First (of many, I hope) European Work Trips

If you saw the prior post by Sue you might have wondered, "well, where was Russ while Sue was getting lost in the crowd of traditionally dressed Styrians?"  This post will answer that question!

One of the advantages of being in Europe for my sabbatical is the ability to visit with European colleagues. And for the past five days I've been in the south of France (always written that way vs. southern France for some reason) working with two colleagues on one of my main research areas these days, the Physical Internet (www.physicalinternetinitiative.org).  The three of us are part of many joint projects and proposals and we are also writing the first book in the area.

Anyway, I've hosted the past two meetings in the US, and this time it was Eric's turn to host.  Eric works at the über prestigious Mines ParisTech in Paris, but his family (actually, his wife's family) owns a castle in the south of France.  So, he hosted us at the castle!  (I swear, I am not allowed to disclose its location for fear that you will all descend on it and ruin the peaceful atmosphere!)

It's kind of a small castle, so some may think of it as a really super old "mountain house" in a medieval village that was restored 40 years ago.  His father-in-law rebuilt it, along with the 4-km (2.5 miles) access road, with a group of a dozen or so who bought crumbling castles/houses and restored them.  And, as you can see from the pics, it is set in the mountains among 10 or so other restored houses in their small village.  I had no idea how beautiful the area would be and I was blown away with side trips to canyons, mountains, etc.

One of the highlights of every day was lunch.  We had shopped on the way in (the nearest town was a half-hour drive each way) for bread from the bakery, cheese from the cheese shop, meats from the butcher, and fruit was a fruit stand and it was great to share the task of assembling lunch and relaxing for a bit between work sessions.  And on the last day we had lunch on the terrace, under an absolutely blue sky.

It was also a very fun trip because before coming here the only other language that I could speak more than hello and thank you was French.  And I can tell you that my mind was very confused as I always try to think, "can I say that in German?" while I am here, only to also ask myself, "can I say that in French?" whilst I was with them.  Needless to say, I sometimes slipped into German, but my friends, who all speak French (the other collaborator is French-Canadian), enjoyed it.  And Sue said that yesterday when I attempted to order pizza in German that I asked the person with a polite, "s'il vous plaît!"

And on a cultural note, we all know that the French are big believers in using every part of the animal when they cook (I had pork cheek, tried blood sausage, saw head cheese on the menu (and it ain't cheese!). But what I really enjoyed was seeing how they made something really yummy out of chestnuts (châtaignes in French). Here is a can of châtaignes made into a sort of thick caramel. It is truly yummy and I can't believe that no one has imported this into the US (hey, I'll go call Williams-Sonoma now :-)

Russ