Backlog Bordeaux

Saillans, Gironde, France

We were actually in Bordeaux a few weeks ago.  I skipped writing about it until now for the following reasons:

1. The kids all wanted to catch up on Facebook and other connections–there was a constant war for the laptop. Even though it was my machine, when my turn came up, I needed to do work
2. Writing a wordy blog on a smartphone is unpleasant, or, in the case of N8’s virtual keyboard, it’s literally torture
3. We were absolutely taken with Bordeaux, Fronsac, and St Émilion, so I was distracted from sitting inside, tapping away on a computer. I get enough of that the other 51 weeks of the year

We arrived on the first Saturday in August, after a rainy trip down the jam-packed A10 autoroute.  First Saturday in August. In France.  Probably one of the worst times to pick to travel south on the autoroute.  Unless you enjoy sitting at a standstill in a 20Km long queue of cars.  The péage (toll freeway) has relatively few exits to the towns along the way.  So, tank and tummy filling (and emptying) options are limited to the rest-stops by the side of the freeway.  Several were so packed that we couldn’t find anywhere to park, and thus had to venture on to the next rest-stop 50Km or so down the road.  The roadside stops are usually nice, and well stocked.  We picked up a baguette and camembert along the way and pique-niqued back on the road as we inched along in traffic.

France is a world leader in telecommunications and networking.  The top telecoms focused universities are here.  In telecommunications and networking, one of the central themes is how to manage and distribute workloads (in other words, traffic.)  A major facet of this science is how to drive more balanced workloads.  For example, create incentives and practises to distribute and even-out the traffic.  In designing a network, one must build a network capable of handling the peak, while minimizing disruption and slowness to users during that peak period. If one can spread the work around, and limit the size of the peak, it’s possible to reduce the cost of building the network.  Everyone’s happy.   With France at the forefront of the telecom industry, it amazes me that none of this mastery is applied to everyday life.

Most of France goes on holiday at the beginning of August, and leaves on Saturday morning, heading south.  Check-ins at gîtes, for week-long stays, are usually Saturday afternoon at 4pm.  So, here we are. Parked on the A10 with approximately one-third of the population of France, along with miscellaneous Dutch and English in their caravans (mobile homes and house trailers).  They must enjoy it. The camaraderie of the not-so-open road, the competition for parking spaces, the friendly challenges over who gets the last Coke Light in the cooler at the rest stop.  The excitement of trying to hold-it long enough to get to the next rest-stop before the bladder bursts.  Because with a deep and extensive understanding of networks and traffic management, the French could certainly put 2 and 2 together.  Perhaps staggering vacations, so that the 62 million population of France doesn’t all try to compress itself into a narrow strip of land along the shorelines of southern France all at once.  But, from my experience, the daily commute works the same way.  Most companies in France seem to like their employees to work in the office, starting at 9am going til 5. (Despite being famous for its 35 hour work-week, I’ve seen that folks in the technology sector generally work much later than 5.)  The problem is when the working population of Paris needs to show up at the office at 9, the result is some of the most horrendous traffic jams outside Asia. Every morning.  Unlike Silicon Valley, staggering work hours and telecommuting, with the attendant benefits of reducing pollution, wasted petroleum, and wasted time, doesn’t seem to have sunk in yet.

France’s productivity outstrips the US, based on hours worked relative to GDP.  It’s understandable, since it’s easier to get things done when people can collaborate in the same time and place.  Having employees take vacations at the same time works well because a team’s work won’t stop or slow down because one member is out while the others continue to work.  But this productivity must come at an immense cost in terms of personal time wasted when the entire population converges on the highways at the same time.

I shouldn’t be seen as complaining.  For every other day of our trip, the roads were wide open and we could enjoy sightseeing across the french countryside at the speed limit.  Plus or minus a few Km/H, heh heh.

At the end of the long journey, we were rewarded with a beautiful gîte, Le Baptistine at Château Puy Guilhem. Clean, nicely furnished and set among the vineyards of Saillans.