 Hello, wonderful viewers. Welcome to CubeSites, your insider look at KubeCon Cloud NativeCon. I'm Katie Greenlee, and I'm super excited to be here with all of you today. Thank you for joining us. A few housekeeping items before we get started during the live stream, you are not able to talk as an attendee. There is a Q&A box at the bottom of your screen. Please feel free to drop your questions in there, and we'll get to as many as possible. This is an official live stream of the CNCF and is subject to the CNCF Code of Conduct. Please do not do anything on the chat or send any questions that would violate the Code of Conduct. Basically, please be respectful of all your fellow participants and presenters. Today's live stream is all about extending your experience in Paris. We'll dive into our Cloud Native Explorer's recommendations of things to do in Paris to enhance your experience. I would love to take a moment and welcome our guest, Abdel, one of our Cloud Native Explorers. He will share his insider tips for enjoying Paris and how you can take advantage of enhancing your experience while on site. Welcome, Abdel. Hello. Hi, everyone. Happy to be here. Great. Well, let's get started. What do you feel are some must visit landmarks in Paris for either first-time visitors or people who are coming back to enjoy the city after not seeing it in a long time? Oh, well, we can be here for a very long time. We want to list all of them. But let's just talk about the most important ones, right? I think that a lot of, I mean, you have the obvious stuff. Like if you go to Google and type top things to do in Paris, you will have the Louvre, the museum, the Arc de Triomphe, the big arc in the middle of the Champs-Élysées, which is one of the main boulevards, which connects the Eiffel Tower to the Arc de Triomphe and everything between them. One of the things I like about that part of Paris is it's pretty easy to actually go and visit all of these landmarks in like one go. You can go to the Eiffel Tower, right? And then from the Eiffel Tower, you can just walk straight in a big venue, which takes you through a bunch of landmarks, including the big church that sadly caught fire a few years ago, the Notre-Dame. So if you have an afternoon to spend, and you don't mind walking, just head to the Arc de Triomphe or the Eiffel Tower. And then from there, just walk down all the way until the big arc, the Triomphe Arc, it's called. And then you will be able to see a bunch of things along the way. It's a really nice walk. There is a big garden in the middle. There is a bunch of things to explore through that. Google Maps is great at showing you actually like special landmarks to see. My favorite places of Paris are quite different. So I like something called, we put it in the guide, which hopefully will be posted soon, the Sacré-Cœur, which is a church. So you have Notre-Dame, which is the one in the middle of the city, which is the one that caught fire. Sacré-Cœur is in a neighborhood called Montmartre. Montmartre, M-O-N-T-M-A-R-T-I-R, I think. So that neighborhood of Montmartre is a really nice place. It's your typical, I guess, Emily and Paris cliche of how Paris looks like, like small streets, super old buildings. So most of the neighborhoods looks like that. And the good thing about that neighborhood and the church or technically not the church, but that landmark is that it's an elevated level. So if you walk all the way up until the church, you will have a really nice view over the entire city of Paris. So that's one of my favorite places to go. It's a little bit of a walk again. You could take the metro all the way until Montmartre, the neighborhood. And if you don't want to walk up to the church, there is like a cable car. I think it's wheelchair accessible. So you'll be able to take the cable car all the way up to go to where the church is. And then you will have like a nice kind of view over the city. My recommendation for people if you go is go before sunset. So you'll be able to see the city before sunset. And the sunset is beautiful. And there is also a really nice big park near the church, which you can just spend some time in. So that's number one. That's one of my favorite places. The second one would be, I actually just added it before the live stream, the Catacombs, which is the underlying tunnels of Paris. The city of Paris has a huge network of tunnels because they used to have this thing called, I think they call carries in English, which is like the place where you would extract. It's like mining operations. And they built a bunch of tunnels. And those tunnels are, most of them are closed, but there are some that are open officially for visiting. It's not very expensive, I think it's 10 bucks. And then you can get like an hour, an hour and a half to explore all these tunnels underground. They could be a little bit freaky, depending if you lack claustrophobic, not recommended, obviously. They are, but they are very nice. They're very cool to explore. It doesn't take that much time. They're not very accessible. You will need to walk a bit. I think basically, regardless of what we say in Paris, walking is involved, unless you want to take public transport. That's what it sounds like is a lot of