Only Lyon

We decided to take a break from Grenoble today and head a bit north to Lyon.  In France we are not allowed to work in the labs on the weekend (I hope Mark doesn’t get addicted to this) and we are here to expand our culture and celebrate the international nature of science.  We hoped on a train from Grenoble and took the 1.5 hour ride through the French country side. It was really beautiful and looking out at the small towns and villages along the way is very eye opening. Most of the villages are centered around a church, many of which are hundreds of years old – older than most of the surviving structures built in the US.  It is also a great reminder of history and a testament to building materials and standards from days gone by when one considers the tests that these structures have withstood. 

Lyon is a bit bigger than Grenoble and a bit more industrial (at least from first appearances).  After taking a few minutes to gather our bearings (with no map) we set out in what we hoped would be a good direction.  It turns out we struck gold!  Lyon is situated on the banks of the Rhone and Saone Rivers with what appears to be the older part of town in between.  During the course of the day, we walked many miles and climbed untold stairs.  While Lyon lacks the mountains around Grenoble, there was a large church with a park on the hillside that we decided we had to see.  Notre Dame de Fourviere is a beautiful, and enormous, church built with a surrounding park that provides an unprecedented view of the city.  After checking this out and numerous other beautiful sites in the city, we found some of the Roman ruins, remnants of an era long ago before heading back to Grenoble on a much more crowded train.

Overall, it was a great day of exploring and now we are ready to begin a new week with lots of exciting research activities.

As it says, Only Lyon!

 Roman Ruins in Central Lyon

Notre Dame de Fourvier (from the riverside, before hundreds of steps up the mountain side).

They apparently have these everywhere

I'm not sure what is was in honor of but it is very impressive

Some of the many, many steps up to Notre Dame de Fourvier

A view of the city from the Notre Dame de Fourvier courtyard

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An Evening with the Moreau Family

Today, we decided to chill a bit in Grenoble and explore a bit more. Grenoble is a pretty small city but a very nice town with lots of history. After spending several hours in town, we headed back to relax before having dinner with our exceedingly gracious host, Dr. Christophe Moreau, and his beautiful family. Christophe lives in a village on one of the mountains surrounding Grenoble. It’s really difficult to begin to explain how beautiful and serene this little mountain hamlet is – there’s just no way to do it justice. It is immediately adjacent to the site of the ski jump from the 1968 Olympic Games that were held around Grenoble. Christophe, his wife Katarin (I’m sure I misspelled this) and two lovely children were the most wonderful of hosts and we are very grateful to have had the opportunity to spend a little time with them. I hope that one day I am able to return the favor!

A view of the city from the former Olympic Ski Jump Arena

The former Olympic Ski Jump Arena (this hill was deemed to scary by many of the jumpers due to the steep slope and poor visibility of the landing area)

A view of the village from Christophe's front balcony

A chance to show our stuff

Today I presented a lecture titled “Highly stable polymeric lipid membranes – applications in sensors and beyond” to the good folks at IBS. It’s good to share science with interested audience and lots of potential collaborators.

Afterwards, Mark and I headed into town for some dinner and relaxation. We had a nice evening exploring the streets of Grenoble, even if we did pick a dud for a restaurant, but then the surprise came. Around 10:30 when we were ready to head home, we realized that the public transportation in France shuts down early in the summer time – very early. About 45 minutes later we arrived back at our guesthouse with sore feet and a new appreciation for “follow the river”.

My new friend!

There’s something wrong with this picture!

We’ve had a great week so far discussing science. Our hosts Dr. Vivaudou and Dr. Moreau are outstanding scientists who have welcomed us fully. The members of the lab have been equally welcoming and we are lucky to have such accommodating hosts who also happen to be world-renowned scientists. It is clear that this will turn into a long term, mutually beneficial collaboration and I’m glad we had the chance, via the ACS GREET program, to capitalize on this opportunity.

My nemesis - the French keyboard. After years of adjusting to QWERTY keyboards in the US, Sweden, and elsewhere, I finally met my match with this one. Check out the placement of the A, M and W in particular.

Lost in Grenoble

I decided to rent a bike from the train station for a month. It's dirt cheap, 105 Euros (90 for the safety deposit and 15 for student rent). The bike comes equip with a front and rear light, helmet, basket, and a lock. One of the best deals I've seen in a long time. As a first bike adventure, I went to find Nico's place for a small get-together (Nico is a graduate student in the Vivaudou lab). I left the train station around 6:30PM, Christophe was nice enough to drop me off at the train station and show me the Metro Velo office (this is where you rent bikes).

I started out my journey with a map, but due to the location of the train station (circled in red on the map below) it was hard to tell which direction was north, east, south, or west since it is surrounded by tall buildings on all sides. Nonetheless, I began my journey down the road a bit, following an underpass, and then through the local shopping areas. The blue outline sums up to some degree my "great" sense of direction and how "deftly" I can navigate the city. The summary may look completely wacky, but when you consider that some of the street signs, especially in the older parts of town, may be a 1'x1' sign on the side of a building it's quite easy to get very lost, very fast. I'm pretty sure I made three attempts to head southward, but managed to circle around and return to the train station within my first 50 minutes of the journey.

Once I got on cours Jean Jaures, I began to head south, though it turned out too south. The map doesn't extend far enough to show where I ended up, but it was about 1-1.5 km more south. By that point I though it might be better to stop, look for a bus stop, and see if they had a map saying,"Voici etes" (You are here). Voila! There was a map. Finding Nico's place was fairly straightforward from there (missed a couple of turns here and there).

But I must admit Europe makes a very conscious effort to provide services to students at a well-discounted price be it bus, train, or even bike rentals. I'll most definitely take advantage of this opportunity to travel as I probably won't have the ability to later into my graduate career.

Here are a few tips I've come up with for traveling around town:

1) Bike's are fun to ride and cheap for students, if you can rent one, do it.
2) Maps are your friend, but landmarks, like the Bastille, are your better friends. If there are people who are familiar with the area, they are your best friends.
3) Sometimes walking around town is better for your first excursion. The pace is slower and allows you to familiarize yourself with smaller sections of town. You can actually walk a fair amount (on the order of kilometers) in a 6 hour period.

Safety First!

Today we were introduced to the first of several steps of IBS (and EU) bureaucracy. I’ll spare you the details but let’s just say we’re prepare for any disaster that may occur and are ready to dial 18 at the first sign of trouble.

After the safety training we took a tour of the labs. I knew the Channels group at IBS from their publications on Ion channel-receptor hybrids, but today I learned how far reaching there science is and how many interests we had in common. We talked for hours (editors note: this continued on for several days due to the sheer volume of our scientific overlap). This will be a very exciting place to work for the short term and the prospects for future collaborations are greater than I had expected. We have a chance to do something special here – thanks ACS!

Grenoble – Part One

Christophe picked us up this morning and took us for a short walking tour of Grenoble. The city is beautiful and has a very classic feel. We then took the “bubbles” up to the top of Le Bastille de Grenoble, one of several, but the most prominent, fortress that protected the city from invaders. It would be too hard to describe so I won’t offend it with the injustice of a poor description. The view from the top is stunning!