Indiana+Tex Mex+Paris=???

Thanks but no thanks

Here's a post of special interest to the Rankin branch of the family...

In case you can't read the writing on the mirrors, that is a picture of the 'Indiana Tex-Mex Cafe'. It is located at the Bastille Metro stop in Paris. You probably should not expect a review of the restaurant to be forthcoming in this blog.

Moving the Feast #1

The three ladies enjoyed dinner

What you've all been waiting for- ecstatic descriptions of French culinary delights, scenes you can sigh over and think of jealously.

Juan Pablo and some Norwegian dude rock in sweet Euro-sweaters

We went out to dinner last night in the 3rd, a total of 9 people. It was a restaurant Margaret found online through a French website (a mix between Yelp and OpenTable). We tried to go last weekend, but couldn't get reservations the day of. This week, she booked them early and even called back (in French!) to change the number of people.

The restaurant was called Au Fil des Saisons (The son of the seasons, or just The seasons), and was supposed to specialize in seasonal freshly prepared food (seasonal in January meaning meats and root vegetables, we found out). We wound our ways down the alley-like Paris streets to find a cozy room about the size of our living room, with something like 28 or 30 seats total. One waiter/host/front of the house guy/owner. A menu written on chalkboards with 5 or 6 entrees (i.e., appetizers), 6 or 7 plats (main courses), and 5 or 6 desserts. Price just depends on how many courses you order.

We ordered a bottle of the house red wine of the month for starters- a 2004 from the south of France, and...

Adrian gives his approval to the wine

...walked out 4 hours later, unbelievably satisfied. Livers were eaten, foie gras was inhaled, little mini egg and fish souffles were savored, diabetes-inducing pastries were devoured... the food was fantastic. The house wine was delicious, and more bottles were ordered... until, at the end of the night he gave us a bottle as a night cap. Each table in the place had only one seating. No one hurried us, no one tried to sell us something more expensive... we ain't in America anymore. In fact, the owner was awesome, happily joking around with our whole table, speaking in French but willing to translate in to English, working at our pace... he may not have been the stereotypical grumpy Parisian waiter/host, but he made me want to go back to his restaurant again and again.

Margaret, Britton, and Britton's French friend Marie

I don't think I've ever spent 4 hours at dinner before, but the time flew by. We couldn't believe it was midnight when we left.

We had made plans for later, but didn't really have the time to do them. Instead, we explored a new area of the city and found that Parisians apparently love waiting in huge lines to get in to clubs modeled as sports bars. We also learned to never, ever push the bright yellow button next to the door on the night bus that looks very much like the button to open the door. In fact, it is the button to open the door, but the bus drivers really hoard their door-opening power and do not appreciate it being usurped. Ah well...

High speed trains in Colorado?

Half of my geopolitics course here is devoted to student group presentations on various energy related topics. It is fascinating, because we have 15 or 20 different nationalities in our class of 34 people. People end up presenting on countries other than their own, often countries of other people in the class.

For example, we had two non-Americans present on American energy policy last week. They did a great job with the presentation and hit a lot of the nuances involved with developing renewables and reducing energy use in America.

One of their assertions, however, was that the U.S. needed to invest significantly in public transportation and especially rail connections. They viewed it as simply a failing of public will that we have very few public transportation options and even fewer high speed rail connections.

It's not. It's geography and population.

I don't think many Europeans truly understand how big and spread out the U.S. is. Because of proximity, business, and the number of tourist locations, I would guess that most Europeans visit the East Coast of America if they have been to the States. Not too many have been to Colorado, for example.

But let's look at the option of high speed rail in Colorado. The Front Range of Colorado is often mentioned as a good candidate for American investment in high speed rail, because it's a relatively big population living in relative proximity and is a natural travel region. In fact, there are already proposals on the table to build passenger rail connections, to the tune of $20 billion or so.