walking. So everyone should be planning to bring their most comfortable shoes when they're in Paris, not only for when they're on site at KubeCon, CloudNativeCon, but also when they're out exploring the city, they should expect to be walking everywhere and to really get something comfortable and get ready for that kind of transportation when they're throughout the city. And in March, would you say the weather, typically while they're out walking and exploring, do they need kind of a heavier jacket, a lighter jacket? What do you think is best when it comes to that? As long as it doesn't rain, I mean, obviously we cannot make predictions because now we don't know how the weather would look like, but as long as it doesn't rain, I think walking is fine. It will be a little bit chilly. So I don't know what that would be in Fahrenheit, but maybe anywhere between 10 to 15 C. So my recommendation would be bring thinner layers that you can just take off or put as you see fit and just make sure you have an umbrella. You never know. It could rain in Paris in March. It had rained on me in March before. So just bring an umbrella and have it on you and you just think it's right. The good thing about Paris is because it's a super compact city and it's very dense. In case it starts raining, you will be able to find the cafe to just sit in. So you're not gonna be soaking wet. But yeah, it's... So yeah, of course you will be able to take public transport almost everywhere, but in my opinion, you explore the city more if you walk. So if you can, just go for it. Otherwise, we can talk a little bit about public transport. There's like metros and trams and trains everywhere in Paris. Yeah, I think people would love to hear kind of about that public transport and your experience with it and what they should be aware of when they're getting to navigate the city. So yeah, so I mean, it's a big city. So there is a lot of ways of like getting around. There is the metro, obviously. So the metros in Paris are numbered. I think they are from number one to 14, if I remember correctly. So they go all over the city. Then you have something called the RER, which is R-E-R. So that's like the commuter train if you want. So there is from A to E, so A-B-C-D-E. So those are commuter trains that crosses the city of Paris, but they also connect to the suburbs of Paris, right? So they go slightly far. Some neighborhoods in Paris have trams. They're not everywhere, but some neighborhoods do have trams. The difference is like, the metro would be the underground and the tram is over the ground. Just in case some British people are listening to us, I guess. You have buses, obviously. You can take buses everywhere. And then you have the city of, you have like a free or like a rental bikes, right? Like you can just get a, I don't remember what was the, it used to be called V-Lib, but I think it changed the name, but there is like a service where you can rent a bike. I think if you are from the US and you're familiar to San Francisco, that would be the city bank system equivalent. You can just rent a bike and use it around. You also have those like kickback scooters all over the place in the city. So there are multiple ways you can move around. Where the venue is, it's called Port de Versailles. That's the, no, Port de la Villette. That's the area, right? Yeah, Port de la Villette, yeah. Yeah, thank you. There is like, there are four or five metro stations within walking distance just from that venue where we are, right? So Google Maps is your friend. Every single station on Google Maps, you click on it, it tells you what lines it goes through. And I basically mostly use Google Maps when I'm in the city. To move around, you obviously need to buy tickets. So tickets cost like 2.1 euros. That's the normal fare for a regular metro ticket in the city, which is like, I think valid for like an hour and a half or two hours. And you'll be able to take any sort of public transport with a single ticket. You can pay by car, obviously you don't need to bring cash. And my recommendation, if you are planning to actually spend a lot of time in Paris and explore the city and take a lot of transport, when you are buying the tickets, you can buy a group of 10, which would be cheaper per unit. So I think one unit is 2.1 euros. And if you buy 10, it's 1.7. So usually when I go on like visiting, I just go for the big pack because they remain valid for a very long time. You don't actually, I mean, if you plan to come back to Paris, you can see to use them. There is like a rechargeable card called Navigo, but I don't remember, I don't recommend anybody opt for that. So just go for the individual tickets and what else? Yeah, public transport, walking around. Of course, I do not recommend people to get a car. And yeah, so the other thing, I was, I want, that's the thing I was thinking about. Public transport can be pretty hectic during peak hours, obviously, like in a big city. So I would say anywhere between 7 and 9 a.m. in the morning and anywhere between like 5 to 7 p.m. in the morning, you should expect like the public transport to be super busy depending on the line you are gonna be on. It might be crowded. So if you can plan around those peak hours, it would be