We had decided to leave the trip to CERN until the Tuesday, as most people would not have been working over the Easter weekend, and really the place is about the buz of the scientific minds!
Andrew flashed his pass and we were able to park in the main car park, not the visitors car park.
We started with an area where old equipment from experiments were laid out, they looked sculptural but all were genuine items.
my favourite was a particle accelerator…
a bubble chamber…
this last one was a sculpture put together from left over equipment, but to be honest you couldn’t have picked from a line up that this one was done by an artist!
We went inside, Andrew again used his pass so we could walk through the main building – getting access to restricted areas (oh yes, I was loving it!)
across the building was an exhibit about the different experiments happening at CERN.
We then headed off to the canteen, we passed the main lecture room where exciting developments are communicated, it was very exciting and I couldn’t help cajoling my embarrassed brother to have his picture taken.
The canteen was not open to normal visitors, it had a great buzz, being in amongst all these scientists working and talking together.
the food was also very good, Squige particularly enjoyed the chocolate cake!
Andrew took us to see his office, there was a recent Horizon programme about a couple of the experiments at CERN including the LHCb experiment, and they did quite a bit of filming in the corridor where Andrew’s office is.
The office…
Squidge hacking into the mainframe…
Across at the globe was another exhibit. Outside was a large magnet from inside the tunnel.
Inside the globe it had interactive displays about CERN and also these little chair pods that you could sit inside and hear people explaining some of the big concepts. The girls loved these.
Unfortunately there was a very bored security guard who told me off 4 times for:
- Fidget banging on an exhibit (fair enough – I was also telling her to stop)
- Squidge having her shoes on the chair pod
- Me, Squidge and Fidget all being in one pod together
- Squidge having her shoes on the chair pod again
The Atlas experiment building…
In the evening, Andrew and Becky looked after the girls while we walked down the road to a fondue restaurant. We went in, the lady came up and asked if we wanted fondue – which we responded with a “oui”. We sat down and the lady came over and bombarded us with French, from which I picked out “viande”, M and I were a bit panicked, there was no menu from which we could calmly work out what was going on and use my GCSE French, just this friendly French lady asking us lots of questions. Ok, M and I are fairly unfussy so I responded with a “oui” to the “viande”. She brought out a plate of lovely dried meat, some pickles and bread. She then asked us about wine “vin?” “er oui” “vin blanc?” “er oui”. Then she reeled off a load of names of white wine I had never heard of “er recomendation sil vous plait?”. No idea what we ended up with but it went fine with the lovely cheesy fondue that arrived shortly after.
It was a really nice, if slightly bewildering evening.
Thanks Andrew and Becky!
Wednesday 11th April
In the morning we packed up the car and said goodbye to Andrew and Becky.
We set off and drove over the mountains. There was freshly fallen snow on the trees, it was very pretty.
We arrived in Reims in the afternoon, had a little wander out and visited the Cafe du Palais, which was recommended in the guide book. The interior was very kitsch with lots of random paintings, sculptures and things like shoes stuck on the ceiling.
We ordered sandwiches for the girls and a plate of pate and champagne for us (well we had arrived in the champagne region!). We then had some super deserts. They were very friendly and kindly complementary of my stilted French. At the end of the meal they brought out a plate with brightly wrapped lollipops and sugar covered heart sweets, the girls thought this was brill!
We were all staying in a hotel, just down from the Cathedral, the girls were sharing a double bed, which was not a good idea. “she’s looking at me!!” “she’s taking all the space!” “she’s kicking me!” etc etc etc.
Thursday 12th April
We had a super breakfast at the hotel. Various cheeses, butter and jams, along with a big basket of bread and croissants. Then a big jug of orange juice and then a hot drink each, I had hot chocolate, M had coffee, Fidget had warm milk and Squidge cold milk – all out of a big grown up cup.
From the front door of the hotel you could see the Cathedral at the end of the road. We took the short walk to have a look.
The girls lit a candle each…
Then behaved like little angels (mmmmnn?).
The cathedral had some lovely stained glass.
Including a window made by Chagal. Fidget particularly liked this window.
What mainly interested Fidget however was the search for fossils. At first I was sceptical of her efforts but after a short while we found that the stone used to build the columns did indeed have lots of shell fossils in.
More groovy windows…
We then took a walk to the Tattinger Champagne caves, and went down to see where they used to store all the Champagne. It is now only used for their finest stuff, bottles all turned by hand and so on.
The caves had originally been excavated out of the chalk by the Romans, so there were some interesting features not related to the champagne.
At the end, M and I enjoyed a sample of the bubbly.
Sorry Fidget!
We wandered past a play area, which the girls enjoyed, but then it started to rain, so we ran onto a nearby cafe.
We then went to the fine art museum, which the girls did enjoy, but I got told off quite sternly for Fidget touching and leaning on one of the sculptures – ooops – sorry!
We started looking for somewhere to give the girls their tea about 5pm. No-where was open selling food. We wandered round and round. Eventually heading back to the trusty Cafe du Palais. Where the girls had ham and potatoes, and we had more pate and champers. We all finished off with some more fine deserts and the plate of sweets was dully brought out to much smiles and well executed “merci!!”s from the girls.
Friday 13th April
Another good French breakfast before starting our drive home.
We got to the chunnel by 12noon and as we had a flexi ticket, took a quick pitstop at the flexi lounge to pick up our free goodie bags (sandwiches, crisps, drinks, chocolate, cakes) and hot chocolate, biscuits and coffee. We then drove straight onto the chunnel and was back in blighty by 1pm.
It was a really great trip, the travelling worked out a lot better than I had feared it might. Staying with Andrew was great, and we all had a super time and saw some great things.
Thanks Andrew and Becky for a lovely holiday!
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