At the beginning of September I started at TrustInSoft, a Paris-based startup where I’ll be working for the next 10 months. I’ll post later about what I’m doing here, for now a bit about the company. TrustInSoft was founded by Pascal Cuoq, Fabrice Derepas, and Benjamin Monate: computer science researchers who (among others) created the Frama-C static analyzer for C code while working at CEA, the Atomic Energy Commission in France. They spun off a company whose business is guaranteeing the absence of undefined behavior bugs in C code, often deeply embedded software that needs to just work. Of course this is a mission that I believe in, and also I already know Pascal quite well and had worked with him.

The logistics of moving my family overseas for a year turned out to be more painful than I’d anticipated, but since we arrived it has been great. I’m super happy to be without a car, for example. Paris is amazing due to the density of bakeries and other shops, and a street right outside our apartment has a big open-air market three times a week. I’ve long enjoyed spending time in France and it has been fun to start brushing the dust off of my bad-but-sometimes-passable French, which was actually pretty good when I lived in Morocco in the 1980s. One of the funny things I’ve noticed is that even now, I have a much easier time understanding someone from North Africa than I do a random French person.

We spent August getting settled and being tourists, a few pics follow.

I know this bridge.

Hemingway talks about kids sailing these little boats in the Jardin du Luxembourg in the 1920s, I wonder how long it has been going on?

Thinnest building in Paris?

Dinner at one of the Ottolenghi restaurants in London with friends Edye and Alastair. I’ve been dreaming about eating at one of these for years!

Bletchley Park was super great to visit.

Small World and scotch is a good combination.

Back in Paris, one of the coolest art installations I’ve seen out at the Parc de la Villette.

I’m sort of obsessed with these spray-painted spiders that are all over the city.