A beautiful side of France...

The Northeastern cost of Brittany is simply beautiful. We actually began our grand tour in Normandy, stopping at the famous Mt. Saint-Michel which evokes dungeons, dragons and the whole Middle-Ages folklore and made a forceful impression on us.

Then from the little port of Cancale to Saint Malo, we were delighted by all the great sights that were offered to us and that we could absorb in just a few miles. We were discovering a totally new side of France that we had never seen before...

Jobs is gone

This morning we woke up hearing the sad news that Steve Jobs had passed away. Even though I only own an Apple iTunes, I thought of him of a product genius and a living example of someone who was able to get destroyed and bounced back. I know that he wasn't an easy man to work with, but he was who he was, someone in many ways exceptional. A modern Leonardo. He'll be terribly missed!
Oct 6

The rest of France...

It's true that for the most part, our great birth country evokes picturesque places from the Alps, to the Riviera, the Basque Country, Corsica and in a few days, Brittany. Then, there is what's left in the middle of that huge national “sandwich” that France is, which is simply the rest of that country, perhaps 80% of it.

Tonight, we've stopped in Elbeuf to eat and sleep and it's really that... It has nothing in particular to offer, its village all look the same as the rest, with narrow streets and old houses, ugly suburbsgrotesque commercial concentrations and the only value that unite these ordinary places to the that great Nation of France is perhaps and not always, a good baguette!

A long awaited visit

An important piece of our European trip was to pay a visit to a great friend of ours who lives in Switzerland with his wife. François Feuz and his wife Marie-Jo were as excited as we were to finally get together and share most of the day around the wonderful lake of Neuchâtel.

It was great for both of us to see each other again, after at least a good decade, for my wife to meet him in person and for me and my wife to meet Marie-Jo. One of the high points our our trip!

Packing too much into a short time

Trips to Europe are hard; not only there are the long hours stuck inside the plane, the jet-lag and, frequently, a drastically different weather, but there's mostly the limited amount of time to do everything and see everyone.

The later goal is hard to meet well and achieve, to the satisfaction of everyone. You can only see so many people, sit with them and give the process enough time to end up with a quality encounter. This means that you can't see everyone and that many of the folks you don't or can't see may be mad at you.

Sad, but true; it illustrates once more that we can be everything to everyone and we can't be available to all when it's just convenient for them!

At last, an official reunion!

I've been waiting for sometimes to that day when a bunch of my former classmates would get together and I'd be able to retrace some of my long-forgotten steps inside “L'école d'horlogerie de Cluses” my French Alma-mater.

That day has come and gone now and while I'm happy to have fulfilled that fantasy of mine, I'm not sure if I will return to the 50th reunion. For one thing, I'll be five year older and I may have other issues or desires on my mind. I certainly enjoyed seeing some good buddies like Gérard Bétend, but my tomorrow is likely to be made of new and undiscovered adventures!

Forty-five years later

Our all-boys, high school reunion which was held in Cluses, France, this first weekend of October reflects a common odyssey that started there fifty years and for which we were celebrating today the 45th anniversary of the graduation that followed. We all had the chance to live in the midst of a technological, cultural and social revolution and all our time was marked by an easy economic life filled with a vast array of opportunities.

Today, our group consists of about thirty former students who came from all parts of France and even Germany, Tunisia and the United States of course! We all took pleasure in visiting our alma-mater, while our wives had to patiently go through the the endless visit of a variety of workshops and other facilities. Today, the drawing boards have disappeared and given way to the computer with all its might. There is just machining operations that aren't quite virtual yet, although robots will soon be doing everything. 

The rest of the day was spent eating non-stop from the little town of Thiez through the medieval village of Yvoire, on Geneva Lake, and we all had plenty of opportunities to share our memories and bring a lot details back that many of us had long ago forgotten. A smaller contingent left the next day for a lake cruise to Lausanne. A tight travel schedule did not allow me to participate, but I'll make a video to capture this wonderful gathering!