Farewell apperitif

On 13 April 2005, the Wednesday before we left for Poland and therefore one of our last days in the lab, the coffee circle in the Vieille Forge organized a farewell "apperitif" for us, a pre-lunch wine, cheese, and sausage party. About 25-30 people showed up. Somebody had laid in half a dozen bottles of rosé, Laurence had brought a couple of packages of "apericubes" (little individually foil-wrapped squares of Vache-qui-rit process cheese variously flavored with ham, sweet peppers, goat cheese, blue cheese, olives, and salmon, each with a trivia question printed inside the wrapper), and Marie-Do had brought back special dry sausages from a ski-trip to the mountains (flavored with hazelnuts, chanterelle mushrooms, peppercorns, and blueberries). A couple cartons of orange juice and some soft drinks rounded out the menu.

It was a very nice gesture, and it really gave us the feeling that the team had enjoyed having us around.

The team Laurence belongs to consists of five researchers (Patrick (the head), Jean-Phillippe, Stephan, Laure, and Laurence), plus 20 or so technicians, postdocs, and students. In this first picture, that's Rodolph with his back to the door; he belongs to another group but has space in the Vieille Forge. Stephan is leaning on the fridge. In the middle, sipping from a white cup, is Michelle Étienne, the administrator who did all the work to get us our residency cards. Between David and the camera, in the burgundy sweater, is Patrick.

Here, David is chatting with Patrick. Maëlle, one of David's officemates, is he one in the blue sweater with her back to the door. In passing, I often admired the beautiful poster of the seashells of the Persian Gulf and Oman Sea. Turns out it's a series—the one showing fishes of the Persian Gulf and Oman Sea is posted on the wall of the Sea Fisheries Institute in Gdynia, Poland, near the conference room where I delivered my English writing workshop!

In the last picture, left to right, are Laure (who invited me to address her class in French), Jean-Charles (in the white shirt, Laurence's student), Marie-Do (in the foreground), Stephanie the tech, and Jean-Phillipe (leaning on the fridge, with a hand in his pocket). That's David, of course, in the beige sweater-vest and me at the right-hand edge.

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