Tourist Weekend

This saturday I finally managed to do one thing being on my list for ages: visiting the famous (and freshly renewed!!) castle of Versailles. On arriving, I was instantly impressed by the size of the castle, but what really amazed me was the fact that on the tourist map I could hardly find it, as its garden is ginormous in comparison. If you don't know what I mean, check it out on google maps!
For entering the castle there is of course a very long queue, which takes up to hours to finish. To save yourself all that time, here is the thing to do: check in your wallet (or wherever you keep it) if you don't aready have a free ticket in the form of your ID card - proving that you're a European citizen and under 26! If yes, you can directly enter the castle (yes, without a ticket)!

Der Rote Punkt

The evil question

deployment of the permasense project 

Whenever I tell people about my internship, at first they seem very impressed (wireless sensor network business - uuh, what a topic) and then very sceptical (but is it of ANY use?). Whilst browsing for catchy applications for writing my introduction, I came across one which DEFINITELY will save the world, because it helps to find out about global warming! (I also found a project about volcano monitoring... very trendy these days..) So, yes, there is a use for sensor networks, and if you're curious to look at the project, you can find it here (they even provide real life data from the network... ^^).

palaiseau plage

definitely the most spectacular dining venue on campus - i adore this place, it's magical!

feel the light.

un éclair de joie dans un lieu autrement desért..
pour victor

Les Valseuses

Some days ago I got introduced to some crazy and wonderful jazz recording: Tribute to Stéphane Grapelli, by Didier Lockwood & Biréli Lagrène (violin & guitar).
One of the tunes, Les Valseuses, was composed as soundtrack for the equally named film, which I watched last night. I guess it was the first time I watched that kind of movie (it's from 1974, features an unbelievably young Gerard Depardieu, and provided my initiation to French rude language) and I still don't really know what to think of it - for the moment I'm in a state of shock, laughter, and disbelief.
But the worst thing is that for nothing in the world I can get that genious tune out of my head!! So it merrily keeps jamming along in my ear.. "tada-daa-tada-da-da-ta-da-daaa.." but listen yourself!

hello world

it's been some time since I last had a browse through all my friendly blogs.. on one of them I found an article that I want to share with you: it is called Joker and probably everyone travelling around will recognize themselves in it (at least a little bit). I'd love to share with you all the thoughts it's stirring up in my mind - but I have no words for them.

love paris by night

ain't it pretty?

Napoleon and Lisa

Finally, after some months in Paris, I made it to the Louvre!! I'm obviously very proud of myself, culturally aware and so on... (well, to be honest, the weather was awkward, which kinda influenced my planning ;)

As it was my first visit, I originally intended to do it 'the right way' - entering the museum by it's famous pyramide (which was build in 1989 - I was surprised it is actually that old!). But, as on bad weather obviously all the tourists were looking for shelter, there was a huge queue.. forcing me to redefine the 'proper' way of getting in: Getting in without a queue...

It turned out that the side entrance is really good for that! There was one person in front of me, so I got my (free!) ticket in under 3 mins. And no queue for entering the museum either!

In the side wing, I found an amazing collection of original art - traditional art of all kinds of tribes. As there weren't may people visiting it, I decided to give it a look and even got a private guided tour of some of the artworks. Of course afterwards I had to go to the gallery of italian paintings... and this was definitely where my visit became anything but peaceful contemplation of art.

Tourists are literally flooding the corridors, the flashlights of their cameras giving the impression of being in a club, and the noise level getting there too... all leading you to the probably most famous item of Louvre's collection: the Monna Lisa. I had a quick look, as I couldn't be bothered to queue for ages just to get in front of her.

Instead, I dedicated more of my attention to the other amazing pictures hanging on the walls next to Lisa. To her right, I made a funny discovery: there is a portrait of a very elegant lady (presumably an venetian courtisan) which is displayed looking bored out of her mind as no-one is paying her any attention. And, in fact, everyone but me was turning their back to the painting :D

The together of all these impressions later triggered the creations of this collage, called 'Lonely Napoleon' or 'Napoleon and Lisa'...