Accent français

For a last weekend together {snif} Fred and I flew to Rovaniemi in Lapland (all pictures). We rented a car and drove in 2 days a bit more than 700 km. On Saturday we walked the trail of Auttiköngäs to see the beautiful waterfall.

Then we drove north and stopped in Levi, the biggest ski resort of Finland. We had been there on a previous trip and thought we would enjoy a hotel room with sauna. To our big surprise Levi was fully crowded with mostly active elderly people who came to enjoy the fall in Lapland. We nonetheless got a room but in another hotel. The small sauna did not work that well and we barely reached 70 degrees. 70 degrees is freezing temperature for a sauna! You want at least 80, if not 90 or 100.

On Sunday morning, we headed to the national park of Pallas for a 2 hours hike in a chilly fog. Although we could not see 20 meters ahead, we could imagine how beautiful the park is. Some areas looked like eden gardens.
Driving in Lapland was not as bad at all. We saw about 20 times reindeers eating on the side of the road, or crossing slowly the road. Reindeers are like sheeps, they’re almost completely domesticated and are not scared of cars or people.

In Lapland, 15 Sep 2007 from agathe on Vimeo.

Four weeks in France was quite just enough to do much of nothing and a little of something. That’s the spirit of holiday in France, isn’t it? Enjoy the food, the wine, the country, visit a little bit here and there. The temperature could have been higher though, I haven’t spent too much time in the swimming pool.
I was craving for quiet time in Les Augis, the family country house, and I had plenty!

Fred wanted to do some wine tasting, we ended up starting our own little cellar by buying 60 bottles of wine from the Touraine region (around Tours, the valley of Loire). We got a lot of Saint-Nicolas de Bourgueil, and some Vouvray. Fred got to learn one more important french word: dégustation. Some winemakers are especially nice and enthusiastic about presenting their wine. The woman who welcomed us at Mabileau-reze was absolutely charming! The people working in cooperatives or the winemakers that you find on the main roads can be a tad rude. They make you feel, as you don’t look like somebody who will buy an hectoliter of wine, that you’re wasting their time. Aurélien came with us in our Bourgueil tour, which made the experience even nicer. He is quite knowledgeable about wine, and kept the discussion easy going with the winemaker while we were tasting and spitting.

With Fred, we had a 2,5 days roadtrip to see the Mont Saint-Michel in Normandie, and cruise on the Emerald coast of Bretagne. We were lucky to see those on the one nice day in the week. Bretagne is beautiful and charming, except for its reputed bad weather.

I’ve spent the rest of the time in Les Augis, sleeping late in the morning, enjoying the garden and the country. I received my books from Amazon quite late in July and did not read that much. I did start coding my Scribou project though. I’ll hopefully get something ready to be tested soon.

C’est bien joli la Californie. Il y a tout : la mer, la montagne, la campagne, la ville, plein de boites high-tech, et même de la bonne ne bouffe. Et il fait beau.

L’Empire N a ouvert un lab de recherche à Palo Alto au début de l’année, que j’ai donc visité pendant 4 jours.
Tom, qui a déménagé là-bas il y a quelques mois, m’a fait l’honneur de me faire découvrir les environs et de bons restaurants. En se trompant de route pour aller vers la côte Ouest, on est passé par une petite route de montagne qui zigzagait tout du long, je me croyais en Corse. Puis vendredi après-midi je suis allée a Santa Cruz, et suis remontée par la côte. Samedi, j’ai visité en voiture San Francisco, en suivant la route découverte 49 miles.

Je n’ai pas eu le temps de visiter de musée ou d’aller à un concert, ou de profiter des autres activités facilement disponibles… la prochaine fois:-)

Toutes les photos

Je vais la semaine prochaine visiter l’équipe de recherche basée à Palo Alto :-)
16 heures de voyage à l’aller, plus de 22 au retour. Ca va me faire quelques miles sur ma carte KLM.

Le voyage aux US a commencé à 5h à Helsinki pour finir 15H heure locale à Portland. 17 heures porte à porte ; 7 heures de jet lag.

Portland est une charmante petite ville portuaire à 2h au nord de Boston. Le centre ville a été restauré dans les années 80 en un florissant quartier d’habitations et de magasins – cas exceptionnel pour les villes américaines.

Samedi matin je reprenai le bus direction Boston (photos) pour rencontrer Natalia qui, ne m’ayant ‘connu’ seulement par mon blog m’avait gentiment proposé de rester chez elle. Ensemble nous sommes allées dans le centre, montées en haut de la tour Prudential d’où l’on a une vue grandiose de Boston.

Dimanche nous avons visité Providence (photos), riche petite ville du Rhode Island, où Natalia avait passé plusieurs années à la très connue Brown university.