Last day in Paris

Okay, I should start with yesterday. It's been really crazy lately but I'm happy with my labmates around. Yesterday the postdoc and I were waiting for a UK visitor. We had a really interesting talk and after that, around 8pm, I noticed I was starving. I had some leftover lunch and went to the kitchen. Pretty much everyone who wasn't on vacation was still there, minus the assistant professor. It was really nice. We sat around the table with out random food and just relaxed and chatted for an hour or so. I think it was the perfect way to wrap up my stay.

Today was my last day! It was kind of hectic but everything got done! 4 months doesn't sound so long to me anymore, I feel like I've been here much longer. I liked the environment a lot and the pace. Everyone gets in around 9:30-10 with the exception of two earlier birds. Around lunch time, everyone tries to coordinate what time we should eat and lunch is pretty laid back. Afterwards, at least a few people will be sitting around with a post-lunch coffee chatting and sipping. Then work continues til 6 or 7. It's a nice pace I think, especially when there are plenty of other people around working too!

I'm really looking forward to getting back to Joe and lilyface but I'll really miss it here.

Catacombes (preview)

Frog legs!

I think this only sort of counts because I ate it at a Chinese restaurant. But there you go, frog legs, CHECK!

There was more than one. Actually there was probably two frogs' worth. Maybe four if they only use the hind legs. To be honest, it didn't taste like much and it was really tough. Seemed overcooked, the postdoc at my lab was saying that while the taste is pretty mild, the meat should be sort of like chicken but fattier.

I also splurged (after a long day at lab...) and got a spring roll. Damn mint though. They keep putting mint in these. I found out through eating at the cantine that I apparently don't like mint. Toothpaste, yes. Minty candies, yes. Savory foods and fruit, no. A the cantine, they usually will put a sprig of mint on a bowl of fruit. I always pick off the mint but the flavor always had permeated the top layer of fruit already.

les schtroumpfs

I was amused, and then wikipedia told me the word schtroumpfs actually predates the word smurfs.

I have never actually seen the show...

Last weekend in Paris!

For my last weekend in Paris, I hung out --okay well, I was in lab finishing up somethings but I also got the chance to go to Musee d'Orsay with two of my labmates!

We walked from lab to the museum and along the way, I checked out a chocolate shop that was on my list. And then we awkwardly left after realizing it was most definitely out of our price range. Oh well. The brief visit with A/C was nice.

We spent about an hour at the museum. I completely lost track of time and ended up spending the entire time wandering through the impressionist gallery. It was really nice but I could have done without the thick crowds.

Afterwards, my Portuguese labmate suggested we get drinks and that she knew a place nearby. I was surprised to find us here, at an American 50s diner.

Oh familiar food! The nacho cheese was not great though.

I also got a deluxe milkshake with vanilla and speculoos. It was authentic enough of a place that they actually brought us glasses of water without having to be asked!

Paris plages

There's a fake beach set up along the Seine!

Picnics everywhere all the time!

Another picnic! We went to the grocery store to pick up some food and then picked out a spot along the Canal Saint-Martin. It was a really nice evening, perfect weather.

There were ducks! Supposedly there are fish. We kept throwing bread but didn't see any fish.

Two guys jumped in the canal from the bridge! We hypothesized that they lost a bet. The water is not the cleanest.

Also, I received some clarification on the European kissing greeting and then some more practice. Apparently the Portuguese actually kiss, the French and the Spanish touch cheeks and just make the sounds, and the Germans awkwardly hug. I'm a pro now!

Farewell picnic

To commemorate my departure, we had a picnic lunch again!

Team muscle/tendon! This is pretty much everyone except the technician and the surgeon I guess.

Nimes (preview)

Picnic by the Seine

It's been so nice, we went out for a picnic lunch in a park by the Seine, right across the street from our building.

Mont Saint Michel, let's talk about food first.

I sacrificed some lab time to take a cool day trip with Joe! We went out to Mont Saint Michel, which is a pretty magical looking place.

It was windy and cold

First thing we did was eat. I liked the copper pots for decor.

My first choice was "not possible" apparently, I wanted a pot of moules (mussels) since it's on my To Eat list. Yet the people at the next table got them!! :(  I settled for fish soup which was good.

I had the salmon with beurre blanc whih was amazing. I also really enjoyed Joe's traditional Normandy chicken stew (not pictured).

