Visit to Strasbourg France

Made my last visit to other universities here in Europe last week.  I stayed within France this time.  I went to Strasbourg by train, direct from Lyon.  I could have flown, but if you add the time to travel to and from the airports, as well as the extra time waiting for security and then hoping the plane will be on time, it is easier to travel by train.

The trains usually go right into the center of the city, making it much easier for people to meet you or for you to get to a hotel.  Strasbourg is a town that is right on the French-German border, due east of Paris.  Like many of the European cities, it is structured as a circle radiating out from the central church or cathedral. It is easy to get lost in the narrow, twisting and turning cobbled streets with five story buildings on each side before finding the view of the steeple to reorient yourself, only to get lost in a different direction.

The nice thing about downtown Strasbourg is that there is a river on one side and a set of trams that circle the other side, making it difficult to get lost by more than half a kilometer.  When I was mis-directioned, I would walk until I found myself at one of these landmarks.  From there I could just follow it until I got closer to my destination.

In one of my wanderings I found this swan sitting on her (his?) nest.  The other parent was just out of the picture.  There are lots of swans here in France.  There are often groups of 15 or 20 along the river where I run.  They tend to congregate at locations where they get fed regularly.  They are about twice the size of a Canadian goose, with a body about 3 feet long and their necks are just as long. They are very graceful, both flying and in the water, but don't let their gracefulness fool you.  They are mean.  They will peck you hard if you are not careful and they can break the skin.

 As I was walking home late one night, I passed the nest again and could make out something rummaging along the river near the swan nest.  You may be able to make out a large black river rat on the right of the image. After a couple of pecks, the rat moved on. 

I was once again visiting a campus on a holiday.  In Leuven Belgium it was the Easter Monday holiday and here in Strasbourg it is spring holiday week.  I really enjoy the campus in Boulder during the last half of May because all the students have gone away and the tourists have not yet started coming into town.  It was the same here in Strasbourg, as there are over 40,000 students and they were all away, making town and the trams easier to navigate.

The laboratory I was visiting was in the Molecular Biology Building, which was also my hotel for the visit.  Strasbourg is inundated by the politicians from the European Union for a week once every couple of months.  This makes it difficult to obtain a hotel room for visiting scientists, so they have converted a couple of rooms on the first floor into accommodations for visitors.  Because no other visitors were scheduled during my visit, I jumped at the opportunity to stay for free.  You can see my room in the photograph (red box), and because campus was empty, it was also very quiet.

This was a working trip and I was able to meet with ten different people over two days to talk about their research and possible ways I could help with their research.  This lab is one of the international laboratories recognized by the French government as  "excellent" and they are awarded extra funding for support.  This group has a wide range of research all focused around RNA. They are experimenting with several different model organisms (viruses and cells from bacteria, yeast, mice, human) and I talked with groups using NMR, micro fluidics, calorimeter, imaging, as well as sequencing.  They are all trying to answer very diverse questions, from RNA structure to RNA-Protein interactions to mRNA transcription levels.

The last night in Strasbourg I headed to Zuem Strissel, a restaurant suggested by my host for authentic local cuisine.  I ordered the Baeckoffe, a local dish of meats, potatoes, and carrots.  They bring it to the table in a nice crockery pot with a decorative lid and you serve yourself portions while the remaining stew stays hot in the pot. There is also another local dish that he suggested, which is like an endless pizza, with bacon, onion and covered in Gruyere cheese.  The people at the next table ordered it and after the second one came I asked them if it was Tarte flambes.  The woman and her grandmother were very friendly, and after talking with me for a little bit, they offered me a piece to try.  Good thing I did not order it, because it is very good and I would have eaten too much. Being on the border with Germany, they are a mixture of both German and French culture and cuisine. This place seemed to exude it. I had a very nice time and the waitstaff pictured above was also very nice, making my evening very enjoyable.