I have been working in France for just over two months now and the experience so far has been surreal!

As I arrived in Paris in mid-February I took a train straight to Eragny and lived in a small converted garage for two weeks. The first few days were really tough, especially with the lack of younger people in the area, but once I started work I started to find my groove!

My workplace is a large Research and Technology centre with over one thousand employees, which made it easy for me to find friends. Many of the younger people all speak English too, which helped me due to my lack of French. During the weeks we have been going for long-distance runs, a mixture of 5, 10 and even 18km. There’s a beautiful river and lake near the enterprise which provides our running trails.

After the first couple of weeks a new intern started, with his desk being directly in front of mine. Coincidently, we’re very similar in age and both enjoy doing the same things! This meant that we now go out to Paris most weekends, doing things like: going to bars to watch live bands and sitting by the River Seine and admiring the views.

There are also a lot of younger people working in my division at work. This as been great, as we’ve been to the cinema a number of times and I personally already have quite a few connections. All of the younger people I’ve met have been really considerate and have been really eager to hear about Australian life. Notably, I have had a number of questions about snakes and spiders.

Within the next few months I’m planning to visit Disneyland, go to a festival in the South of France and visit Amsterdam. I’m also planning on visiting the rest of the monuments and museums I haven’t seen yet.

Lachlan McDonald, Bachelor of Engineering (Electronics) (Honours) is undertaking a 6 month internship at Easy Skill SAS in France, during S1 2019