Life as a Physicist

A few weeks ago my Dad visited me here in Marseille and we took a trip along the coast to Nice. We went the slow road - a long the coast - right a long the coast. At one point we got caught in the traffic jam that is St. Tropez. St. Tropez is a playground - made famous by Brigitte Bardot.

The harbor was packed with boats that were… well excessive. Most of them were large motor boats, but there were plenty of sailboats.

However — it was cool to see that it was a sailboat that took the “excess” grand slam gold metal title. That is the picture you see here. The thing is completely computer controlled too. In fair weather I wonder if you could sail it with one person? We also joked that it probably made sail “snapping” and luffing sounds so the captain could hear what was going on — being so far away from the actual sail!

And how deep does the keel go!?!?

I’ve got a few other excessive pictures, including a panorama that shows exactly how out of hand it was in that small port.

Of the various sites in France, one I was hoping not to see was the French medical system. Sadly, over the last two weeks we’ve gotten to know it better than I would have liked.

First, we managed to give Julia something called nursemaid’s elbow. The solution is quick and instant and requires no drugs, but does need someone who knows what they are doing to snap everything back into shape. This required a trip to the local hospital. Quick and fairly efficient. Emergency room - we were in and out in about 2 hours and that included about 20 minutes face-to-face time with a doctor. The amazing thing about it: they never checked our ID’s. They took down all the information, but never verified that we were who we said we were! And we got the bill last week. Unlike the USA - they send only one bill. In the USA for an emergency room visit I remember getting three or more bills. Guess what the total was? About 34 euros! Even with the exchange rate as crappy as it is now I’m pretty sure it costs more than that to register at an emergency room in the USA!

The second one encounter has been worse. Paula’s mom managed to break her ankle while site seeing and then had an adverse reaction to one of the drugs she was given (”we see this twice a year!” - at least, we think that is the proper translation). Course of treatment? 8 days, in the hospital too. It gets worse - she is totally fine. You’d never guess she was sick. That is “worse” (well, not really) because she is totally bored out of her skull. The doctor has been so apologetic (”I know this isn’t why people come to France…”). We are all going over on Sunday to have a picnic at the hospital.

But check this out. Paula’s mom has Canadian insurance with a rider for foreign travel. When they were called and the problem was explained to them, they said - oh, give us the phone number of the hospital. We’ll take care of everything - even if you have to be flown back under medical care. Wow!

I’m not medical expert, obviously, but the care as been great as far as we can tell. But there is one difference. In the US - at least around Seattle - there is some stiff hospital competition. Perhaps one by-product of that is the millions of dollars that are spent on renovations. The interiors of the two hospitals I’ve been in in Seattle are like high end 4-star hotels. The hospitals here are like the insides of 1970 physics buildings: functional cinder block.

On the other hand, Paula’s mom, who likes good food, claims the food in the hospital is good!! So French!

I great way to get rid of marketing calls: “Sorry, I only barely speak French!” And then the next words out of their mouth are “Oh, I only speak French - can someone else contact you next time?”. The conversation is over in 30 seconds. I’m going to have to try it in French when I’m back in the USA!

These two got married last Saturday morning. This would never happen in the USA - and if it did - the guy would never be taken seriously again. Or at least, he would be subject to a continuous swift-boating operation by the opposition.

The woman is Carla Bruni. The guy is Nicolas Sarkozy. Sarko is the current president of France. Under normal circumstances that isn’t the same as being the president of the USA: the prime minister of France does most of the day-to-day heavy lifting in the government. However, Sarko is a “go-to” guy. He is one of those “there is a problem. I’ll solve it right now.”

Along those lines, he got divorced in October. I suppose he had a problem. On Saturday morning, he fixed it. BTW, Carla looks almost identical to his former wife, Cecila, just about 10 or 15 years younger.

Can you imagine if this happened in the USA? Is this guy fit to run our country if he can’t keep his marriage intact? He got married so quickly - was there something going on behind Cecila’s back? How awful! Must impeach him now (I’ve not seen any hints in papers that that is the case - but that may have to do with my poor french…).

That isn’t to say that many French wonder about the swiftness of the romance and you can imagine the difficulty in protocol when a state visit occurs and you bring your girl friend along.

I wonder if a single guy could ever make it to the presidency of the USA in modern times? How about a widower?

Niiice.

After spending a month in the States visiting family, working at Fermilab, attending conferences (well, my wife, at least), we will arrive back in France on the 24th.

What better way to re-integrate ourselves into France than to be at the wrong end of a strike! Yes, our timing is impeccable. The SNCF is on strike again in the continuing battle between Sarkosy, the French president, and workers over benefits, working hours, etc.

The last time I was returning from the Unexpected conference I also got caught. That wasn’t too bad — I did make it back in the end, just late. But I was on my own. This time it will be the two of us, a boat load of luggage and Julia. Wish us luck!

We have to replace our video camera. And, as Paula just pointed out, we need to do it before Christmas so we can video Christmas! So much for waiting to see how much insurance is going to give us!

This turns out to be a real problem. I like the Sony SR7. We will arrive from France in Ottawa on Dec 22nd, so we need to have it starting then. Here is a break down of the cost in all countries I’m going to be in or around over the holidays.

Cost in the USA: $1045 (pre-tax).

Cost in France: 1200 euros (with taxes) ==> $1760 US

Cost in Ottawa: $1400 Canadian (pre-tax) ==> $1381 US

Further — when I order from Amazon, I was charged no tax. That is a huge difference in cost - especially to Europe. I don’t get it either — the dollar is so weak. It has been declining for a while - why are items made outside the US still so cheap inside? Is the mark up that big? And in Europe the taxes are larger than the US, but not that much — especially when you take the conversion rate into account.

How do Europeans buy enough gadgets!? 

From the legal point of view, this camera spend the first week of its life in Canada, then move to the USA for 3 weeks, and then over to France for about 7 months, and will then remain in the USA for the rest of its life (assuming it isn’t stolen). So ordering it from the USA should be no problem — and it is, by far, the cheapest.

I arrived back in Paris yesterday from the USA. That part was easy (thank you, for once, United). Getting from Paris to Marseille came close to being a disaster because of the strike. The easy train to take was the 1:30pm from the airport - direct to Marseille. Unfortunately, they had no idea if it would run. However, they did know that the 1:40 one from downtown Paris was running. The only trick left then was to get to downtown Paris. I waited over an hour and a half for the Air France bus to arrive at the airport. I gave up when I found out that it was taking over 3 hours to drive to downtown! That is normally a 45 minute trip in heavy traffic.

Fortunately, by the time I figured that out, they knew that the direct train from the airport was going to run, so I switched. Waited outside in the cold and the drizzle for nothing. As I said, if that is the worst I am affected by this strike… that isn’t too much!

The train ride was the slowest I’d ever been on - it was like being back in the USA. There were periods where the TGV was running no faster than running speed. It normally runs at about 186 mph!

BTW, I sat opposite this Finish guy. He had more technology that I did. He seemed to spend the whole train ride trying to get all of his various devices to work with each other. Is there some anti-correlation between number of tools and amount of work you get done? On the same topic, check out this post - it made me laugh out loud (I’ve had the same problems in my house).