Bonjour, Paris!

 So a pigeon flew full speed into my face today and knocked my glasses crooked. That was weird.
 
 Anyway, welcome to Paris! We arrived yesterday after an easy flight, and then met up with my Uncle Kevin, Aunt Vero, and cousin Eliott to walk around the neighborhood and get some dinner. Eliott now makes Michael look short, so although I'm sure he's tired of hearing it, he's grown a bit since we last saw him. So it was very nice to catch up a bit, since it's clearly overdue.

 Today Michael started his visit at the high energy physics lab in Orsay, so he spent the day having some productive meetings and getting to know the LIGO group there. And also finishing his talk for tomorrow.

I also tried to have a somewhat productive day, but got kind distracted by Paris.  I started the day ostensibly looking for a good spot to get some writing done, since that is a perpetual to-do list task, but mostly ended up wandering around central Paris instead. Our hotel is in Montparnasse, just to the south of the city center, and so my wanderings took me through several noteworthy areas. I walked through the Luxembourg Palace gardens, which were lovely (although clearly had too many pigeons), and then had lunch and got a little bit of work done just outside the Pantheon. Then I went up to Notre Dame, and just sat inside for a while people watching and admiring the stained glass windows. Finally, I walked a ways along the Seine down on the quai. The weather in the afternoon turned lovely after a rainy morning, so the walk was quite nice. This week will be much more of work week/play things by ear than the last, and I'm rather enjoying the change of pace.

Le Jardin de Luxemburg.

Hello famous landmark.

Notre Dame is indeed pretty

Does this need a caption?

Stupid pigeon.