Immediately after the Council trip (see posting below), I headed over to Paris to lecture in the Petroleum Economics & Management program at the IFP School, as well as their joint Executive Master’s program in Energy Management with Norway’s BI business school. Everyone is getting ready for the upcoming COP meeting in Paris at the end of this year – and interestingly, IFP students have already been modeling Chinese emissions trading approaches as part of their carbon studies under Sidney Lambert-Lalitte. (Prof. Liu Beibei — shown in a posting last November— has graciously been helping them gather regional power system data for that same effort).

Michelangelo’s ‘Dying Slave’

You might remember that I took a stroll along the Promenade Plantée a couple of years ago on one of my Paris visits, and passed by a building which had a rather remarkable architectural tribute to Michelangelo’s ‘Dying Slave’ (see the July 2013 posting). I decided that this year’s trip offered a great opportunity to go and see the real thing — especially since I hadn’t been to the Louvre in a number of years. Needless to say, the original ‘Dying Slave’ was quite an awe-inspiring piece of art, fully deserving of such tribute. Wandering around in the museum for a couple of hours, I also had a chance to check out other Italian art (such as that of Giotto — see last October’s posting — displayed nearby). But one important change had occurred at the museum since my last visit: yes, it seemed that I was now very alone in NOT doing a ‘selfie’ with the Mona Lisa & Venus de Milo.

And this year’s Parisian stroll — along the Rue de Rivoli – resulted in a very different kind of architectural tribute…. as I happened to stumble upon a fashion shoot. Every time the traffic light turned red, the leggy model strutted across the street — indicating that Paris indeed has many forms of beauty…. and many, many things in this city are truly sublime!

Paris fashion shoot on Rue de Rivoli