A couple of years ago, I did a posting entitled ‘German visitors’ which noted that both Dr. Janosch Ondraczek & Dr. Jana Stoever, husband/wife environmental economists from Hamburg, came to visit us at HNC…. & I used the opportunity to have both of them give lectures for our ERE students. I had worked with Janosch at the United Nations in New York, & we’ve kept in touch over the years – even as they’ve now moved to Luxembourg, where Janosch works for the European Investment Bank.

Chateau de Massignan

Carcassonne

The previous posting noted that the real star of the HNC visit, however, was their young daughter Anni, who charmed both students and faculty…. & who by the end of the visit spoke better Mandarin than me. Anni has continued her language efforts, & now has quite an impressive command of English. She also has a new younger sister, Suna…. only seven-months old & a similar charmer!

The whole family was very kind to invite me to visit them during their recent vacation near Narbonne, in the South of France…. & of course it’s really difficult to even think about turning down such an invitation! They were staying at a former wine chateau called the Château de Massignan… & so in additional to enjoying local vineyard specialties, we also hiked around Carcassonne (a nearby medieval fortress town) and Narbonne itself, a beautiful ancient town on the Roman road connecting Italy & Spain. It was a wonderful, relaxing respite from some hectic times…. & I really can’t begin to tell them how much I appreciated it!