I'm going on vacation to Paris, France for 10 days. Actually, it's my girlfriend's wish to go there but I'm not very interested in visiting, sightseeing, etc. Recently, I came up with an idea of trying to do something like programming tourism. :)

I'd like to do something related to programming in a startup-like company. I do not want a salary or any kind of compensation. I want to overview process, social aspects, environment and "what it feels like" to development software in another country.

I'm from Russia. I've been a software developer since 2003. I prefer C#4 but I'm ready to use anything Turing-complete. I have some MS certifications and am familiar with all .NETs since 1.1.

Currently I'm finishing PhD in CS. I'm interested in multidimensional indexing and I can turn any piece of data and code to OLAP system. :) But it'd take too much time.

What can I do? I have no more than one week. I want a totally complete project in a short amount of time.

1. Implement some features in well-tested project
2. Do a code review
3. Debug memory, performance and concurrency issues
4. Do unit testing

So, about the questions:

1. Is it legal? I'm ready to sign NDA if it's necessary. I'll have tourist visa.
2. Is it possible? I'm really sure that bureaucratic companies with lots of HRs and PMs will not allow such experiments. But small companies can afford it. I'm ready to guarantee support on my code after leaving home :)

P.S. I still havn't started learning French :) I hope it will not take too much time :)

P.P.S.

1. Yes, it's girlfriend-approved.
2. What's in it for me? It's fun. It's fun to see new systems and people who created them. It's fun to complete meaningful things. Quickly.
3. What's in it for them? Feature, debug, review or test. If my short-term colleagues will like this style of working I can invite them to make same trip into my company :) I think in Russia it's even more exciting :)