My Trip to FranceBourges - The Last Day
After another fine breakfast in the room we arrived at the competition in time for Frank to have his interviews with the local reporters. I was on my own till lunch and decided to revisit the cathedral and have a good look around which I couldn't do during the service. I was completely amazed with the intricacies of the stained glass and the colors. I took many photos and after lunch was coming back for the tour. I stopped at the Chamber of Commerce and bought a lovely poster of the cathedral and a watercolor print of the town. Frank and I had lunch at a sidewalk café where I had Steak Tartare, which I hadn't had since I was a child (when my dad would make it often). It was cold and fresh and delicious. We took a short walk up to the cathedral garden and took some photographs. Then Frank returned to his duties at the conference and I explored the cathedral tower, climbing the 494 steps up to get a most glorious view of the town. The sun was shining and it was breezy and nice. What a view! All of the old houses and the many gardens, all of the flowering trees in bloom. It was so timeless. Walking back down the spiral tower steps I had to stop at many of the windows for the varying and unique views they also offered. Met one family on the way up, the boy running, the papa close behind, the mama and daughter several floors below asked me how much farther! I told them they were close (I lied) but it was worth the labor!The Cathedral Tower
The Hotel Lallement was an old chateau, which had been turned into a museum of the decorative arts. It was three floors and had a beautiful Italian style courtyard. The tapestries and furniture were outstanding, very intricate. I was told that many of the pieces of furniture were filled with hidden drawers. There was a tiny chapel room with stained glass windows and one room that was all blue! The Hotel had also been for a time a girl's school. It was cool inside, and lovely, though not as well maintained at the Palais. None of the furniture was from the time of the chateau but was an eclectic mix of many centuries and styles.The Hotel Lallement
Walking back around the town I tried to follow side streets and cross stairways. I tried to follow the tour on the map and found the small path between many old buildings that was along the Gallo-Roman Ramparts. One building had been built on the foundations. This was the nicest part of Bourges, many little gardens and benches tucked between medieval buildings on a quiet path. There were young lovers, a hill of lavender and a tiny tea and cake shop that drew you inside. It's arched vaulted ceilings made it feel like an old church, there was a lovely songbird and many small tables lit with candles. French families and couples strolled inside for tea and cakes, all homemade by the single lady proprietor. She had a collection of different types of teapots and many many types of teas and sweets. But she heated her water in a tiny microwave! It was the only modern thing in the place. The sunlight streamed in through tiny arched windows making patterns on the tablecloths. The perfect pot of tea.The Gallo Roman Ramparts
Continuing up the path I found the larger street for shopping, so many stores!!! I bought some French perfume and stockings. Then I wound my way off the beaten paths past the chocolate shops…and found another marvelous antique bookstore. I looked through many collections of prints and was happy to find a beautiful one of the Cathedral d'Etienne from the outside. A nice compliment to the print of the interior I had found for Frank. I also found a nice copy of an old astronomy textbook with many pictures, printed just after Edwin Hubble's discoveries. I discovered at the last minute a tiny (3x4 inch) paper Astronomy Guide to the Solar system with many little tables and charts of the heavens and the planets, quite old, with a little section on how long it would take you to get to various places in the solar system by foot, by horse, by boat, and by train! That was a great little find!
At 5pm the second big presentation with the NASA panel convened with the TV reporter again. The connection with Joe Edwards from Star City was better this time and many questions about space station and mars were asked of him. There were two student translators so Regina didn't have to help translate this day. The theme was Mars, and Frank discussed the robotic missions currently underway and for the future over video animations. The day before had been some nice space station videos from the last mission showing Nancy Currie working with the robot arm. Then Frank detailed the first human mission to Mars using the Towards Mars video - animated by Frassenito. He described Mars Direct and the use of robots in tandem with human exploration.The Competition Continues
Then Regina spoke about crew wellness and the issues involved in being away from home for so long and the dangers of the mission. Maynard discussed his newest plans for design fleets of small intelligent rovers that will work together to explore hazardous places and their applications for use in exploring other worlds. These robots would work like insects covering large areas and communicating with each other as they discovered things. The Dept. of Defense is interested in using these robots in cases where you might have terrorists in a building and bombs for example and you could send in your fleet of robots in the ductwork for example to locate things.
The students had lots of questions about the Mars missions and detailed questions about how certain robots work. Frank talked a little bit about virtual reality training. The student reporters asked him to write an editorial for the last edition of the paper. I spoke with one of the young girls about ways to try and help her apprentice in the United States with some scientists working in nuclear engineering. I would like to try and hook her up with Franklin Chang-Diaz's project. Dinner was at the cafeteria with Maurice and the students, roast beef and potatoes, sausages, pates, cheeses (the best goat cheese!) and red Sancerre wine. Afterwards we took a nice long walk as the sun was setting through the town. I shoed Frank the pathway along the ancient Gallo-Roman walls. We walked down tiny winding streets past all the shops and the bright full moon came out and lit our way. Then we returned to watch a few hours of the competition itself. The robots were going through the black and white striped paths for speed, some of the robots did not work, some moved very slowly - but were cheered on by the INCREDIBLY raucous and enthusiastic students - some of the robots did quite well and the winner was the Moscow team followed by two French Teams including one from Cher. Then we watched the soccer tournament, which was truly remarkable. Two completely automated robots on each team - one defense - one offense, and they really managed to locate the ball, grab it and kick it or run with it through the goals. What fun!
The next morning Frank was set to give a final speech at the school
for a class of engineering students, it was full and the students were
so excited. He spoke in English but they seemed to have no trouble
understanding him. He spoke to his set of slides about shuttle, crew
training, the ISS and Mars. I helped at the end with some web addresses
and we had lots of fun talking to all of the students. It was still
pretty early and Benoit picked up us for the ride back to Paris.
Benoit was so much fun on the trip; we discussed the embarrassment of Monica
Lewinsky and the common French opinion that we were completely crazy to
have made so much of something that is a personal issue. He sung
me French songs in the style of Chevalier and Charles Aznavour. We
arrived at the hotel and dropped our bags off; we got the nice room on
the top floor with a bath and view of the Eiffel Tower. We arranged
for the tour to Versailles for the next day because the trains outside
of Paris had gone on strike.
Next
Page
Last
Page