View Larger Map

Compare that with the trip from Paris to Lyon, connecting the two biggest cities in France. Even though it is 9 PM here, I can currently find 27 high speed trains from Paris to Lyon, leaving tomorrow.

The distance from Paris to Lyon is 466 km. The distance from Cheyenne to Pueblo (if we define the Front Range that way) is 346 km. Shorter, but having driven past both Cheyenne and Pueblo, I can guarantee that you can include 100 km past either one and have approximately 0 impact on the total population in the region.

So what would be the potential customer base for these two routes?

Paris-Lyon: 13.71 million people. This includes Ile-de-France (the greater Paris region), Lyon, and Dijon. There are many more small towns along the way that are not included.

Front Range: 3.67 million. This includes Cheyenne, Ft. Collins, Greeley, Loveland, Longmont, Boulder, Golden, the Denver metro area, Castle Rock, Colorado Springs, and Pueblo. I'm not sure there are any more significant towns within 100 miles.

So the Colorado train would have about 27% of the customers that the French train has, not to mention that 87% of them would live between C-Springs and Boulder, meaning most trips wouldn't go to the ends of the line.

This wouldn't just be a matter of running a few less trains per day. Rail travel, especially high speed, is extremely high fixed cost. The current proposal for high speed rail in Colorado estimates a cost of $20 billion dollars (although it would be a wider system). Public transit has to run on a fairly regular schedule to be a viable option, and doing so in the Front Range would leave most of them nearly empty. Running empty trains is not the most economically efficient use of $20 billion, and more than likely, it would consume more CO2 per person than cars.

I can see why the rest of the world thinks we need to reduce energy usage- we currently consume over 20% of the world total. We could follow Europe and use much smaller cars. Increase the gasoline tax substantially (I would be in favor of this, for a variety of reasons). Stop living in enormous air-conditioned houses. Spend $20 billion on housing energy efficiency improvements. Expand metro-area public transit.

Just not trains. Regional transport in the U.S. is not the same as regional transport in Europe.

Romanesco

I have recently discovered this delightful vegetable, called romanesco broccoli.  It tastes like a mix between cauliflower and broccoli.  And although it looks like it came from another planet, is really quite delicious cut into big pieces, steamed and drizzled with a little oil.  Maybe it has been in US grocery stores all along and I never noticed, but it has been much easier to find here than regular broccoli.  Anyways, for all you vegetable lovers, try it and enjoy! 

Luxembourg Garden vs. Wash Park

 We went to the Jardin du Luxembourg two weekends ago, which was a welcome place of serenity in the middle of Paris. It was everything you could hope for on an unexpectedly warm winter day!...children racing boats in the pond, friends lounging and chatting while having a smoke, pony rides, all sorts of couples strolling about. We couldn't help but notice the differences from Denver's own Washington Park...While there were crowds of people out, it had quite a different feel. There were maybe five runners, signs everywhere prohibited anybody from touching the grass, there were no raucus drinking games and bbq's going on (or volleyball tournaments for that matter), hardly any dogs or frisbees to be seen. Maybe it was some insight into the difference between Parisian and Denverite leisure preferences? I think both are marvelous. 

The Luxembourg Palace

Looking towards the Pantheon

13 Articles of rules!

Beer

I miss Colorado beer. France has their wine, sure, but it's not the same.

I miss the smell of a good hoppy IPA, the clean fermentation of American yeast, the feel of a brewpub, and the heaviness of a stout. I miss Dale's, Kind, Odell's IPA, Ten Fidy, the InaugurAle for our former-brewer new governor, Hibernation, Stout Month, brew nights in the kitchen, and on and on.

Since I can't have those, here's a great article (thanks to Pete!) that got me all misty-eyed.

The Euro, Economics, and Chemistry

We get the International Herald Tribune (international version of the NYTimes) for free at the IFP. This past week, they published in full this article by Paul Krugman about the Euro and the effects of unified currency on the countries facing financial troubles in Europe.