better. Yeah. What about like Uber's or that kind of, do they have Uber? Do they have something similar to Uber in Paris that- There is Uber. There is Uber. I just took it actually. I told you I was in Paris on Tuesday. So I took Uber from the airport to the city. This is actually what we have to talk about, by the way, the getting to the airport and from the airport to the city because it depends, there are multiple airports in Paris. Yes, there is Uber. I took it this weekend or this week actually it was something like 55 euros for one way from the airport to the city. But that was during the evening. It was at 10 p.m. So it's cheaper because it takes less time, obviously. I don't know if they have other. So there is like taxi now, which is another service which you can use to get like official taxis. And then there is something called G7. G as in Google, not yeah, G7. So these are the three main apps you might, you will be able to use. I don't know if they have vaults. I'm wondering if they have vaults, actually. So vault is like an Uber equivalent, but it's a company from the, it's a Balkan company. Yeah, there is vaults in Paris as well. So B-O-L-T, so vault Uber, taxi now or G7 would be my recommendation for the, if you need to grab a cab. Great. Obviously, if you're at the hotel, just ask the hotel, they get you a cab, right? Yeah. So that's good. Yeah, exactly. Great. While we're kind of talking about your favorite places, transportation, what about your favorite places to eat and the experiencing the food in Paris what's your recommendations for people there? I know everybody, that's one of the big things when people go to events is what are the cool places to go check out to eat and enjoy a nice dinner after a long day at the event? Yes, there are a lot of them. So depending what you are in the mood for eating, obviously you want French food, you're in France, so that's not gonna be a problem. My, so there are multiple experiences in French food. If you really have the money for a star Michelin restaurant, go for it, by all means, right? Like there is tons of one-star, two-star, three-star Michelin restaurants. You might need to book obviously upfront, but like, you know, Paris has a highest concentration, I think of star Michelin restaurants in the world probably, right, so that's one thing. Otherwise, this is, we put it in the guide. So there is this thing called bouillon, so I don't know how to actually translate it in English. It literally translates to boil, but if you just look for Google Maps and look for the word bouillon and you will be able to find it in the guide, how to write it in French. These are continuous service restaurants. They usually have multiple locations in the city and they have classic French dishes at a pretty reasonable price and they have continuous service. Now, the downside of these kind of restaurants called bouillon is that they don't take reservation. So it's literally walk in and then if you find a seat, you will be able to, you will see it. But because they are designed to be almost close to fast food as in they want people in and out very quickly, in my experience, I have never had to wait more than 15 to 30 minutes to eat somewhere, right? So these are the kind of places I would go to if I don't really want to bother too much looking for anything, but I still want to eat like a proper meal, like not fast food, not McDonald's. I want to like sit down and have a meal. Usually they range in the 35 to 40 to 45 euros for an entire meal that includes desserts and starter and even maybe drink, right? So we put in the guide, like an example of one of them, I think I put bouillon chart, which actually is close to the venue, by the way. And that specific restaurants have like three or four locations around Paris, but there are like multiple other brands and they all have multiple locations in the city, right? So that's if you want, that's in my opinion, if you want to experience French food, but without the Michelin star, you know, yeah. Of course, so then again, a French cuisine is quite diverse because there is the standard French thing that people think of like steak, and you know, like whatever, like a beuf bourguignon, like the classic things, right? But there is also speciality per regions, right? Each part of France has their own specialities and in Paris, you will be able to find restaurants opened by people from those regions. So you'll be able to experience food from like, you know, Bretagne, which is the west coast of France or the south coast of France, the Marseille region. Or so you just look for a restaurant and maybe in Google Maps type, you know, French restaurants south and then you'll be able to find something. That's more if you want to explore kind of like different parts of the country, if you want. Now, if you want other types of food, obviously Paris is a big city, there is like all sorts of people living there. There is, I was actually, I will try to find it and we will try to include it in the guide. There is a part of Paris which is known for having a lot of Asian restaurants. So Japanese, Korean, Chinese, all sorts of Asian food. It's like a big neighborhood. I don't remember the name. There is one of my favorite ramen places is