La Mer à Boire

‘La Mer à Boire,’ literally “the sea to drink,” is an old French saying to describe an impossible task ahead of you.  About a week ago, right after classes ended and I knew that my internship was looming just on the other side of my week-long Barcelona vacation, that’s about how I felt.  Maybe it was the Barcelona sun and palm trees melting all my worries away, but I’m proud to say that I now feel significantly less panicked when I think about the 30-page “Mémoire de Stage” that I must write over the course of the next three months. When the going gets rough I just have to remember, as Thomas (my program director) told us, “Ce n’est pas la mer à boire. [it’s not impossible!]

A café in Belleville 

I never thought I’d say this, but typing on an American keyboard is weird! I just finished day 2 of my stage [internship] at the Centre d’Analyse Strategique, a governmental think tank which provides policy guidance to the Prime Minister.  After typing all afternoon on a French-style keyboard, which has French accent keys and several letters switched around, I suddenly feel like I’m back in keyboarding class, slightly unsure of where all the keys are.

My first day, I didn’t have to be there until 11 am, but I was up early, planning out my metro route for the third or fourth time, taking my time with breakfast, anxiously checking the mirror and my clock.  I still arrived early enough that I thought it better to take a short stroll before going in. My stage is in the 7^th arrondissement, an area scattered with government buildings and important-looking places. Upon exiting the metro, the first thing I see is the Musée Rodin, with the Eiffel Tower just beyond, and I pass the Swiss Embassy on the way to work.  The building where I work, which is right across the street from a tall Cathedral, is pretty old, apparently one that was formerly a huge, fancy house way back when, and that’s evident in the layout of the rooms, and by the way that the staircases weave and curve around, and aren’t lined up – after you reach the landing on the 1^st floor, you have to walk down the hall to the back of the building to take the stairs the rest of the way up to the 4^th floor, where I now have my own desk.

My supervisor for this week is the second in command in the whole organization, and he specializes in International Relations.  The young woman who will be my supervisor throughout the internship is on vacation this week, so until she returns I’ll be reporting to him. He’s kind and sensible, but direct, which is perfect for a first-time intern, because there’s no reading-in-between-the-lines needed to understand his expectations.  After a brief meeting with my supervisor after arriving, I spent the next couple of hours getting settled in, setting up at my desk, getting my badge, and walking to the IT center located about 10 minutes away to set up my computer account on the government network. My office, which I share with one other really nice woman, has a window facing the cathedral, a computer clearly labeled with a French flag “propriété de l’Etat” [State property], and a phone.  This is the first time I’ve ever had my own office space, and I’m really proud of it.

My first assignment as an intern was to read a 40-page chapter out of a book describing a historic research institution that existed throughout the 1960s and 70s, called the CORDES, and to write-up a summary of it. The language is really technical, and it’s a subject with which I’m completely unfamiliar, but today I was able to pick up the pace slightly as I became more comfortable with the subject matter and had a better idea of the main points I was supposed to be focusing on.

Today, my second day, I felt a lot more comfortable.  All morning my supervisor was in an important meeting and hadn’t left me anything to do, so I spend a while uneasily reading the newspaper and re-reading the work I’d done yesterday, but around midday things really picked up.  At noon, there was a going-away party for a woman who I believe had worked at the organization for over thirty years and who was switching jobs (still within the government). The general director gave a short speech, during which I was surprised and delighted to hear him quote the famous French book Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry!  After that, champagne was served, as were an assortment of little sandwiches and trays of fruit with toothpicks, and mini tarts and other desserts.  It was a really great opportunity to mingle with my new colleagues, and luckily the woman who shares my office was kind enough to introduce me to a number of people with whom I chatted. Everyone seemed really friendly and welcoming, and one woman in particular chatted with me for a pretty long time, and shared a good deal of personal information. After talking with some of my fellow students doing internships, we all seem to agree on one thing: French women love to gossip!


For the rest of the day, I got to work on my next assignment, about 200 pages of photocopying, plus adding another 60 page document to my stack of readings to summarize. But the going is getting easier already. I’m grateful for how well my Professors as W&M seem to have prepared me for this and for how wonderful an opportunity this clearly is for me. So far, so good!