To Saclay
I am up early this morning ahead of a trip to Saclay, best known for CEA Saclay and the relatively new Paris-Saclay University, which involves an approximately 30-minute trip on an RER to Le Guichet, followed by road transport. It’s anomalous that Saclay itself is not served by either train or Metro, though I am told there are plans.
The only significant annoyance about yesterday’s journey was that the WIFI was hopeless, so I had to catch up with a lot of things last night and have more to do today. Still, my talk is this morning so I should have plenty time this afternoon and evening before heading back to Barcelona tomorrow.
Here are the slides I used for my talk, which was virtually identical to the one given at Montpellier last week.
Update: It has been a long day. I’m now back in the hotel in Port-Royal. The new Paris-Saclay campus is very impressive. The IPhT is a bit older and of a different style but is a nice working environment. Thanks to everyone there for their hospitality and especially for the splendid lunch after my talk!
In the Dark 
November 28, 2023 at 11:13 pm
[…] and Reviews with tags Le Guichet, Saclay. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own […]
November 29, 2023 at 9:15 am
When you are back in Dublin we can hopefully get you to come up to Belfast to give this talk. In fact I think you were due to give us a seminar some time ago but had to cancel.
November 29, 2023 at 10:14 am
Last time I tried to get to Belfast from Dublin the train conked out before reaching Drogheda!
November 29, 2023 at 9:16 am
And by Dublin I meant Maynooth…..
November 29, 2023 at 11:38 am
If you google “Port Royal Logic” you will find a document relevant to the early history of probability theory.
You can also see what Port Royal Metro station looked like in the mid-1950s in a scene from the excellent film noir Rififi. It is an American-style gangster film set in Paris, because the director was a victim of the McCarthyite Hollywood blacklist who went to live in France. Another scene clearly inspired the opening credits of the Bond films, and one more shows – in 25 wordless minutes – how to break into a jewellers and crack open the safe (although I think there’s an error of engineering in it – please tell me if you watch it).
November 29, 2023 at 12:06 pm
Port Royal is on the RER rather than the Metro, but it is in an interesting area, not far from Montparnasse, with many bars and cafés.
November 29, 2023 at 12:12 pm
I think that the relevant parts of the Metro had not been upgraded to RER when Rififi was made.
December 1, 2023 at 2:40 am
Stopping at Le Guichet was not optimal, the bus service from Massy-Palaiseau is more frequent if often overcrowded.
December 1, 2023 at 9:08 am
I just did what I was advised to do, and it worked out fine!
December 29, 2024 at 4:27 pm
[…] P.S. I had the opportunity to visit Saclay about 13 months ago. […]