After getting home from the Jack Johnson concert, I ended up with about four hours sleep before having to get up early to catch the Eurostar to Paris. Unfortunately for me, I ended up getting the earliest train I could of the day so I could turn up to a conference I had been invited to present at and I knew that my speaking slot was sometime in the afternoon. As dead-tired as I was given the minimal sleep, I ended up learning my essential French phrase for the day, “un café s’il vous plaît” (or one coffee please).

The temperatures in Paris were scorching, reaching something like thirty three degrees during the day. Figuring I should attempt to blend in with the European attitude towards fashion, the practicality of long-sleeved business attire with slacks didn’t seem particularly practical. However, given the number of people still opting to wear suits, I definitely wasn’t under or overdressed for the occasion. The conference was wonderfully organised and despite many of the sessions spoken in French, I talked with quite a number of interesting geeks who attended.

I spent the rest of the weekend walking around Paris and enjoying the laid back, cafe atmosphere. The heat and humidity built up over the Thursday and Friday, resulting in the heaviest down pour I’ve experienced for sometime. It was almost quite tropical. I can only thank the weatherman for their forecast and my decision to bring my heavy-duty umbrella. Even with this, I thought it’d be best to stick to some museums so I went to their Pompidou Centre that effectively holds their modern art collection.

The building is massive with plenty of floors and plenty of art work. If you were really that into all the art, you could easily have spent all day there. They did have some interesting exhibits and I’m glad that some kinetic art had a whole, interesting section of their own.

Sunday turned out to be a much better day, where I spent most of the time simply walking around enjoying the atmosphere. I attempted some of the different things I missed out on last time, such as going into the Notre Dame Cathedral and the Eiffel Tower, but the lines seemed every longer than when I went here a few years ago. Despite the nice weather to queue, I still wasn’t in that much of a mood so I move on.

One thing noticeably different in summer were the huge tour groups descending – many of them American school kids that you can hear from miles away. I guess it’s not really different from the large groups currently parading (and blocking pathways) around London. A wonderful weekend and thumbs up to the Eurostar for being a nice way to travel.