Cybertron Flower

I walked 24 km on Saturday and 15 on Sunday. On Monday, I gave a talk in the morning and spent the rest of Monday and the whole of Tuesday pretty much in non-stop discussion with old and new-to-me colleagues, bouncing off ideas, discussing possible projects, trying to understand each other's approaches, interrupted only when the core group of the four of us were sharing funny stories about things that happened at this conferences or that meeting or sad/scared/desperate musings on world politics (understandably, between an American, a German living in the Netherlands and two French people).

I spent all the time pretty much non-stop with J. (yes, half of my friends seem to have names starting with this letter) - which was a bit of a risk: being the kind of people who, by our nature, need long to become friends with someone (friendships were something that we talked about on one of the mornings), we only grew closer towards the end of my stay in the USA. But it was amazing. I never ever want to miss the people I met through science having been part of my life, no matter where I go next. (And funnily, this J. and I are usually on different sides of many scientific discussions, but it does not stop us from liking each other).

The weekend program consisted of Sainte Chapelle (somehow I missed what to expect from the Sainte Chapelle and was, when we entered the lower half, deeply convinced that this was it; my gasp once we entered the main chapel may have been very loud), the museum of Asian art (I need so much more time here), Louvre (I need a year here, at least; this time with the Vermeer special exhibition) and the catacombs. We've eaten at a basque place (less good than last time - last time was the first time I had tripe in my life and I fell in love with it), a random tiny&homey maroccan place (tajine, couscous, mint tea and an appertizer of which we don't know what it was - but it was amazing) and a fancy French place with an amazing dessert, intense cheeses and tongue for a starter.

I was a Vermeer fangirl (even though the exhibition highlighted mainly a very certain motif in his paintings): a set of coasters (that contain my favorite, "The Little Street"), a magnet, a postcard and a poster/print (all of "the astronomer", I clearly could not have passed on this one). Also, the French know their fashion - I took home a long-sleeved blouse (white), a sleeveless shirt-blouse (red), a sleeveless shirt/untershirt with thin but not spaghetti straps that finally fits the way I want, and a short black sweater with bird applications (that I did not need but that looked freaking good on me). All bought why I had to wait - because no, I did not really want to waste my limited time on shopping but when at the train station an hour too early or having fifteen minutes to kill waiting for your partner in crime to arrive but not able to check in into the hotel yet ...

A few impressions:



Sainte Chappelle.

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[eda:] When leaving the house on Saturday, I realized that I forgot my power cable at home - I went back and lo-and-behold, there as not also my power cable, still plugged in (I have an extra one at work so I usually don't need to pack it), but also my wallet, still waiting quietly on the shelf next to the door. And 10 minutes before leaving the Paris institute, I realized that I am missing my wallet. The last time I could remember seeing it was when I took it out of the pocket in the bathroom, to prevent it plunging into the toilet. Luckily, we caught up with the secretary on the stairs. Two minutes later and I would have been stuck in Paris, about to cross two country borders (France/Belgium and Belgium/Netherlands) without an ID. Not to mention all my cards, but I've been least worried about them at this point.