Montpellier and Paris, France

After a few days to recuperate from the trip to Poland, the group headed to France for another opportunity to learn about adaptive management, resilience, and role-playing games. We boarded our flight in the afternoon and arrived in Montpellier at about 11pm. From there we almost took taxis, but they wanted to charge us too much, so we swiftly boarded the waiting airport shuttle, drove into town, boarded a tram (after much deliberation about where we were supposed to be), and then had to walk for about 30 minutes from the tram stop to our hotel. It was a miserable time, we were all exhausted, and we didn't know how far the hotel was from the tram stop (no buses were running to take us directly to the hotel). Then, we had to be ready to go by 7:30am, meaning we were all exhausted for our first day of meetings.

Wednesday we spent the day with Olivier and Francois, learning about Companion Modeling and participatory research, which are interdisciplinary forms of research that tend to be helpful to the participants involved (e.g., communities, organizations, etc.). In some types of research, scientists go to a place, collect their data, and leave, the community having nothing to show for the experience. With participatory research, communities are heavily involved and have positive outcomes from the research.

Listening to a lecture given by Olivier

Playing the Wat-A-Game

Our lunch this day was in the faculty canteen, where I had the most delicious focaccia with various toppings, and crème fraîche with chestnut paste. It was really yummy (a word that our French hosts did not understand). Monday afternoon we played another role-playing game, called "Wat-A-Game", which was more simplified that "Lords of the Valley", but just as useful. After the workday, we stopped in Montpellier for dinner of seafood crepes (mine weren't that awesome, I found out only later that Montpellier is not known for crepes, but Paris is!).

Thursday we had a chance to meet with French PhD students for lunch. Most PhDs in Europe are only 3 years long, whereas mine will probably take 5 years minimum! We ate pizza with goat cheese and really delicious fresh grapes. It seems like the food is ten times better in Europe than in the US. Friday we had a short field trip to see the river system around Montpellier, where the role-playing game has been used to develop alternative scenarios for water management.

The Mediterranean Sea near Bezier, France

Me and the sea...it was a bit chilly.

The whole group!

After our work was done in Montpellier, most of the group went to Paris for the weekend (Saturday and most of Sunday) before heading back to Vienna. I won't write too much about Paris since this blog has taken me way too long to write. I will say that it was AWESOME and I couldn't understand why Paris gets such a bad rap.

The Eiffel Tower is realllllly big.

Subway trains are fun!

The Louvre at night...never went in but had to see the Pyramid!

The Arc de Triomphe, also HUGE. Noelle and I went to the top and the view was awesome...you can almost make out
the people standing at the top of this, that's how big it is.

On the top of the Arc der Triomphe with the Eiffel Tower behind us!

Me with nutella all over my face...now this was a crepe!

It's really beautiful when lit up at night, but not too
pretty during the day.

Sorry for the shadowy photo...this was such a delicious dinner. Guinea Fowl
wrapped in pistachio phyllo dough over a parsnip puree. It was so amazing.

And a light almond cake with citrus sorbet for dessert.

I saw Notre Dame!

Yet another love-lock bridge.

This old man was playing awesome music on his little piano-type instrument.
He even played some rags!

Apparently the bathrooms in Paris used to be disgusting.
Now they have these weird pods on the streets that are cleaned
and disinfected after each use! And they're free!

A beautiful pond in the Luxemborg Gardens, where Parisians
go to relax.

I finally ate some wine and cheese, and it was delicious.
Paris is a good place if you love food. :)