Montmartre and more

Whew.. that is a long climb on a busy Saturday crowded with tourists! Chris is playing Waldo.. where is he?
The back of the church has a beautiful garden with grape vines and wisteria. Very peaceful place for lunch.

Chris thinks TIME is elusive.. along with Salvador Dali.
Dali had a thing about snails as well as time. They go slow.. so he added a flight of foot to compare. He likes the extreme of the hard shell and their soft bodies. Hi Kate!

St. Genevieve is the patron saint of Paris. This church is just in our square by the Pantheon. Amazing how light stone can look.

Chris visits the University of Ghent, learns about Belgian Beer and the Naus Brewery

I visited a colleague at the University of Ghent for a couple of days, to present a research seminar and learn about Belgian Beer. I had a chance to practice my dutch. I stayed at a renovated 17th century monastery, which was full of white peonies and Gregorian chants. The city of Ghent is amazing, full of medieval charm. The town centre consists of fantastic buildings around canals and old churches.
There are unique restaurants - the "old gallows" and "The Noose" (is there a problem here? One interesting pub we visited is called The Endless Prayer. When you are ready to leave, the waiter brings you the bill hidden inside a bible.






It displayed old signs on the wall – and one of these was for Naus beer!

Chris at a meeting in SALAMANCA, Spain

I was invited to participate in this meeting of the European Society for Neurochemistry, held her in Salamanca last week. It is a pretty amazing place – reminds me of Venice without the canals. And it is also like walking into a Renaissance painting! Here is a description I read; “Salamanca is known as "La Dorada", or "Golden City", because of the golden glow of its sandstone buildings. This charming town is untouched in its architectural purity. It is one of the five Spanish cities declared by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. Salamanca boasts a student population of almost 35,000 (approximately 6,000 of whom are foreigners) which provides a lively atmosphere and nightlife. “ I stayed in one of the old colleges, which you can see on the left. The Roman Bridge used to be the main entrance into Salamanca. It was an essential part of the Roman Silver Route (la Ruta de la Plata), which ran from the silver mines in the North, in Astorga, to Mérida. The University of Salamanca dates back to 1218, which makes it the oldest in Spain and the third oldest university in Europe, and the fourth oldest in the world.

Salamanca's Plaza Mayor (bottom picture), in addition to being one of the main monuments of Spanish Baroque, is the heart of the city. It is, without a doubt, one of the most beautiful Spanish squares. The square has 88 arches, its spandrels decorated with blazons of distinguished characters of Spain's history: Spanish kings, saints, discoverers, conquerors and wise men. Oh yes, and they also have a picture of Franco as part of their history. It was a great place to have a glass of wine with some tapas.

Jane's wallet

Quite a long time ago I purchased a wallet at the market. After a week I decided I wanted to have a larger one, so we went back and were pleased that the merchant would exhange it. About 10 days later, when my Master Card did not work, I went to take cash out and realized I did not have my TDCT bankcard. After searching everywhere there was only one place it could be. Finding him was not easy.. and there it was - the original small wallet. Jammed into one of the compartments was my card ... no one had bought the wallet! We had prayed we would found it, and Chris was so glad he bought himself a wallet as well. So, it took another 3 weeks for him to return to our market, and today I was glad to meet him again and capture him with the camera. He is holding my bankcard in his hand...

Chris's Gene Gun Gaffaw

One of my objectives during my time in Paris was to work out the use of our Gene Gun, a device designed to deliver genes to cells. Seemed like a good project on which I could “focus” with the “aim” of “targeted” research. So I had it “fired” over to Paris. It arrived here in Paris about a month ago – and it is still at customs. They don’t seem to know how to process this “item”, so there have been many negotiations by phone, still ongoing, and hopefully soon it will be delivered.

Maybe there is something wrong with my phone?

Parc de Bagatelle

1200 species of roses, 320 iris, 155 peonies +++ what a place! This was the week of the RBG Chelsea Flower show.. this saved us the ticket over to the UK.
WELL worth the walk!

Looking for a girfriend...
Look at all those peonies!Who is that in the wysteria?

edited by Greg - Dad conqueors the giant