86 - Such sweet sorrow

Monday, June 17

Coming into the home stretch now. At work I spent the day overlaying data from three different tests to compare; I think we'll ultimately go with something I'd recommended quite some time ago, but for now we're getting closer to proving why it needs to be done beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Lunch was at Carines where I gave them my last bag of American candy: peanut butter filled M&Ms. I'd been saving them for Geneva but now I need to make room in the suitcase.

Squid ink pasta for lunch today; I didn't taste the ink so much but the dish was good

After work, I high tailed it to the beach to get a swim in. It was low tide but a big wave formed due to a rock shelf so I didn't swim out nearly as far today. Still it was a good workout and a great use of a sunny evening, I might not get too many more here in Biarritz based on what the forecast is saying.

A quick snack before swimming: a pastry I'd picked up earlier called a Chemin de Fer (railroad) made with pistachio. Highly recommend for all occasions, not just before swimming.

Walking the quiet little street next to Verdun to the beach. I'll miss the convenience of walking to the beach and I wouldn't really have considered myself a beach guy before.

Super calm water tonight, even if the water is still on the fresh side of the temperature scale, it being calm makes the workout go much smoother.

Ah, there's sure to be lots of people cheering/jeering in bars tonight.

Dinner was at a place near the Halles that I'd passed by many times but never tried. Bar Jean apparently specializes in tapas and small dishes; overall, not too shabby.

I finished my meal before the game finished; doesn't seem like it's a blowout game.

I start packing the suitcase tonight, more organizing than actual packing for the moment since I still have 6 days to wear clothes and do laundry.

Tuesday, June 18

Today was the last day I'll see my desk mate, he's off to vacation tomorrow. It has been an honor and a pleasure working with him on this project, even if almost nothing has gone according to plan, I've enjoyed every minute (ok, maybe not EVERY minute, but you get the picture

It was a late evening at the office to attend a lunch meeting with the folks at the home office. The weather forecast of thunderstorms in the evening seemed very possible given the dark clouds, but I ended up eating at Kanbar with a nice quiet outdoor table 😋

They certainly serve a lot of beef, I left so full this time I wasn't sure how I'd make it home 😆

Taking the night time stroll back, it was surprisingly quiet in this square tonight

It occurs to me that I never once set foot in the casino in Biarritz; oh well.

Lights both inside and outside the casino

Wednesday, June 19

Things in the plant are humming along quietly (aside from the usual problem we've seen on the purification). It's good to know that at least the reactors are behaving in a regular fashion.

At lunch, someone asked me to confirm I'd be on site on Friday, there will be a BBQ to send me off. The site director had mentioned something to me a few weeks back but this is the first time someone's confirmed a date with me 😆 Good thing I'll be onsite for my BBQ.

After work, I was invited by a coworker to visit a small museum exhibition run by his In-laws about the gemmeur business. It was an amazing after work visit: I basically got a private tour and demonstration of this small museum in Lesperon of the sap business that dominated the region for over a hundred years. I'm super thankful to have such great colleagues willing to invite me into their homes or show me around.

Demonstration included 3 eras of gemmage: antiquity, 19th century, and 20th century. It was interesting that each generation saw the tool getting lighter and more precise, driving more efficiency per gemmeur. Each tree can yield about 2L of sap per season so each gemmeur was handling ~1,000 trees per week.

It's a small museum managed as a passion project by a bunch of retirees; so while it was technically closed for the day, knowing a guy who has familial connections to the place helps 😉

Gemmeurs worked seasonally; tree resin can only be harvested for part of the year but during that period it's hard work. If one got everything done, they could return home for the evening, but if you're running behind schedule and don't mind spending the night in the woods you could always set up a little shack to call home base. Pine resin is a natural product, so except in the case of activated gemmage, one could enjoy a sip of rain water from the pots of resin in the morning in lieu of coffee.

