Not Getting Rid Of Me That Easily, Paris

Today is a good day. Not only is it Friday, and a sunny Friday at that; today also marks four months since I started my job in Paris. This doesn’t sound like much of a milestone, I realise – but the significance of this four-month-anniversary is that it marks THE END OF JOB PROBATION.

That’s right: as of today, I am officially a permanent salariée in France – and that feels wonderful.

It was very straightforward really. I had a very pleasant chat about my Performance So Far with my boss this morning, in which I said I was very happy and she said she was very happy, and so were the rest of the team, for that matter, and so she’d just change Some Thing on the staff intranet to say I was permanent now. And that was that.

Well, actually then we went and got coffee and discussed rail discounts and Switzerland and the Fêtes des Lumières in Lyon. But as far as my probation went – c’est fini.

Unfortunately, I do still have to wait another couple of months to profit from any of the nice bonuses of working in the travel industry/any salaried role in France. Pity.

BUT this is symbolically significant and that is at least as good as cheap hotel bookings and reduced theatre tickets. I’m that bit more ‘established’ now. Paris is that bit more mine.

There’s also the added benefit of it being vastly easier to have an offer on an apartment rental accepted here if you’re safely out of your probationary period – but I have no intention of capitalizing on this particular advantage ANY time in the remotely foreseeable future. I am still very much in the honeymoon phase of my apartment; it’s the kind of puppy love where somewhere between 3-4pm each day, I genuinely start daydreaming of returning to its sloped ceilings and polished wooden floorboards, bathed, as I know they will be, in a cozy lamp-lit glow. Makes committing to my evening yoga classes bloody difficult, let me tell you.

P.S. The ‘featured image’ is the view from my desk. Seemed appropriate. 

P.P.S. As is always the way with photos vs. reality,  the tower actually looks so much bigger and closer from here.