Approaching Perpignan...

This is taken from the train (dirty windows and all). I made the train at Gare de Lyon with 5 minutes to spare this morning. I don't know what I was thinking leaving for it so late. Anyway, that gave me a good rush of adrenaline at 7am and let me work very productively on the whole 5 hour train ride with no doozing off. The last stretch of the trip, between Narbonne and Perpignan, is the best. Unfortunately, I wasn't fast enough with my camera to take a picture of the pink flamingos I spotted in the marshes.

A dear colleague in Perpignan met my train and took me for a nice couscous lunch. I gave a talk to the research group at the University here this afternoon and I was pleased with how it went. They are a very nice group and the similarities with my own department always surprise me.