Having blown a day yesterday in childish pursuits, I figured that today I should do something serious and went to visit the equivalent to the California Academy of Sciences, which is called La Cité des Sciences et de L’Industrie. This enormous complex includes all sorts of libraries and research facilities, but its main function is to function as a museum/Exploratorium to promote literacy in the natural sciences and engineering.
I started with a visit to the submarine Argonaute
(terribly cramped spy submarine of the Cold War era) and the instrumentation
that is currently being used for oceanographic research (for example, the Argos
autonomous probes that have been deployed all over the global ocean). Perfect
stuff for my Physical Oceanography course!
Then I went into the main hall, to see
some of the other thematic areas, but was sorry to find out that the giant
building was overheated and I had to carry my jacket in my arm and sweat for
the next few hours ☹. Still, they had a very nice series of exhibits about
exploration of the inner planets, and the crazy idea of establishing a base on
the Moon, and the eventual travel of humans to Mars and the Jovian satellites.
As much as I am very enthusiastic about exploration by rovers, I think the idea
of spending gazillion dollars and just as many euros to bring humans to the
Moon and Mars is senseless given the current social needs of our own world.
There were fascinating areas for
mathematics, classical physics, sound, quantum physics, on the crucial role the
oceans play in determining climate patterns – as I have contended for many
years), and … but by that time I was badly overheated and I am ashamed to
acknowledge that I fell asleep in the planetarium (but I argue half of it was
due to an inane presentation about constellations, which may be fascinating to
the hordes of school children that were to be seen everywhere but are
nonetheless scientific nonsense). Time to call it a day.
I took the metro back to La Défense (the
very impressive financial and corporate heart of Paris that is a veritable tour
de force of modern architectural design), where I joined Géraldine to
accompany her to a rehearsal of the choral concert she is a part of. There most
be a good 100 people in the choir, and they are having weekly rehearsals for
their January 2025 concert (I am surprised at the very long rehearsal period). I
was very impressed by the conductor, who could hear the slightest hesitations
and variations in emphasis, and who relentlessly guided the choir into the path
of perfection. After three hours of hard work, Géraldine and the other 99
singers were exhausted but very satisfied with the progress made.
This is the end of my days in Paris, for
tomorrow I head for my permanent residence in Bergerac. Géraldine is hoping to
visit me there for a few days in the third week of June (at the same time Faby,
DJ, and Ronnie will be there), so we were able to say au revoir with a
light heart. I love this girl!
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