Eiffel Tower / IBM / Le Showcase

Today's goal was to visit the top of the Eiffel Tower, tour a bit of IBM in France and sit through some lecturing and discussion, then visit the club called 'Le Showcase' under the Alexander bridge.

The Eiffel Tower is an awe inspiring thing to look at just because of the grandeur (very French) of the whole thing. The line we waited in wasn't too bad and we got to see a patrol of French soldiers come through which was cool.

Geared up and loaded soldiers coming through, no big deal.

After the moderate amount of time we spent shuffling forward as the line progressed we finally got to ride up the elevators and reach the top for the best view in all of Paris, probably all of France too.

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The best way I can describe the feeling of peering over the edge of the Eiffel Tower is visceral, but fascinating to see the view as well. 

After we all got down from the Eiffel Tower we made our way back to the hotel to regroup for an hour or so before heading to IBM for a lecture/discussion as well as a short tour of projects they have been working on.

The experience at IBM was very cool and informative, we got to talk with two students in an apprenticeship for IBM and the details of how all that works. I could see myself working for IBM in the future. One of the coolest things I saw there was a manikin with a camera in its eyes that would recognize if you were a male or female and your age and it would pop up items on the screen based on your gender, i.e. a guitar in my case. I could see this being used for some serious advertisement and tracking of what customers are actually looking at on the store's manikins that are modeling their clothing. 

This is software that recognizes if you are male/female and your age, it was inside a manikin at IBM

At the end of the tour we grouped up for a picture and said our final thank yous and farewells to the employees at IBM.

Group shot of us at the end of our time at IBM

Later that night a group of us went to the night club called 'Le Showcase' under the Alexander bridge. This was an interesting experience, for one I don't go to night clubs at home and it had European style night club music which wasn't that bad to dance to although a bit repetitive.