As an unemployed visitor to Europe, I'm pretty free to appreciate the benefits of the Euro without worrying about how it affects the unemployment rate (although I do highly recommend reading it... maybe next blog post can be my responses to his arguments). So the main takeaway for me was a good illustration of the differences in studying economics and studying chemistry/engineering.

Telling someone that I majored in biochemistry generally elicits reactions proving that most people find chemistry and engineering hard to learn. I agree for the most part. The effects of one molecule on another are intricate and very situational, and thus there are countless theories to learn, all expressed in what is essentially a foreign language. Economics, on the other hand, is pretty easy to study. There are a few new terms, but it's all in simple English, and the theories are fairly straightforward. The math isn't even all that bad, in the end.

Once I started a job in chemical engineering research, however, it felt remarkably cut-and-dried. Experiments may not have ended just as planned (especially since I was working in research), but those with experience in the field could generally agree on why or why not. Furthermore, once learned, the language was applicable with high degree of clarity. Economics seems to be the opposite. The language may be easy to learn, but real world events never seem to follow theory and the reasons why are always open to interpretation.

Why? Chemical engineering theory relies on molecules behaving the same way again and again (i.e., the laws of physics), while economic theory supposes people follow the same pattern day in and day out (i.e., rationality).

While human rationality is far more brittle than the laws of physics, the study of economics still creates value (to use an economics term). Just as with the studies of philosophy, religion, politics, and all the other social sciences, it gives us a framework on which to build our society. Furthermore, I believe theoretical economics can have direct real-world applications, provided we are clear about its limitations. Or maybe that's just the bias instilled in a liberal arts school graduate!

Denver the Last Dinosaur

When we were out tonight, one of our French friends told us that 'everyone in our generation in France has heard of Denver!'

Not because of the awesomeness of the city, but because of the even-more-awesomeness of this incredible French cartoon. Apparently this was a HUGE hit in the morning cartoons in France when we were growing up. You will thank me profusely for introducing you to the theme song.

La Tour Eiffel

Presenting...

Yup, it exists.

One of the most common pieces of trivia I heard and read about Paris when we were getting ready for the move was that the Eiffel Tower was strongly disliked after its construction. According to Wikipedia, people thought it was an eyesore. It was supposed to come down after 20 years, but the city of Paris kept it because it was useful for radio antennas and such.

I certainly have no reason to doubt the veracity of this history. But the interesting thing is that you often (especially in snarky guidebooks) see this anecdote used as a way to illustrate the cultural overzealousness of the French. As the thinking goes, the French are so snobby that they wanted to demolish perhaps the most iconic structure in the world because it didn't match the drapes. If they wanted to do that, no wonder they... (insert your gripe about the French here).

It's out to destroy Paris!

Well, here's the thing... I can kind of sympathize with the turn of the century Parisians. Margaret and I did an epic walking tour of Paris on Sunday (I think we visited approximately 36 arrondissements) that included many, many beautiful buildings. So far, that's been the most impressive thing about Paris to me- there are so many old, impressive buildings that you get the feeling the Parisians don't even know what some of them are for. Anyway, during this tour, we saw the Eiffel Tower from many different angles, including from the base. And it is disconcerting at times to turn a corner and see a glorified, brown radio tower looming over the endless avenues of perfect buildings. Not all of the other buildings are the same style, but none of them seem as different as the Eiffel Tower. Nor as big- it's hard to overstate how much taller it looks than anything else (other than la Tour Montparnasse).

Not that I'm advocating bringing it down. Despite the jarring effect, it is pretty cool to see it from all over town. There would be random moments when we would turn a corner and glimpse the top, and it always brought a little bit of a thrill.

Rueil Malmaison

Here are some pictures of our sweet little town, Rueil Malmaison....

Our apartment building

One of the town squares

Our apartment...we have two extra beds for visitors!!



