The Parisian Summer

Bastille Day fireworks from the Champ de Mars

Hey all, a shorter entry today. Life has Paris considerably amped up recently and I haven’t had much time to write! To catch up on what I’ve done since the last entry – I’ve done a good amount of weekend trips which has been great, and work at the lab has continued as normal and has been relatively productive, so I’m fairly proud of that. My project has been advancing and I’ve gotten much more comfortable with the other people in lab which has been cool, and I’ve actually expressed views/opinions during our daily lunch hour which for me is a bit remarkable because most people are between ten and forty years older than me and 100% of the conversations are in French, so piping up with a controversial opinion is not the easiest thing to do. But chatting during lunch has considerably helped me to fit in so I’m very grateful for that.

Echternach, Luxembourg (creds to Carley Haft!)

In terms of travel, I took an excellent trip to Luxembourg (shoutout to Carley!) where we saw the festivities for their national holiday, the Grand Duke’s birthday. The city and country were charming and beautiful, and Carley and I took an excellent hike along (and across) the German border where I finally got a new profile pic after almost two years of stagnation. I took another trip to Tübingen, Germany to hang out with Lauren Testa, and that was also a spectacular weekend, filled with walking, excellent climbing, some very good and some very bad shots (which all happened to be pretty weak it turns out), and of course great company. Definitely worth the miserable (but cheap) 10.5-hour Flixbus. I swear every time I take one that it’s the last but somehow it never is.

Tübingen, Germany

A fellow climber at Fontainebleau

In Paris I managed to keep myself busy, going to a Chilean music concert by an artist called Chico Trujillo which was a ton of fun (shoutout to Jérémie and Mélanie for bringing me along!), and I’ve had an excellent time rock climbing, by means of which I’ve actually met a fair amount of people. I joined a group for an awesome trip to Fontainebleau (AKA the forest known for having the best bouldering on Earth) and had a very successful first “real” outdoor bouldering trip. I’ve followed France’s triumphant march to World Cup glory over the past few weeks as well – apparently the Paris definition of “celebrate” is synonymous with wreaking havoc and destruction but it’s certainly interesting to watch. I also had the pleasure of hanging out with some American friends that came to give me a visit (shoutouts to Greg and Ariel!) and certainly made my Bastille Day the best it could be by pushing through the suffocating crowds at the Champ de Mars for the concert and fireworks that were so indescribably awesome that to say it was worth it would be an understatement beyond words. It was way past mindblowing and was far out of this world.

A proud château de sable in Cancale!

World Cup viewing party in Rennes!

I’ve spent the last couple of days in Rennes, meeting faculty in preparation for teaching in the fall, and scouting out housing which has been its own challenge, although I think I’ve found somewhere. In the midst of all of this was a day-trip today to Cancale (a beach town outside of Saint-Malo on the English Channel) where Valentin and I built the most rad sand castle anyone has ever seen – believe it. A classic and pleasant Breton excursion all around.

Upcoming are travels to Eastern Europe/Israel, and then hopefully some chill weeks in Paris before the flurry of activity in August – but more on that next time!

Paris, France; 18 July 2018.