C'est bien! It is all good.

Why walk in the Champ de Mars in the early morning?  Here's why:

And there are many more reasons like those.

Sign announcing the leash law.

Just like in my neighborhood on Sanibel, when I walk in the early morning in the Champ de Mars I see many dog owners with their dogs.  Dogs do need to be walked in the early morning, but on the Champ de Mars, many dog owners violate the leash law with impunity, so the reality (especially in the southeastern end of the park) in the early morning is that the Champ is really a popular dog park.

I was enjoying watching the dogs and owners this morning, at the same time that I was marveling at the flagrancy of the violations of the leash law.  Later in the day, we all notice that the same thing is true about the regulation forbidding the consumption of alcohol in this park.  There is no enforcement of these prohibitions whatsoever, as far as I can tell.

Just as I was thinking about how these dogs were free to run and play as they pleased, an elderly French lady approached me where I sat on a park bench and remarked to me about how extraordinary it is that the dogs are free to do whatever they want.  It was as if she were reading my mind; she wasn't disturbed by this lack of order, but rather delighted by it -- just as I was.  I smiled and shrugged and said to her, "C'est bien!"

More than an hour later, as I was walking home down the Rue du Commerce, I was going against the flow.  Massive numbers of people filled the sidewalk, walking to work, walking away from the densely populated lower part of the 15th arrondissement.  I was wearing sunglasses, so I began to covertly study their faces.  I was stunned by the number of faces that looked deeply unhappy!

My stepson Dan in the Café du Commerce.

That's why they call it work, I guess, but the sight made me deeply appreciate the fact that Tom and I both enjoy the work we are doing in retirement.

Indeed, we had a long day of work yesterday.  After I return from my early morning walk and Tom is fully awake, we work at the computers.  Yesterday's work involved the writing of Ta-Nehisi Coates.  He's a marvelously (no pun intended) good writer.

In part, I am the IT person in our writing/editing enterprise, so yesterday's technology challenges meant that I had no time for writing in this blog.

Still, Tom and I were able to watch the very end of the day's stage of the Tour de France.  The stage took place in the Pyrenees, in a glorious, mountainous landscape, a part of which was in Spain.

Skate, in a lemon butte sauce with croutons, capers, and steamed potatoes.

Then in the evening, Dan came over from his AirBnB studio accommodations in Montmartre and the three of us walked around the corner to dine at Le Café du Commerce, the restaurant we look down on from our kitchen, bathroom, and study windows.

This almost-famous restaurant has a beautiful, big dining room on three levels, beneath a retracting glass roof.  The food served there is all classic French fare.  Last night, it was all good.  Service was impeccable.

We started with a dozen nicely cooked, garlicky escargots.  Then I had a lemony-buttery piece of skate served with steamed potatoes.  Tom had his favorite, beef carpaccio with fries.  Dan ordered the duck breast.  Then we all shared a baba au rhum and an order of dark chocolate covered profiteroles for dessert.

Beef Carpaccio

As I sat down today to process the photographs from yesterday and this morning, I realized that the Raymond Lopez 1959 building on Rue Viala is more interesting than I had guessed.  The business headquartered there was formerly known as DCNS, but is now called the Naval Group.

The address for it given on the architecture site that I consulted two days ago is wrong.  Instead of number 10, it must be something more like 20 Rue Viala.  But that turns out to be the back entrance; the main entrance is on Rue du Docteur Finlay.  The building certainly does not look its age.  This 1959 structure looks more like a 2009 building.

The Naval group is classified as an "arms industry company" in the Google search results.  Wikipedia says it specializes in naval defense and marine renewable energy.  Worldwide, it employs over 12,000 people!  That's big, but not as large as the research institute I worked for in the past; it now has 22,000 employees worldwide.

Duck breast

A news release on the Naval Group's web site last month announced that "Microsoft chose Naval Group to implement Phase 2 of its immersed datacenter project, also called Project Natick. The datacenter successfully deployed in early June 2018 off the Orkney Archipelago, and will be operated 'lights-out' for a period of one year."

Wow!  An underwater data center?  The news release goes on to describe just how big this project is:  "Naval Group is supporting Microsoft towards its objective to build, deploy and operate an underwater datacenter which is as powerful as several thousand high end consumer PCs with enough storage for about five million movies. The datacenter is contained in a submersible cylindrical system inspired by the underwater constructions of Naval Group. A triangular base (also called Subsea Docking Structure), ensures the positioning of the datacenter at the bottom of the ocean. A dual air-water system enables cooling of the datacenter, thus taking advantage of the temperature of the underwater environment."

The Naval Group building, designed by Raymond Lopez,
 faces both Rue Viala and Rue du Docteur Finlay.

Sorry, but the geek in me can hardly contain herself.  I find this idea to be fascinating.  Good to know this is happening in the 15th arrondissement.

After walking by the building yesterday morning, I cannot say I was completely surprised by this information about Naval that I found today.  Yesterday I observed how well maintained the building is, and how sleek the glass and aluminum security fence around it is.  The landscaping is a little wild and bushy, suggesting that this is maintained this way to save energy and water.

Like almost everything French, there is more history to Naval than is initially apparent.  Its heritage is the French naval dockyards, going back almost 400 years -- going back to the time of Cardinal Richilieu.  That's the time of the semi-fictional Three Musketeers.

As prime minister, Richilieu established the dockyards in order to give France the naval power to complete with England's.

Naval Group is still somewhat of a government entity since the French state owns 62 percent of it. But more than half of its 12,000-plus employees work in the private sector.

The company is truly world-wide, because it operates in 18 countries.  However, as far as I can tell, Naval does not have any offices or subsidiaries in the United States.  The closest they come is DCNS Technologies Canada Inc, a 100% Naval-owned subsidiary.

One reason why Naval Group is absent in the U.S. could be the strength of Battelle Memorial Institute in undersea technologies.  Battelle is the company I worked for in the past.

It is all good.