there. One of my favorite like Korean barbecue places is there. The other thing also is there is quite a lot of Turkish and Lebanese food in the city. So you'll be able to find your typical kebab which is like typically, you know, Turkish kebab or Lebanese shawarma or whatever. There is a lot of those as well around. So, yeah, so French food, I think bouillon is a good way to start. You will be able to have, they're also catering. The reason I also recommend people to go to bouillon is because they cater to tourists. So they usually have a menu is English. So that would be a good way to explore it. Otherwise there is like all sorts of different cuisines from all over the world, all over the place. I'll try to find that neighborhood for Asian food just because I like Asian food a lot. And then we'll try to put it in the guide. That would be awesome. I know that a lot of people would love to be able to know about that, especially if there's like a great boba place in Paris that people should check out. I am quite sure there is a boba place. I don't drink boba suddenly. So I don't know where to find it, but I am quite sure there is like tons of boba places around. Perfect. What kind of tips do you have for our attendees when they're in Paris? I know one of the tips that you had in the guide is when wanting to see the light show for the Eiffel Tower and things like that. So what kind of tips do you have when people are visiting Paris that they should be aware of? Yeah. So the Eiffel Tower has a light show. I think it's every, what was it like every five minutes or something or every hour or something? I don't remember. But yeah, there is after sunset there is a, yeah, so it's every hour for five minutes, right? I'm reading the guide every hour, five minutes. So go around the Eiffel Tower after sunset and they will illuminate the tower every hour for five minutes. If you want to really experience it, you have to try to sit as far away from the Eiffel Tower as possible, right? You don't want to be very close to it because you're not gonna see the whole thing. So there is the Eiffel Tower itself is surrounded by a bunch of gardens or a bunch of parks. Just find a spot in the park which has like an unobstructed view over the tower and sit there and wait for the show. So that would be my recommendation. What else? I'm trying to remember. Yeah, so the name I remember now, Trocadero is the name of the park. The park where you will be able to see the show. It's called Trocadero, which is just the name of a park near the city, right? The other thing, which is another one of my favorite places in Paris is Place Concorde, which is the Concorde place, I guess. It's a big roundabout in the heart of Paris and it's known for having one of the two still preserved obelisks in the world. So there's like two obelisks in the world. There's one in Paris and one in Egypt. And so there is one in Paris and it's like a big roundabout called Place Concorde. It's also the most expensive parts of Paris because it's all the fancy design stores are in that same neighborhood, all the Louis Vuitton Gucci and all that stuff around there. Well, we talked about Montmartre, that's pretty cool. And also, yeah, again, as I said, all the walk, the entire neighborhood or the entire streets between, or rather it's more like a boulevard really, between the Eiffel Tower and the Triumph Ark or the Big Ark is worth just exploring, walking up and down. There's like a bunch of things to see there. Perfect. When it comes to like booking tickets for museums like the Louvre and Versailles, like what kind of tips do you have for that? Should they start booking now? Are they able to wait when they get in person? You know, what things should they be aware of for those kind of like popular attractions? I mean, generally speaking, I recommend people to book tickets for anything they want to go see if there is an option to do so online, right? Then you would be able to skip the line. So that's like a general recommendation. The Eiffel Tower specifically, try to book, I mean, I have never been to the Eiffel Tower myself where they run out of tickets. That's, I think that that's virtually impossible because the museum is so huge. However, try to book your tickets because there is usually two lines, like the line for ticket and the line for going in, right? So if you have your ticket, you'll be able to skip the line for the tickets and we put it in the guide. There is actually a trick to access the Eiffel Tower without waiting outside. So a lot of times when people want to go to the Eiffel Tower, they go to that main square where you have the pyramid, which is like the most known thing in the... By the way, speaking of things to do, try to go to the pyramid of the Louvre after sunset. They illuminated from inside. It has like LEDs from inside and you can take some beautiful pictures. Yeah. Because it's all glass, right? It's all like... So if you're just sitting, standing outside in the square, you will be able to take pictures with all these like... It's not the technically light show, but it's just like they illuminated with some LEDs and it looks beautiful. You can take some nice pictures. But yeah. So under the Louvre, there is a mall and it's called