Paris - Work meeting in Thales

My first work meeting of the year 2009 was in the offices of Thales in Palaiseau (Paris, France). Thales is one of the industrial partners of the project I am working for (FRESCOR) and it is a huge company focused on "mission-critical information systems for the Aerospace, Defence and Security markets". My work partner, Miguel Telleria, and I went there to help them with the integration of their software and the framework that has been developed in FRESCOR.

Unfortunately the airports had lots of delays and cancellations during those dates, especially in Madrid due to a pilots strike and an unexpected snow storm. On the way to Paris, our flights got a big delay and on the way back my flight was canceled and I had to use a different flight from a different airport.

Our hotel was in a town called Orsay which was near the Thales offices by bus. Actually our work partner in Thales, Jean-Louis, was very nice and drove us from the hotel to the offices and vice versa everyday. The last day I also visited the center of Paris but didn't take any pictures. It was beautiful with all the snow on the floor.

Every morning we got up early, had breakfast and went to Thales. In Thales they also have their own restaurant so we didn't need to go to another place to eat. When we used to came back from work we were already tired so all we did was rest in our rooms and wait for the next day ;).

This is the photo of my work partners Miguel and Jean-Louis, from Thales. Fortunately, our work together was quite productive and the meeting was worth it.

Thales offices were very modern and there were lots of high-level engineers and scientists in those offices. For example, the Nobel prize in Physics of 2007, Albert Fert, was working only 100 meters from my office :). Near to Thales offices there was a research laboratory of Danone, the famous yogurt company, and also one of the most prestigious education centers in France, the École Polytechnique.

Note: I just found out that the last year winners of the Nobel Prize in Physics and Chemistry studied or worked in Nagoya University, where I will be studying and doing my research during the next two years!!