The view from our window

The Eco-friendly French

Ever since arriving, we have been quite impressed by the attitude of conservation here. Coming from Colorado where we all pat ourselves on the back for being eco-friendly, let me tell you that the French are at a whole new level. Take, for instance, the size of our trash cans. They are all this size...trash is apparently very much discouraged. Then at grocery store if you don't have enough of your own bags, you pay an extra 5 cents for every plastic bag used. No "bag credits" here. All the hall lights in buildings and public spaces stay off, too (with switches to turn them on for 30 seconds at a time) so we end up walking in the dark quite often. It seems that just about all the items we buy are made in France; they've got the local thing down. And if that all wasn't enough, there are two flushing options on all the toilets. It's very impressive that this is just the way things are, even if it does take some adjusting.

Our first sighting of the Eiffel Tower

We went in to Paris for the first time today and wandered around the 1st and saw the sights. At one point we rounded a corner and had a view of a tall triangular tower in the distance, all lit up with a searchlight on top. Margaret immediately exclaimed, "There's a lighthouse!"


Not that I can really criticize. We went to a Belgian beer bar and I ordered what I thought was some very authentic beer, only to get essentially a cherry Smirnoff Ice, with Belgian writing on it.

Welcome to France

We're here! An update on the journey, as well as things I've learned in France already:

The trip- It went very smoothly overall. We had visited Margaret's brother and his girlfriend in NYC for New Year's. We had a good time, but in all honesty, the highlight of the trip was getting to JFK from their apartment with all (240 lbs) of luggage. Would have been quite hard, except we had the use of an unreturned moving dolly, from an unnamed source. Much easier. Thank you, U-Haul.

The flights were smooth (except British Airways apparently keep their thermostats at 85 degrees). We figured out the RER (commuter train) to get to Rueil-Malmaison. And then the Torture March started. We thought it would be easiest to just walk the 2.4 km from the train station to our hotel. Oh man. We had two enormous suitcases, each weighing about 70 lbs. One of them didn't roll so well, so I tried stacking it on top of the other and then rolling both of them in front of me. Then I had a 30 lb backpack, Margaret had a 50 lb backpack, and we both had shoulder bags of about 15 lbs each. The handle for the one rolling suitcase broke about halfway through. We ended up getting almost to the hotel, completely pouring in sweat, before a kind old Frenchman explained to us that there is a bus that runs from the train station right to the square the hotel is on. C'est la vie. 24 hours of being awake (seeing as I was sweating too much on the planes to sleep) combined with that trip made for pure exhaustion. We slept for 16 hours last night

Things I've learned in France:
1. Grocery stores are the same world round (or at least in France). We walked in to lovely Franprix this morning to the silky smooth sounds of 'Bed of Roses' by Bon Jovi. 'MERICA. So we grabbed our Cornflakes and TP and rolled out. The food isn't different.
2. Just kidding, the food can be delicious (although we did buy Cornflakes). Since we've been here, we've purchased 4 pain au chocolates, 2 baguettes, and 2 croissants from the bakeries on the street. All of which have been GREAT. Mmmmm bread.
3. Wine is also cheap. I can't testify as to whether or not it is also good, but we picked up a bottle at Franprix for 2.50 Euros. It's not great, but on the other hand, for Franzia prices, it ain't terrible.
4. Rueil seems like a fairly pleasant town, kind of like an upper-middle class suburb mixed with Old World charm. Lots of bakeries and such within walking distance. Lots of shoe stores and eye-wear shops (thus our guess that it is upper middle class).

Beyond that, the people were mostly very friendly in helping us get in to our dorm/apartment. It's a dorm, but it's bigger than we expected and fairly new/clean. Maybe we can give you a tour of it later. Tonight I sleep on a beeeedddd of nails / I want to be just as close as / the Holy Ghost is / and lay you dowwwwnnnn... on a bed of roses.
Au revoir, Jon Bon Jovi.