the Passage du Louvre, I think. The passage of the Louvre, the Passage du Louvre. And what you could do is you could enter the mall and then follow the signs to the Louvre. So you don't enter from the ground floor where the pyramid is. You go to the underground mall and then from the underground mall, there is a special entrance. And that entrance is usually very busy, not busy because a lot of people doesn't know about it. So try to go there. If there is no line, that would be much easier, especially if you already have a ticket to just go in. The Louvre itself, it's usually busy all week. The weekend is obviously busier than the rest of the week. I would say if you want to avoid probably it's being crowded early. And by early means as soon as it opens, if you want to take a nice shot of the Mona Lisa, because otherwise it would be just like way too busy. And by the way, they had this incident recently, so I don't know if it's opened actually. I remember now they had some people throwing paint at it. So I'm wondering, oh yeah, that's like activism. So I'm wondering if it will be opened or that it's closed for maintenance. Maybe look up on the website to check if it's opened. But yeah, generally speaking, go early to avoid crowded. That's just the general tip. And then try to enter from the mall underground. So that's specifically the Louvre. Everything else, just book your tickets. Usually there isn't that much long lines, except probably the Versailles, the Chateau de Versailles, the castle. That usually is also another very popular attraction. So it gets a lot of people in. So usually there is a little bit of a line outside. And of course, be expected, be or expect to have your staff search everywhere. They have huge security lines everywhere. So they want to make sure people don't bring things they're not supposed to bring. So you will be asked to open your bag. So maybe plan to not bring a backpack with you someplace or if you do. If you can avoid it, yes. Or like if you bring a backpack, just don't bring anything that you might think they will stop you. Yeah, it makes sense. I plan on going to Versailles that I've never been to Versailles. So I'm super excited about that when I'm out there. But I definitely, given all your tips, I'm gonna have to go check out the Louvre at night and all these other places. The nice thing with the Louvre is that if you go to the Eiffel Tower maybe before the sunset and you see the light show, then you'll be able to walk. And in that walk between the Eiffel Tower and the Triumph Arc, you will pass through the Louvre, right? So you can do that all in one evening, essentially. No, perfect. I know what I'm gonna do probably Thursday night. If people go look in my Twitter, there is probably a picture from the Louvre that I took recently last year. I was there last year, end of the year. And I took a picture with those lights and the sky was so nice. So with a little bit of image trickery, I created a picture that looks fancy, but it wasn't. Yeah, yeah, we all know how that goes. But I'm sure it was pretty fancy, even though you did a little image trickery, I think you just enhanced the beauty that you were seeing. Any other tips that you have for people when they go to Paris before we sign off for the day? I mean, you don't think you need cash everywhere, but try to have some cash on you. I always try to have 20 euros, at least in my pocket. I rarely use it. Or let's say in the last couple of years, I needed it. Now the more and more I go to Paris, the less I need it, right? But I still, I don't know if it's just in my head, but I still make sure to have some cash just in case, right? But technically, they take credit cards everywhere. So you're not gonna have a problem paying back card. Okay, let's just start there. Getting from, we didn't talk about this, getting from the airport to the city, right? I just had a question come through about that airport transfer. Airport transfer, good. So there are two, or there are technically three main airports in Paris. There is Orli, there is Chale de Gaulle. Chale de Gaulle is probably where I think most attendees are gonna land because everybody probably is coming through, or most international travelers to coupon are gonna come through Chale de Gaulle. So from Chale de Gaulle, depending on which parts of the city you need to go to, there are multiple ways you can do it. The easiest would be to take the commuter train called R-O-R-E, the E, and the E will take you to the north station, Paris-Noix. And then from there, you have multiple options to go anywhere you need to go, right? Now, suddenly, the, well, suddenly, I mean, the venue for coupon is in the south of Paris. And the commuter train from the train, from the Chale de Gaulle will get you to the north. So you will have to connect in the north station and then take another, either another commuter train or another metro to go down to the south if your hotel is near the venue, right? If you are in Orly, so Orly is the airport, which is south west part of Paris, then there are multiple options. My favorite option is to talk, to take, there is a commuter train called Orly Vall, so O-R-L-V-E-L, V-A-L. So that's a train that goes from the airport to one of the main