Top-down-approach

I've been wanting to post this for ages, but then I did choose not to. Why? Maybe at first the reason is not entirely obvious - some random stairs in some random forest - why should or shouldn't one bother to publish the pictures? Well, the it is kinda straightforward (once known) and a little bit egoistic:

I did not want to scare off my visitors!

Because what you see on these pictures is the only way to get from my room to the train and vice versa, whenever there is no bus (which is on weekdays after 9pm, on sundays, holidays, or when there is yet another strike)...which makes it a close to daily (or nightly, for that matter) experience for people living or working on the campus.

So chances are that one is taking these wonderful stairs at least once when coming to visit (and, no, I was not joking, nor encouraging eco-tourism when I asked if you had a big rucksack ;).

Funnily enough, no-one really bothers informing you about this 'fact' when you prepare your stay at the university, so the first ascension is literally a lot of 'fun', especially if you bring a lot of luggage.. I have seen quite a few people dragging huge suitcases up and down, so the way is lined with the odd cracked stair, or some suitcase handles.

I suppose, so far I do not sound too positive about the whole thing.. but I'd like to stress that - given enough time till the next train departure, and maybe no rain - I quite like the walk DOWN there (on which I had enough breath to hold the camera and take non-shaky pictures..) as there are a lot of birds singing, one can meet echses and hedgehogs, and the wind blowing through the trees is really pleasantly refreshing. So in fact, I appreciate the peacefulness of this walk and prefer it a lot over the bus!

The only part which I don't like is this last bit, and if you look closely, you can see that there are no stairs.. just gaps in the concrete. At first one would think ' how pleasant', but with casual shoes things can get tricky: the whole thing is quite steep and extremely slippery even without rain.. (and maybe you see the 'solution' to the problem on the right side of the pic: they added a handrail!!!) apart from that, the irregularity of the steps and gaps really need some practice and a good eye.
So equipment in this case matters - especially if you have less than 10 minutes to catch your train...

The yearly plant picture

this time from france,
dedicated to martins ;)

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.