Public holidays and leasure in France.

The month of May is wonderful here in France, there are 3 public holidays and if you do do it right then you turn those holidays into 4 day weekends...not bad really. Mostly people just go away for one or two of these but I plan to take full advantage of it. Mostly the French go and visit their friends in other cities but otherwise they partake in their other favorite pass time..."RIOTING AND BURNING CARS!!!!".

So the fun and games of the election here. Its amazing how much the French get into their politics. 75% voter turnout and its non-compulsory. Firstly they choose two out of maybe 20 for the final round and then they elect who will be the president from those two a couple of weeks later. I like this system because its not reliant totally on two parties like in Australia and the US. Then again, its mostly the same two parties and the last time someone else got into the finals it was La Pen (Extreme right wing nationalist, think militant Pauline Hanson). Mostly I didn't see much of the riots but someone did burn a car outside our apartment while I was in Grenoble, but it wasn't politics related...probably.


Voiture Brule - Like a Creme Brule only different. Not really funny, the person I was visiting had their car burnt a week later. However, dont take this as a everyday occurance, really!.

My French is getting better and I'm doing more complicated things like explaining to the bank they accidentally created two bank accounts in my name (this is a slow process, because theoretically its impossible and thus harder for them to believe) and conducting international money laundering transfers. Ive also been going out to the pub a bit with people from work, however its not helping my French because mostly I when start to look up a word I ger the explanation "ummm...thats not going to be in the dictionary, and probably don't use that word at work".

So, last weekend I went to Grenoble to visit a friend who worked in Australia with me (Emilee Lae) and we had a wonderful time doing some walks in the area. We managed to take a couple of day walks in the Alps and also a day doing "Via Ferrata". As for the Alps they are MAGNIFICENT, how to describe them "You know your in the alps when your driving a long, look up, look up again and then possibly see the top of the mountains if their not covered in cloud". They are BIG!. As usual ill chuck the report up somewhere else if you are interested.


The Alpls

As for Via Ferrata, it translates to "the Iron way" but isn't a lost Japanese martial art. Its kind of like rock climbing but they equip the cliff with wires, and ladder rungs. While its different to climbing it is definitely not a "baby's climbing day". It was still pretty hard work and got the adrenalin flowing in places.


Via Ferrata

The weekend before this I did do the mountain biking trip with my boss and it did kill me. 14km of uphill to begin the day and spent the rest of the day falling off :-) but thats the fun. One of the amazing things is picking wild thyme, rosemary and asparagus from the side of the track.


Photo of the forest in the Chartreus Mountains

Work-wise my chemicals finally arrived today so I can start some lab work next week. I never thought I would want to see a chemical again after my PhD was over, but I'm glad to be away from the computer. We have steered a little bit away from the synthesis of a product that was very similar to TNT (but less stable) and are going for some less explosive compounds. My assertions to my boss that I would be able to synthesize the more dangerous compounds safely AND in record time by doing it in the microwave (seriously, it was a microwave based synthesis) were not met with quite the enthusiasm I expected.