train stations. And then from there, you'll be able to take the commuter train to the city. Right? Of course, so this goes without saying that every single thing we talked about can be done in buses. It just, it takes more time. It's cheaper, but it takes more time, right? If you are a group of people, for the reference, if you take the commuter train, for example, from Chale de Gaulle to the city, I think that's around 12 euros. If you are in the group of people of four and you're landing and around like, I don't know, late or you're landing, you're not landing around peak hour, try to grab Uber and verify how much it costs. If it costs like 50 euros among four people, that's probably a good deal. So try to see if taking the cab is cheaper or it's faster than public transport. Because basically it goes, so if you land during the evening, in my opinion, it's actually faster to take the cab than take public transport. Just Tuesday, sorry, not Tuesday, Monday, I was in Paris, I landed around 10 p.m. It was 30 minutes and 50 euros to get the Uber and it was 12 euros and one hour to get the public transport. So obviously I opted for Uber because it's just faster, right? Yeah. So yeah, generally speaking, to recap, try to get an Uber or like a Bolt or a taxi. If it's cheaper or if it makes more sense, if you're a big group of people, otherwise public transport, the commuter train getting you to inside Paris and then from there, in a metro to anywhere. The ticket you will be able to buy for the commuter train will be also valid for any other metro line you might need to take inside Paris. Yeah, then buses, and that's it, these are the two options you have. Perfect. Do you think there's any like useful phrases people should know in French before they go is... Oh. You know, what kind of things when it comes, that's the last kind of question I have is like when they are interacting with people out in the city, is it helpful to know a few useful phrases in French? Is it, do most people speak English? What should they be aware of when they're trying to communicate walking around the city? Sure. So of course we cannot generalize by saying everybody speaks English or everybody doesn't speak English. That really depends on the people. I think there is a general rule of thumb if you're approaching French people, try to greet them. There is nothing that French people don't appreciate more than just being approached directly with a question. So the standard greeting is bonjour or bonsoir. So bonjour means good morning, bonsoir means good evening, right? Yeah. So if you're trying to ask a stranger in the street, if you sit down in a restaurant and try to order something, you will actually, if you sit down in a restaurant on a cafe, you will notice that the waiter will greet you first and you're expected to greet them back. Just keep that in mind. If you're trying to ask a stranger in the street to greet them, otherwise they will just walk past you and not give an acrology, just keep that in mind. People are not rude. It's a very busy city and people have things to do. So bonjour means good morning, bonsoir means good afternoon. You could technically use them interchangeably, but I think no one will blame you if you are doing the effort. Merci, is thank you, right? So that's, I think everybody knows that. And then sil vous plaît means if you please or please. It's a very polite way of asking somebody, would you do something for me? So if you want to approach somebody and ask them a question, you would typically say bonjour or bonsoir and then you would ask a question and it would sil vous plaît. Sil vous plaît basically means if you would please or please, right? What else I'm trying to remember? Au revoir is bye. Au revoir. And I guess if you have a perfect French accent and you say bonjour to somebody and they just assume you speak French and then they start speaking to you in French, then you can just say je ne parle pas français. I don't speak French. Je ne parle pas français. That's, ah, je ne parle pas français. Sorry, I was thinking, I was thinking I'm saying I don't speak English. Je ne parle pas français. I don't speak French. That should get you out of troubles. Okay. Well, that's super helpful. We appreciate it and we appreciate you sharing all of your knowledge about Paris with our attendees and as you mentioned and for everyone who is part of the live stream, we are going to be publishing a cloud native explorers guide to Paris for our attendees to be able to see Abdel's favorite places and recommendations as well as several other explorers who weren't able to join us today. But that should be coming out here in the next week or so. We'll have a blog post. We'll post it in our Twitter. So be on the lookout for all of that so that way you can get yourself prepared when you're at KubeCon. Yeah. And feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions. Yeah. And Abdel, thank you so much for being part of this today. I really enjoyed getting to speak with you about Paris and I know I'm gonna take a lot of the recommendations you gave and I'm ready for a successful KubeCon in just what are we a short five weeks away? So I'm excited for it. Thank you very much. Thanks for having me. Yeah, thanks.