Where we are now (and what’s next)
For the next few weeks, our blogs likely will be from Paris, though it is possible we might write one or two from Fountainebleu, Chartres or some other day trip. At the moment, we are sitting at a café by the Pantheon. Stephanie is still doing her French homework, but I lack her concentration and have moved on to other projects.
Exploring the World
To our surprise, we are finding Paris to be significantly less dog-friendly than Plymouth, London, or the US. I was under the impression that France was much more dog-friendly than the US. My current theory is that it was true twenty years ago, but that the US has evolved and France (or – at least – Paris) stayed closer to where it was.
While I understand that I’m not supposed to, I regularly bring Colby into US grocery stores and am rarely asked to leave; and they are always very polite when they do ask. Only once in Plymouth were we asked to leave a grocery store, and they could not have been more polite while doing so. Most Plymouth stores went out of their way to welcome Colby, giving him water and treats. The Parisians seems revolted by the concept that we would have walked into a store with a dog, consistently speaking in loud and angry tones when we did (we no longer do).
I am not sure if I have ever tried bringing Colby into a US restaurant, but bring him to outdoor cafes on a regular basis, never having had a problem. In Plymouth and London, he was absolutely welcome into every restaurant we entered, normally being offered water and treats (often before we were even offered a menu). In Paris, he has been accepted inside restaurants, but it is clear they think about a safe corner into which to put us. Other restaurants have us sit outside, but sometime the other customers are clear at their disgust at sitting next to him (we promise that he is very clean).
While I am sure there are US city parks that do not allow dogs, I cannot think of one off the top of my head. We did not see any in Plymouth, and St. George Park was the only dog-free park we saw during our 24 hours in London. So far, le Square René Viviani is the only dog friendly Parisian park we have run across. We walked to Le Jardin Luxembourgeois this morning with the intension of doing our homework at the café by the pond where our son Erik had rented a toy sailboat all by himself nine years ago. When we got to the café, the very friendly waiter explained that we could not bring Colby into the outdoor, cordoned off area. I very happily offered to sit at a table by the stanchion, keeping Colby on the other side, but then the waiter explained that dogs are not allowed in the entire area. As we then started walking out of the park, a police officer came up and explained that there is a section of the park for dogs, but that we are not allowed to leave that small area. We explained that we had not seen a sign, but that we were leaving. Fortunately, he did not give us a ticket.
Colby’s need to pee is also an issue here. The largest pee-related problem is that everything is paved, as opposed to the US and what we saw of England; both of which often have strips of grass along the sidewalk. The challenge that comes with pavement everywhere is that Colby’s pee splatters, including onto the back of his legs. Whenever he pees, he leaves a pretty design, with two lines denoting where his front legs were, and where there is no splatter.
Next topic is that we started our week with Bastille Day, le Quatorze Juillet, or the French equivalent to the US’s 4th of July. We tried walking to the Champs-Élysées to see the parade this morning, but it was too crowded, so we returned to the Tuileries Garden to watch the airplanes. We then returned home and – as the helicopters went by – realized that we could have watched the planes from our apartment.
After spending the day doing homework, we returned to the Tuileries for 11:00 pm fireworks, which were the most spectacular either of us has ever seen; including vertical fireworks shot from the Eiffel Tower and elaborate drone displays.
Digital Nomad Life & Learning
One thing we had to address when we arrived in Paris was to find a shared coworking space. This project was more difficult than we anticipated.
The first challenge was that the establishments we contacted did not seem to respond to emails with a US east coast sense of urgency. The WeWork to which we finally subscribed seems to respond to emails at about 10:00 am every morning. This means that if we received a 10:00 am email and Stephanie responded at 10:03 am, we had to wait another 24 hours for a response (if we were lucky).
The second challenge is the hours. Both Stephanie and I are running businesses located on the US’s east coast, which is six hours earlier than Paris. This means that we are usually working by about 11:00 am in Paris and done at about 3:00 or 4:00 pm on the east coast, which is between 9:00 and 10:00 pm in Paris, and sometimes we work much later. In Ireland, we had 24-hour access to our shared coworking spaces. In Plymouth, after a three-week trial period, we were again given 24-hour access.
When we arrived in Paris, we hoped to find a small and friendly shared coworking spaces, but the small ones we visited have unworkable hours for us (Level Coworking – closes at 7:00 pm, Nuage Café – closes at 7:00 pm, and La Bulle Rive Gauche Coworking – closes at 9:30 pm, but is not open on the weekends). In fairness, both Level and Nuage had vastly better food than I have seen anywhere else. In the end, we decided to use the WeWork Coeur Marais because it both has better hours (open until midnight, and you can stay as late as you want as long as you don’t need to leave and get back in), is a pretty walk, and was about 75% the price. We also have to admit that its general services are far more advanced than the smaller locations, as is often the case with mega businesses competing with smaller enterprises. We looked at the WeWork 198 Avenue de France, but found it to be in a more modern and much less beautiful part of town, with a less enjoyable walk, and the woman at the front desk that day happened to be less friendly than the woman who happened to be at the WeWork Coeur Marais desk the day we toured it. We might switch to La Bulle when the weather turns colder because it is much closer and lets us stay reasonably late.