My dessert totally beat his. Crepe with salted caramel and vanilla ice cream.

Things outside my window

The day before or the day before the day before Bastille weekend, 50 some planes and helicopters must have flown by my office window. Not all at once, they would come in clumps of 3-10 in interesting formations. Most of them were smallish planes tailed by a flying wedge of what looked like fighter jets. I still have no idea what it was for, maybe practicing for Bastille day?

Sorry, this wasn't one of the more interesting groups.

On my way to work one day, there was a lot of smoke over the Seine near the lab. The nearby bridge was covered in ambulances and firetrucks. From my office window, I could see the source of all the smoke. Later I saw this article, apparently it was the Hotel Lambert and it was on fire and some art was destroyed :(

The Eiffel tower by night

We didn't time it very well, but we made it up to the top of the Eiffel tower. We spent some time in the line to get your bag checked, then in the line to get tickets, then in the line for the first elevator. While waiting for the second elevator to get to the top, the tower started sparkling!

View from the top!

















In keeping with the theme of the evening, there was a line for the elevator to get back to the lower level and another line for the elevator to get back to the ground.

Tinn's here!

(Sorry, I've been neglecting the blog, things  have been a little crazy since Grenoble. aka, the entire month of July I guess.)

Right after Joe and I returned from Grenoble, Tinn arrived!

For dinner, I got "chitterlings." It was a perfectly innocent looking sausage.

The insides looked like this which made me a bit iffy. I couldn't help but wonder what I was eating the whole time in a worrying way. Chitterlings sounded really familiar in the way that sweetbreads sounds like delicious bread but are actually various kind of glands. It tasted fine, it had the consistency of deli meat stuffed in a sausage casing. (I looked it up later. Yep, intestines.)

We walked around Montmarte and got a variety of les macarons.

We also went to the Louvre. The line was longer than ever.

It was cool recognizing places in paintings, like the Rialto Bridge in Venice!

I can't believe I missed this the previous two times I was here.

Grenoble (Days 3 and 4)

Here's me and my poster! I didn't realize it was supposed to in the portrait orientation...

At the end of a very long but exciting first day, we all took a coach bus to Chateau du Mollard for dinner.

I forgot to take a picture of the chateau before it got dark... They hired an illusionist for the night!!! I think I knew how to do most of his tricks, sorry, illusions, which actually ruined the fun for me...

It was pretty fancy.

Salad course




Main course was guinea fowl, asparagus, and polenta with a really tasty balsamic reduction.

Cheese course. Thank goodness for lactase pills.

Dessert was ice cream, macaron, and what seemed to be a little baby persimmon.

I was exhausted after the first day! I had an abbreviated second day since I had to leave before the end of the workshop, but I did make a useful contact with one of the professors there! It was also awesome meeting and hanging out with my fellow fellows.

The French countryside is really pretty. We rode first class back to Paris which was spacious.

Grenoble (Days 1 and 2)

On Saturday morning, Joe and I headed to Gare de Lyon to catch a train to Grenoble. Which is here:




I was invited to a conference/workshop there along with the other fellowship people who are currently in France. There are 2 others in Paris that have been here the whole time I've been here and we didn't even know it! The conference was hosted here on Monday and Tuesday. We arrived earlier to do some sightseeing! Saturday was very rainy so we didn't get to do much.

Grenoble is at the foot of the French alps so there are mountains all around it. Grenoble is actually a very flat city and then at the edges there are suddenly mountains. On Sunday, there were a lot of clouds but you can see the snowcapped peaks in the distance above the clouds in this picture.

 We rode the cable car up to the Bastille, an old fortress partway up a mountain on the north side of the city.





The view from here was incredible!

Yay.

 From the Bastille, we hiked further up to the summit of Mont Jalla where there are some ruins and a military memorial.

After a confusing hike back down to the city, we had lunch. Here is my awesome delicious schwarma veau next to Joe's perfectly adequate panini de saumon.

We walked through the city, there were a lot of different fountains.

We visited Parc Mistral and another park just north of it where we saw these adorable guys napping.

Fantastic view from the hotel, here are the mountains at sunset.

There seems to be a French version of MXC! Which was awesome but not as awesome as MXC. Yes, those are four people dressed like penguins trying to balance on an inner tube.