Huh... did you stop over or just touch-n-go ? Woulda been fun meeting up...

Texrat, it grieves me that you may have found personal inference in my post.

This was not my intention at all, far from it. My frustration is directed squarely at Nokia. Apologies if there was scope for interpreting it otherwise.

No problem. I got the assumption from the fact that Greyghost's reply was specific to me.

And I occasionally direct frustration at Nokia, too.

Unfortunately my time there was short (a little less than 2 days). Our group went out for sightseeing Thursday evening that was limited to a boat ride to see the Eiffel, Louvre, etc. Paris was unbelievable beautiful, and I'm glad I got to see it. My wife was VERY jealous.

Yup, I know that sort of gig... but if you think you can snatch a spare hour next time, just holler...

I would be glad too, fpp! But knowing our senior manager I'm betting our meetings are bounced around the globe (mixed blessing in this case).

It WAS nice that the French were not as rude to this American as I was led to believe... one snooty waitress notwithstanding.

Must have been a foreign student
We are very peacefull *COUGH* *COUGH*

Hey, we have snooty waitresses in the US too. They don't get tipped much.

True story: friends and I ate at a nice Tex Mex place in San Antonio, TX years ago. They seated us in the worst spot (by the kitchen door) and the floor was wet-- not a good start. But good food and service makes me overlook that sort of thing. But while the food was decent, the waitress was NOT. She snapped at every request or remark we made. She also kept forgetting our orders and was late with almost every one. So when we left I placed a penny on the table for a tip. One of my friends wouldn't allow it and picked it up. So when he wasn't looking I slipped another down.

When we got outside to the riverwalk, the waitress came screaming out of the restaurant, "Here's your $%#@&!!! penny!!!!" and flung it into a crowd of tourists near us.

Guess how many turned away after that.

Could it have been something you said?

I really think it was the penny.

We started off nice. She started off crabby. Maybe a bad day. But a professional waitress doesn't take it out on customers.