Work & Play

I've been very busy the last few weeks, with my internship, weekend trips, and trying to take advantage of all the amazing things this city has to offer while I'm here for this short time. It been fun but also very exhausting!

Monday night we had a woman who is the CEO of a company one of my fellow interns is working at give a presentation on her experience of working abroad in America as a young French girl and her tips and learnings for success. I really enjoyed hearing her stories and it's always inspiring to hear from people who have achieved successful through their passion for what they do, perserverance, and integrity. I'm lucky to know so many people like that at this early stage in my career.

I also thought it was refreshing to hear her perspective of American/French cultural differences in the workplace and I could definitely relate to some of her frustrations. I can't speak for the entire population, but I do agree that French people have a different approach and mindset when it comes to work that's hard to describe until you find yourself immersed in it. Our speaker talked about how she launched her business in America and became successful, only to return to France later on and be fired from two (TWO!) jobs for "not being French enough", aka, "working too hard", therefore arousing suspicion amongst her superiors that she was after their jobs. Surely times have changed since then (I certainly don't get the impression that's its bizarre to enjoy your job and work hard here at M&C Saatchi), but it was interesting to hear that extreme.

On another note, I had another uniquely French weekend in Bretagne, but this time at the Vieilles Charrues music festival. It is one of the biggest music festivals in France and it's held every year in a tiny town called Carhaix. I went with my boyfriend (who is also in Paris this summer studying filmmaking at the New York Film Academy) and we rented a car to get there (it's about 5 hours each way). I was a little nervous about taking a road trip in France but everything went smoothly and we didn't get lost. The festival goes on for four days and it's typical for people to camp out there (kind of like Coachella, but on a smaller scale) but we just bought tickets for Saturday since we liked the lineup that day best. 

Unfortunately I wasn't allowed to bring my camera in, so no pictures, but we had a blast. I got to see some really great bands and artists including Midlake, Brother Ali, Phoenix, and Boys Noize. I also discovered some music that I had never heard before and really liked, such as Indochine (apparently an enormously popular 80's French band) and a indie-pop French band called Fortune. The festival was cool because there were almost no tourists (I'm assuming because of the location being literally in the middle of nowhere), everyone there was French and most people we met were really friendly and had a little bit of a hippie and silly side to them, very different from Parisians!