First weeks in France

My first blog entry from INSEAD, brought to you from the sunny surrounds of Fontainebleau, France.

I am sitting in the sun, enjoying the mild autumn temperatures of France in early September, basking in sunshine, listening to the gentle buzz of Friday afternoon conversations, as people celebrate the end of the first week of classes with a quiet (and subsidized) beer or wine in the INSEAD courtyard area. The chatter is quiet, partly because people are tired from a long week, partly because there is no reason to expend much energy now, with the INSEAD social scene set to come to life at another chateau party tomorrow night. Until then its all about fitting in to the French way of life, where, as I've discovered, nothing is rushed, and everything is a little subdued.

The volume may be in keeping with French custom, but the language of these conversations is certainly not. If I strain my ears I can hear a German conversation and a Spanish one, drowned out in the main by many, many different accents of English, all trying to make themselves understood. This is the first place I've ever been in my life where having fluent command of two languages is unusual for the fact that its not three or four. INSEAD make a big deal out of their internationalism, but that does not make the end result any less impressive. There are 73 different nationalities represented in my class, including seven Australians and about 25 Germans. India contributes the largest group, with 56 (of 500) students), while many smaller nations deliver only one. On arrival I was put in a small study group - the group in which I will do most of my assignments for the first two periods (ie until Christmas). Our group covers 5 of the world's 6 continents - A Frenchman, a Nigerian, a woman from Japan, a Uruguayan and an Australian.

It's promising to be a very busy year. Classes may only involve about 16 contact hours per week, but each class requires homework, pre readings and group assignments. I've been at school until about 9pm on most days that I've been here so far - quite a shock for the first week.

When the weekend rolls around though its party time here. Quite a few of the students here live in large old chateaus in groups of up to 15 or 16 students. With summer fast coming to an end, every house seems to keen to host at least one party before time runs out. On my first Saturday here I went to one my first party. The following Wednesday was a 'traffic light' party in town - just to get everyone's cards out on the table early, I guess. One feature of parties here is that they generally don't start before 10, and end equivalently late in the night / early in the morning.

Last Saturday was the Bain party. The consulting firms put a lot of time and effort into recruiting here - I've gotten letters from McKinsey and Booz, a USB stick from Bain, and my locker is secured with a BCG lock - not bad for a weeks work. But Bain have hatched a plan to get into everyone's mind early, by putting up the cash for a huge party in the first week of term. Fortunately no one from Bain actually attends, but the thousands of Euros they put up pay for 500 people to party the night away in the grounds of a French chateau, with a dance floor, marquis, professional lights and copious amounts of (real) champagne.

The parties do provide one dilemma though - most of these houses are on their own grounds, quite a long way from anywhere. There was, apparently, a time when the French didn't worry too much about drink driving, and getting home from these parties was simply a matter of dodging a few wild boar as you steered your rental car home. These days (fortunately) that has changed, and drink driving is a definite no, in France and especially at INSEAD, where just about every communication about a social event is signed off with the phrase "At INSEAD, we don't drink and drive".

The French police may do a lot more breath testing now, but there is definitely one thing they could do which would be far more effective in reducing drink driving, I think. Taxis. The French seem to take not working on a Sunday very seriously, but the fact that this extends to taxis just seems absurd. As it happened, after the Bain party, when the last bus back to town decided he could not take a single standing passenger, a good thirty of us were left standing outside said chateau, with very little idea how to get home. Calling a taxi at that time only leads to waking someone up, as most of the taxi's are private operations with their own numbers, as being told something in French. Whatever that something is, it is not "I'll be there in 15 minutes".
In the end I slept at the chateau, and could only get a lift to within about 5km of my house. In case you were wondering, ending a party by waiting for 2 hours for a bus that doesn't come, then waking up to see the aftermath of a 500 person party, and then walking 5 km to get home, is not ideal.

There is a lot more to tell about French life, but for now, the wine calls.