Day 23 to 25. Grenoble

Grenoble is a town that I do know very well. Since 1998 that I'm coming here almost every year for a few days. Sometimes years (1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005) stayed longer and profited of the mountains for a few months. I already said goodbye to Grenoble a few times thinking that it would take some years to be back again but was always wrong and visited again Grenoble sooner then expected. Well, here I am again !



I visited a few friends, got a permission to visit my ex-work place and meet my ex-supervisor :). It was a strange feeling to be on this places and meet this persons not having the felling of belonging here anymore.

Monday was disappointing. One of the reasons I made an effort to arrive to Grenoble in the beginning of the week was to have dinner with two special friends, Sofia and Paco. They are student and supervisor, respectively. Paco was coming to Grenoble to have the annual meeting with his student and her other supervisors.

Unfortunately, the ESRF travel office canceled the electronic ticket. This was some kind of mistake and Paco stayed for 2h in Lisbon's airport just to understand he could not fly. So my dinner was postponed to another time but my disappointment was nothing compared to the disappointment of them. For them it was work, hours lost, many effort done so that this meeting could take place. Was a big flop :-( . Well one must understand this things happen sometimes and be able to overcome the frustration. The ESRF travel office offer excuses....

The ESRF - European Synchrotron Radiation Facility

For those who do not know, the ESRF is an international research site. 18 countries support its budget but some of them are only observers and cannot vote and decide about its future (portugal is an observer).

The ESRF is a special kind of particle accelerator but with a different purpose of the well known CERN in Switzerland. The ESRF purpose is to produce high energy light in the X-ray bandwidth region. For this the ESRF is called a Synchrotron. My research work needed this high brilliant and strong light beams.






The research site where the ESRF is located is shared with the most powerful nuclear reactor for research, the ILL. (see picture on the left). Other research labs share also the same site like the EMBL, Grenoble outstation and the PSB, partnership for structural biology. Making this place an unique place to work. Many different cultures, languages and people working on the same place. This is not only exciting but rewarding in all levels not just professionally.










Oh almost forgot... I went to a old friend barber shop .. check bellow the result :)