have been left open for an hour.
One of my goals when I returned to the US in February was to learn how to drive stick-shift, and this was something I managed to get a 3 hour lesson on. I'd met up with a guy who let me drive his Honda Civic around a Home Depot parking lot for 3 hours; since I'd felt pretty good after that lesson, I went ahead and booked a manual transmission vehicle as my rental for this trip.
After a couple experimental maneuvers in the Hertz parking lot, I made my way to Anglet to enjoy the beach scene before heading towards Dax. I chose Anglet over Biarritz because I figured parking would be easier in Anglet's open parking lot rather than the confined garages of Biarritz (based on my memories of the two towns). I managed to pull into an open spot and enjoyed a nice walk on the beach; despite the temperature only being ~15C. I found I needed to take my jacket off given all of the sun. I took a break for lunch and then did a little more walking to digest and get myself alert for the drive to Dax.
I found I needed to slap myself a couple times on the highway but I made it to Dax around 4:00 PM. Once at the hotel, I found that the lobby was closed and the Sunday hours showed that nobody would be around till 5PM. So I took it as an opportunity to profit more of the sunshine and made my way (on foot since I didn't trust myself with the car at this point) to the large pond in St Paul les Dax. I'd walked around this lake in early January and can attest that the change in seasons has made an impact. There were a lot more people out and the flora had changed. I did stumble across an art expo at the mid-way point around the lake which was a nice break to cool off, this was also the point that I think some of the soreness I expected from my Saturday workout began to settle in.
My walk around the lake complete, I returned to the hotel to find that the lobby still hadn't opened (and it was now almost 6PM). Rather than panic, I pulled out my laptop (thankfully it still remembered the wifi address) to check my work email and found that the manager had prepped the room for my arrival: the key was inside the unlocked apartment. Good thing I checked my email 😅
I unpacked but was loathe to lounge too much for fear that I simply pass out. So I left for a stroll to dinner. The meal was at a restaurant I'd passed plenty of times but never tried: Bistro Régent. I guess it's some sort of chain but honestly it was exactly what I needed: quick, easy, and decent quality. Seated next to me was an interesting group; based on what I picked up from eavesdropping, the daughter was turning 45 and she was celebrating with her mom (and either her dad too or the mom's boyfriend). I thought it touching that they came out to celebrate; I recall the dad/boyfriend going "un kir royale?!" when the daughter ordered one, like it was really pulling out all the stops to celebrate 😂. The daughter seemed truly bilingual, the mom mostly spoke in English but understood French and I only ever heard the guy speak in French.
Dinner complete, I made my way home and relished in a shower before a quick call home with my family. It was great to touch base with everyone, there's a lot happening and sadly I was falling asleep for some of the details 😅. After a few missed stories and my sister noticing me snoozing on camera, I signed off and finally allowed myself to sleep.
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