FRnOG day

content/blog/wk9day5.md

@@ -1,7 +1,97 @@
 ---
-title: "Week 9, Friday:"
+title: "Week 9, Friday: FRnOG'40 in Paris"
 date: 2024-09-27T21:55:00+02:00
-draft: true
 ---
 
-{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/todo.png" alt="Credit: " >}}
+{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/talyshum.png" alt="Credit: Taly Shum, YouTube" >}}
+
+I got in quite late yesterday and found my way to the WS Opera on Rue Duphot in the smack middle of
+the city. In my nano-scale apartment, I slept like a baby, until about 06:45 when the street noise
+was switched to the _On_ position. Large containers of broken glass seem to have been emptied out ~
+in front of this place, and the clanking of a few billion large metal pipes, as they were being
+dropped from great hights onto a container truck which was going to move them elsewhere. Good
+morning!
+
+It's time to pray. I brush my teeth and exit my femto-apartment and take a good look around. The
+first building I see, literally at the beginning of Rue Duphot, is the _Church of Madeleine_, after
+the titular neighborhood I'm in. It looks a bit more like a roman government or perhaps a
+courthouse, but it's legit a place of worship.
+
+My plan is to walk around until about noon, when I meet J&eacute;r&ocirc;me for lunch. About ten
+years ago, I was in Paris for a Google Maps _Streetview Special Collect_, of the inside of _Grand
+Palais_. The mission back then was to make an aerial collection of the inside of this massive
+building, in one of the few days (in the decade!) that the building was empty and between
+exhibitions. Google took a car, a set of backpacks and me with a hexacopter armed with nine cameras
+that would create a set of photospheric pictures every ten meters or so in the building. Together
+with the Cultural Institute, I spent two days in the building making this collection. Thinking back
+over the last eighteen years, the _Cantellio_ project was one of the most fun projects I worked on.
+We called it _Cantellio_ as a quirky play on our project lead who was an Italian guy with a thick
+accent, our project was a secret, so we "Can't Tell You". Get it?  For the Grand Palais collect,
+take a look at this exclusive behind the scenes
+[[gallery](https://photos.app.goo.gl/u4Q2xz1DKk91yJn78)]. By the way, I also flew this thing in the
+Guggenheim Museum in New York, would you believe it?
+[[Gallery](https://photos.app.goo.gl/gpGpghPYHkvLg4YG8)], but I digress.
+
+Back to Paris after that fun trip down Memory Lane, it is a Parisian law that foreigners MUST take a
+selfie at the Eifel Tower, so I go and do that because I wouldn't dream of breaking the law. I then
+go around to a few other buildings, such as the national assembly, the chancellery of the legion of
+honor, and the Louvre, where I counted roughly sixty trillion people. At this point, my rented
+transportation (a Dott bike), runs out of battery and it decides to abandon me near the FRnOG venue,
+so I park it and continue on foot. In case you were wondering how I visit do so many sights in only
+two or three hours: now you know!
+
+At noon, I hang out for a little bit at _Le Zinc d'Honor&eacute;_, and J&eacute;r&ocirc;me quickly
+finds me. We talk about Google, Cisco, Meraki and its use of VPP, my projects and his, and overal
+have a lovely time while enjoying a meal together. I feel so blessed having been able to meet the
+brilliant Cisco minds that tend to the VPP project (Andrew in Brussels, Ole in Oslo and now
+J&eacute;r&ocirc;me in Paris).  After lunch, we walk over to the Intercontinental where FRnOG starts
+at 14:00.
+
+I meet and greet a few of the four hundred plus people who are here - Philippe Bourcier organizes
+the event, and I know him as _MrRip_ from Undernet, more than 25 years ago we maintained the proxy
+scanner (which he wrote and I operated), and it was fun to reconnect. Maxime from Cisco is also
+here, and I chat with him about his current project. Clement of course is here, and I'll see more of
+him tomorrow as I am visiting the Hivane 20y ASniversary celebratory dinner. I briefly bump into
+Vincent who is jetlagged from returning from the DPDK summit in Montreal, Canada. My buddy Blake
+from Zayo is present, and he introduces me to a few new folks. I have a chat with Delphine of 1299
+and quiz her on the Meta/DTAG issue. Her thoughts are insightful and respectful at the same time,
+which I really appreciated.
+
+The talks are, eh, _en fran&ccedil;ais_ which is _tr&egrave;s difficiles à suivre pour moi_, but I
+totally understand the choice of language. My talk is the only one in English, but Philippe
+introduces me _en anglais_ and I crack a little joke of being Dutch, which solicits a few chuckles.
+I think my delivery was actually pretty good, and I'm looking forward to the recording.
+There were many talks in this absolutely stunning venue (a five star hotel Intercontinental in the
+middle of Paris). See the [[FRnOG website](https://www.frnog.org/?page=frnog40&lang=en)] for details
+and publications. I take my audience-selfie -- _c'est obligatoire_ -- and bounce at 1900. I am not
+going to participate in the drinks and afterparty (although thanks, Ielo, for organizing it!), and
+instead retire early. 
+
+I have a quick sushi dinner, and end up in bed at 22:30 watching a few episodes of _Lilyhammer_.
+
+## Pictures of the Day
+
+{{< gallery-category >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-09-27/IMG_1605.JPG" caption="Church of Madeleine, in Paris, France. I like the Roman column style" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-09-27/IMG_1608.JPG" caption="One of the entrances of Grand Palais in Paris, France" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-09-27/grandpalais.png" caption="A 2014 picture of my Mercedes ML350 inside of Grand Palais in Paris, France" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-09-27/IMG_1611.JPG" caption="Obligatory selfie at the Eifel Tower, aka the French Noodlescooze" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-09-27/IMG_1613.JPG" caption="A picture of Grand Palais with the beautiful Pont Alexandre III bridge over river Seine in the foreground" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-09-27/streetview.png" caption="A 2014 picture of me and the hexacopter photography aircraft I used at Grand Palais in Paris, France" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-09-27/IMG_1614.JPG" caption="The national assembly called Palais Bourbon, in Paris, France" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-09-27/IMG_1617.JPG" caption="A street view of the, wait for it: Great Chancellery of the Order of the Legion of Honor" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-09-27/IMG_1622.JPG" caption="The pyramid at the Louvre museum in Paris, France" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-09-27/IMG_1623.JPG" caption="I rented a Dott bike and rode its battery entirely empty quick-sight-seeing." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-09-27/IMG_1624.JPG" caption="Lunch with Jerome - I had a Bavette Frites, and it was superb." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-09-27/IMG_1625.JPG" caption="A street view of the Church of Saint-Roch in Paris, France" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-09-27/IMG_1627.JPG" caption="Selfie of Jerome Tollet and I in Paris, France. He walked me to the venue of FRnOG!" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-09-27/IMG_1645.JPG" caption="My badge at FRnOG'40." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-09-27/IMG_1631.JPG" caption="The Intercontinental is a five star hotel in Paris - super fancy venue, the FRnOG organizers have a pretty classy outfit here" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-09-27/IMG_1633.JPG" caption="I took a customary selfie while presenting my VPP story at FRnOG'40 in Paris." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-09-27/IMG_1640.JPG" caption="Even the mall is super-duper-fancy. This is looking up into the dome of Galeries Lafayette Haussmann in Paris." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-09-27/IMG_1643.JPG" caption="One of the street-facing arches of Palais Garnier, an italian opera house in Paris, France." >}}
+{{< /gallery-category >}}
+
+{{< gallery-modal >}}
+{{< gallery-script >}}
+