St. Vincent's Cathedral in St. Malo

Here are some pictures I took at the main cathedral in St. Malo, which is the Cathedral of St. Vincent. Because of the bombardment during the war, the spire is a modern reconstruction of what used to be a neogothic spire and the interior stained glass is also modern. St. Malo is the birthplace of Jacques Cartier, the explorer who attempted to find a route to the Indies by sailing through North America, but instead found the St. Lawrence Seaway and cleared the path for French colonies in what is now Canada. There is a stained glass window showing Cartier kneeling to receive the bishops blessing before his journey, and a plaque on the floor indicating the exact place where he knelt. Cartier is also entombed there, but my Lonely Planet guide revealed that all they could find after the bombing was the head of the body. The last picture below is of a photo that shows the condition of the cathedral in 1944.

Mont St. Michel

On Saturday, I embarked on a weekend trip with the Club International des Jeunes a Paris, which turned out to be a fantastic time. First, we visited Mont St. Michel, an abbey on the Normandy coast. The abbey is built on a rock, separated from the mainland by tidal sea meadows. It is the most popular tourist attraction in France, outside Paris and Eurodisneyland, and there were certainly plenty of tourists in attendance, despite the rain. The second picture shows me in the cloister, a place where the Benedictine monks could go to be alone and meditate, designed to reflect the garden of Eden. I was warmed up by my lunch of classic Breton galette (with wild mushrooms and thick cut bacon) and a bolee of cidre brut (Breton hard cider served from a keg).

St. Malo

On Sunday, I visited St. Malo, in Brittany. It is an old city whose name is derived from St. Maclow, a Welsh monk who came to the island in the middle ages and began converting the people to Christianity. Because of its location on the coast, it is a prominent port and has a significant military history, beginning with the conflicts with the English and Dutch sailors, and more recently being occupied and subsequently bombarded by the Germans during WWII. After the destruction in the 1940's, St. Malo was beautifully restored and retains a lot of charm within the walls of the old city. The first picutre is what the view along the coast towards St. Malo was like during the morning, near high tide. The next two are some pictures from later in the day, when the tide was low and the sun was shining. The last one is of me, sitting on the ramparts overlooking the sea.
  

Matt's Ph.D. Defense

I am so sad that I didn't go see it for myself, but anyway really happy for my fiancé, Matt, who defended his thesis yesterday. There is a tradition in the Russell group of the successful Ph.D receiving a hat, made by one's classmates, which is decorated with symbols of one's accomplishments and personality. Et donc voilà! PS I don't know why there are flowers on it....

La Barque

There is a style of sailboat, perhaps a bit old-fashioned, which was at one time quite common on Lac Léman, called a 'barque.' As you can see from the photo, each mast is crossed at an angle by another mast which holds the sail and can be tilted to adjust for different wind conditions. They're beautiful boats, and occasionally some people hire them for short pleasure cruises on the lake. Unfortunately this one did not have its sails out. There are some models in the Musée des barques et traditions du Léman, with photos online.

This picture was taken by Jean-Claude Brosse.

Lac Léman Part 4

How could I spend a weekend in the Alps without eating fondue? Cheese fondue is indeed called Fondue Savoyarde because the cheeses that are the best to use come from that region. Compared to what I have had in Paris, the cheese was more flavorful and there was more pepper in this one --it was definitely more tasty.
  

Lac Léman Part 3

Perhaps you will notice that I have figured out how to put the accent in Léman, so now you have the proper spelling of the name of Lake Geneva, which is where I also had the chance to visit the Château de Chillon.

The castle is built on a rock just offshore so that there is a natural moat, and it is a pretty fun complex of passageways and courtyards. It was raining, so hiking would have been a tough way to spend the day, but spending the whole afternoon exploring the castle was easy to do. Besides having an advantageous strategic position, the castle has apparently inspired a number of writers who spent time living there in the early 1800's. Lord Byron spent the summer of 1816 there and wrote 'The Prisoner of Chillon,' a poem based on the life of a 16th century Swiss political prisoner. While he was getting inspiration in the old prison, Mr. Byron did a little of his own graffiti on one of the pillars of the prison, but apparently the Swiss don't mind so much because they put up a plaque to memorialize him.

Lac Leman Part 2

While I was in the Haute Savoie, which is the department where Evian is located, it was difficult to decide to plan a hike, because of the threat of rain. The threat was not that it might rain, but in fact that the rain might never stop. Thanks to polymer science, everyone could put on rain jackets and so we did take a little walk in Switzerland. On the way down to the shore from the mountains we met some nice sheep being delivered to a farm.

What I didn't know before is that Switzerland is in fact not part of the European Union and that they also use their own currency instead of the Euro. It was all the more disappointing, then, that when we crossed the border they barely even looked at us, and they certainly didn't put a stamp in my passport. I could have asked for one, I suppose. I didn't want to stir up any trouble.
The Swiss are known (by the French) for doing things slowly and without a lot of agitation. This could be cultural or genetic, but we also discussed that it might be due to the fact that it is legal in Switzerland to grow cannabis as long as you make it into a tea rather than smoking it.
Despite the clouds and precipitation, there were some nice views across the lake. All of these pictures were taken by Jean-Claude Brosse, because unfortunately mine are lost in cyberspace.

Lac Leman Part 1

Last week, I had to admit defeat in my effort to make plans to leave Paris for the long weekend, but fortunately a labmate saved me by inviting me to spend the weekend with her family, an invitation which I happily accepted. Of course, Paris has Paris-Plage and all the museums, but when half of the town is out of town, one feels like one must be missing something. So I, being one of the luckiest people on the planet, spent the weekend on the shores of Lac Leman, often known to English speakers as Lake Geneva, in the Alps. It was really great. The photo below, taken by my labmate's father, shows the lake and the villages of Thonon (the part which sticks out into the lake) and Evian (the part where it looks like someone took a bite out of the coastline is the harbor.) Evian is the source of the famous bottled water, and receives money from each sold, so they have a cute lakefront garden walk. They were also having a festival of mechanical street organs while we were there. My pictures from Evian got lost in cyberspace somehow, so you'll have to trust me. I'll keep on posting pictures from my trip in the coming days.

Parc Asterix

A couple weeks ago, when it was still hot an sunny but starting to cool down, I went to Parc Asterix with a couple friends from the lab. It is a theme park based on some comic book characters called Asterix and Obelix. The stories are set in 50 BC and they tell the tales of these two warriors as the travel throughout Europe and North Africa, revealing a lot of tongue-in-cheek caricatures of cultural stereotypes. The humor is typically French, but has found a broad audience through translation into Spanish, Italian, and, to a very limited extent, English. In fact, Disney bought the rights to distribution of a few of the Asterix and Obelix movies, but I think it will take a genius to make French humor translatable to Americans, who have a whole different set of stereotypes about Europeans. Anyway, I had a really fun day, even though I wasn't converted into being a fan of the characters. The most fun parts were 1. Spending time with my friends, 2. The roller coaster, although reminded me that I'm getting old because I didn't seem to enjoy it as much as I did when I was a teenager, and 3. The Dolphin Show, because dolphins are so beautiful, although of course I don't feel good about dolphins in captivity.

La Cuisine de la Canicule: Gazpacho

Ordinarily, I am not a gazpacho fan, despite how much fun it is to say the word. I have had only bad, inedible experiences with it until now. Tropicana makes gazpacho you can buy in a carton, and I bought it last week when it was so hot that I had no desire to cook or eat anything above room temperature. It was perfectly refreshing and light. So, for all of my friends on the East coast of the US, if you can't stand the heat, serve your soup cold!