France-tastic

After a couple of weeks in my new lab, it is starting to feel like home (so is the train on which I spend two hours a day, but that is another gripe), though with significantly less sitting around thinking about cakes and shopping. The work is quite fun and it is a much more positive and motivating atmosphere than the last lab, so if it weren't for the ungodly hour of getting out of bed it would be fabulous! As it is, it is merely almost fabulous.

The university is set in gorgeous grounds, previously the estate of the Renault family château before they had everything they owned confiscated due to some un-patriotic behaviour during WWII- everything including their little car company and their castle and the grounds it sat on. The government kept the car company and gave the grounds to the university building club and sixty odd years later, here we are!


One of the little paths I take through the uni, following the other people taking the same paths! Very pretty, but not kind to equally pretty shoes, sadly not so appropriate in the veritable countryside.

The comparison with Jussieu, the previous uni is astounding. That is worth another post of its own. For now, suffice to say that I am off to a good start here at Orsay and enjoying it very much.

Now I'm off to bed to dream about trains.