À l’Observatoire de Paris

This Monday, I made a most pleasant trip to the Observatoire de Paris, which campus is located in Meudon and no longer in Paris. (There also is an Observatoire de Paris campus in downtown Paris, created in 1667, where no observation can take place.) Most pleasant for many reasons. First, I was to meet with Frédéric Arenou and two visiting astrostatisticians from Kolkata, India, whom I met in Bangalore two years ago. Working on a neat if no simple issue of inverted mean estimation. Second, because the place is beautiful, with great views of Paris (since the Observatoire is on a ridge), and with a classical-looking building actually made of recycled castle parts after the Franco-Prussian war of 1870, and because Frédéric gave us a grand tour of place. And third, because I went there by bike through the Forêt de Meudon which I did not suspect was that close to home and which I crossed on downhill muddy trails that made me feel far away from Paris! And giving me the opportunity to test the mettle of a new mountain bike elsewhere than again Parisian SUVs. (This was the first day of a relatively intense biking week, which really helped with the half-marathon training: San Francisco ½ is in less than a month!!! And I am in wave 2!)