The WeWork Coeur Marais has a wide variety of spaces, from busy with lots of buzz in the air, to silent rooms. We found a space on the second floor that works for us. We each have our own diner-style booth, with outlets, right by the kitchen. These booths are likely good for 80% of our zoom meetings (probably 95% for me). For the ones that need to be more private, there are tons of “Phone booths”; small, quasi-soundproof, poorly ventilated spaces. The phone booths can be reserved in 30 or 60 minute periods, but I found that you can book multiple, sequential 60 minute periods.
Unless you pay significantly more for a private office, The WeWork Coeur Marais does not provide a dedicated desk, so each time you need to find the best space you can find that day. So far, we have only been there twice, and so far, we have had no problem finding a good location, and have had no problem booking phone booths; and all despite the fact that we tend to sleep in and arrive after most folks are already settled in. That said, this is the time of year Parisians take their vacations; so it might fill up more in September.
A wonderful benefit of the WeWorks is the beer and cider tap, which Stephanie enjoyed last night. It is very logically only open 5-7pm local time. But since that’s 11am-1pm eastern, it has to be reserved for early nights.
On a completely different topic, I hit a bump this week I knew would come someday in some form. Part of our comfort with starting this odyssey was the knowledge that Colby’s (the business, not the pup) had a strong management team, with an impressive General Manager, Marketing Director, Pupcare Manger, Reservations & Parent Services Manager, and three supervisors.
Two weeks ago, our newest Supervisor gave two week’s notice. While she certainly will be missed, her departure fits well into the realm of standard turnover.
Our Reservations & Parent Services Manager was someone I valued significantly and saw as a fundamental building block of Colby’s future. She moved to the US for school, had been planning a two-week vacation home for the past few months, and the vacation was scheduled to start this past Friday. On Thursday morning, she let the team know that she had decided to return home permanently and that very day would be her last. This is a much larger hole than the Supervisor will be, was much more of a sudden shock, and risks the possibility of my needing to return. I will remain in close contact with our General Manager and Marketing Director as we attempt to have our front desk run as smoothly as possible while we hire and train a new Reservations & Parent Services Manager; a process I anticipate to take about six months. Fortunately, I am already planning on heading to the US in three weeks and to DC four days after that time, so that is the longest it will be before I will be there as an additional body. In the meantime, we are already in the process of hiring a number of Reservation Specialists for the front desk, and we need to figure out how we will train them properly. Our just-departed Reservations & Parent Services Manager has offered to remain helpful remotely, so we might find a way for her to continue playing a role. This is a clear reminder to me of how fragile even a smoothly running operation is, and the subsequent fragility of my working from anywhere.
If we look for the silver lining in her departure, it is that any departure of a top manager can help accelerate the eternal quest for positive cultural change; but that change would be more easily made if I were there in person, and the change could be stunted if the team becomes overwhelmed when this crucial position is vacant or still in training.
Other enjoyable activities this week include happening across a Rugby Pride event at a bar by our WeWork and going to a rap performance of my step-brother’s, Jason Levine, band. The band’s name is Shoot The Gift, and they performed at L’Eurydice, located at 79 Rue du Cardinal Lemoine.
Funny & Unexpected Moments
This is more “unexpected” than “funny”. As I noted above, virtually all of Paris is paved. Also mentioned in many of these blog posts, Colby is old and lazy. When we walk out of our various apartments, Colby generally takes two steps and then let’s his urine flow.
Our Parisian apartment is on an unusually narrow street (Place Xavier Privas), lined with restaurants. As usual, Colby would walk down our six flights of stairs, step out of the front door and start spraying; usually in front of a Greek restaurant. On our third day, the proprietor was very clear that he had to clean the pavement every time Colby peed because it did not look good for his customers. Stephanie and I immediately understood and agreed that we were not being reasonable to him. We also were not sure what to do with a stubborn and lazy old dog.
For the next few exits, we tried running out of the door and making it to the plaza in front of Église Saint-Séverin before he had a chance to go, generally with Colby stopping to let loose in front of other restaurants. By the second day, Stephanie brilliantly suggested that we run with food in front of his face. As old as he may be, Colby remains highly food motivated and gladly followed. By the third or fourth try, he was gleefully running ahead of us to the spot he knew would provide food.
We also now travel with a bottle of water, so that we can dilute the crime scene.
As a side note, we have made sure to speak with the Greek proprietor several times since and are now on quite friendly terms. My next adventure will be bringing Colby inside his restaurant for dinner some time.
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