Quelque temps en France

For the second time in my life, I find myself working in an environment envisioned by a mid-20th century architect to be an ideal academic sanctuary. NCAR had towers with grandiose windows nestled in the peaks of the Front Range of Colorado, with little crevices for thought and corridors and grand halls for conversation, while CERFACS is an inverted world, with pockets of tropical forests on the inside - a concept which makes little sense at the end of summer, but I’m assured is quite pleasant in November. The last couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of an introduction to French working life. Our work colleagues at MeteoFrance and CERFACS have been welcoming and lovely, but we remain at a loss as to how to organize quite basic parts of our existence: how to pay our taxes or enroll ourselves in healthcare, for example - questions where even for French people it’s annoying and complicated, but for somebody arriving from outside the system with no history and only basic Fr...

One of the concerns we'd had before we came to France was that our mental perception of life here was mostly formed in the mid 90s when we were teenagers, and that the reality of modern French life might prove to be a disappointment in the rose tinted context of carefree youthful summer holidays. However, the last couple of weeks have served as reassurance that the seaside world of our youth remains mostly in tact. This weekend marks the end of les vacances, a month-long exodus for most people from professional work. Fully embracing the local culture, we've spent the last couple of weeks on a sequence of mini-vacations with various members of our family. Despite the fact that the whole country is on vacation, the culture revels in informing you that the holidays are almost over. On August 1st, the supermarkets stopped selling fans and summer clothing, despite the fact it was still hot enough outside to cook eggs on exposed metal surfaces. The newspapers are full of stori...