My annual trip to the IFP School in Paris is a highlight of every year, and this visit included lectures for both the ETEM (Energy Technology & Economic Management) and EMME (Executive Masters in Energy Management) programs. You can see from the attached ETEM photo that the students are both very enthusiastic and diverse! From left to right, Abdallah from the Comoros, Khalifa from Oman, Pierluigi from Italy, Odiobimma Iloba from Nigeria and finally Sheryl from Mozambique. A truly great & attentive class!

My sister Sue joined me for part of the time there, and came carrying a “to do” list of important Parisian sites to see: Sainte-Chapelle; the Pere Lachaise cemetery; and the Musée des Arts et Métiers. It had been quite a while since I had been to any of them, and I had recently been reading Benoit Mandelbrot’s memoir The Fractalist. His description of the latter museum:

“….here the nation preserves the originals of its greatest practical thinkers’ greatest achievements. The first visit…. left an imprint, and I make it a point to return there every so often in a kind of pilgrimage to my childhood.”

Not quite the same as the Beatles – but a worthwhile visit nonetheless!

Before Sue came, I squeezed in a couple of other site visits as well: the Picasso Museum and the Musée des Égouts de Paris (i.e., the Paris Sewer Museum). [The latter so Sue didn’t have to do it too! It had closed for a few years for renovations, and I wanted to check out the new exhibits.]

Thus, this Paris visit ranged from the sublime (Sainte-Chapelle) to the….. well, let’s not call it “ridiculous.” Perhaps just: “necessary”!