This is where we started the demonstration, with the technique of antiquity. In this scenario, an axe (sometimes its edge was curved) is used to sheer off the bark and a few centimeters of cambrium to begin the scarring process for the tree. A pot would be installed to collect the resin and once a week the process would be repeated a bit further up. The "ladder" here allowed the gemmeur to position themselves for the higher cut since the axe motion requires one to be to the side of the tree.

My coworker noted how close the axe came to my head as the demonstrator descended from the ladder 💀

A little cart to handle the various tools used by the gemmeur; they'd be walking quite a distance and repeating the process a lot every day so the effects of a good tool organizing cart could probably be measured on an industrial scale.

Here's the method that came with a formal effort of industrializing the process. Note that the bark has been shaved down a bit in the region. Now the axe has been modified to have a horizontal edge so that the gemmeur can face the tree to make the cut; this means they can avoid climbing ladders too. The crampons are made of zinc and divert the resin (it was so cool to see droplets forming literally seconds after the fresh wounding) to the pot, which rests atop a zinc nail.

This neat little contraption is for scooping the resin out of the resin pots. Surprisingly easy and effective but requires a bit of savoir-faire to apply the right pressure: too much and you'll crack the pot, too little and you'll leave some resin in the pot.

As you can see, you can repeat this process a lot over the years for the tree; but it's more realistic to simply start scoring a different section of the tree vs climbing 20 feet. It should be noted that harvesting resin has an effect on the growth of the tree and this can be observed in the cross-section once the tree is harvested. So for many years, a tree would likely only have one collection pot going at a time, but if its the last year before the tree is to be harvested for lumber, gemmeurs might tap the tree to just to the point of death.

Et voila, this is an example of activated gemmage. The tool has been modified to be precise like a scalpel so that only a very small amount of cambrium needs to be scraped away horizontally. Then, sulfuric acid is applied. While demonstrating this (no acid spraying was demonstrated), the guy pointed out how he was standing upwind of the tree: you only need to stand down wind during the acid application once to learn a valuable lesson 😲. This method doubles the amount of time a tree will continue to secrete resin, effectively doubling the amount of trees one gemmeur can handle (but making a huge difference in pH)

Du coup, his wife works for another branch of my company focusing on processing pine sap. And her parents both spent their entire careers working in pine sap chemistry. In fact, she told me that she grew up in the house just next to the plant and that (back in the day) she would ride her bicycle around the plant as a young girl 😂

Time flies when you're having fun: in the blink of an eye my time at the museum was done but it was already 8PM. I made it back to Biarritz in time for the sunset while searching for dinner.

I particularly like at low tide when I can see reflections of the sunset in the shallows/wet sand in this area.

When did all these flowers/hydrangeas pop up?

Someone's been busy. This wouldn't be the work of a puffer fish, would it?

No green flash tonight, but the colors were very intense.

I tried out a crepe place near the port for both expediency and to catch the last of the sunset. I'll say that the other crepe place in Biarritz was waaaaaay better but this sated my hunger and didn't break the bank.

I didn't realize there were lights along the cliff over here too; I hadn't payed attention to this part of the beach too much.

Thursday, June 20

I've been putting off the packing process but tonight it finally started, all previous attempts only resulted in clean laundry drying or emptying the suitcase even further 😅. I stuck around the plant late today for a meeting but made it back to a light evening drizzle in Biarritz.

At dinner, there was a table of 4 fresh out of school "yutes" and a retiree seated nearby, all Americans. I was also seated nearby my fellow statesmen so I was able to eavesdrop, but is it eavesdropping if they're talking right next to me? 😅 The retiree was one of those guys whose been everywhere and has a little background in everything, or at least has enough of a story to relate to anything mentioned. I was content to let the young be young and have their moment among newly discovered Biarritz friends, does that make me aloof or elitist? But I also got to avoid getting dragged into the retiree's political opinions so maybe it was more just self-preservation 🤷‍♂️

Dinner is served: a terrine for the entrée and duck breast for the plat. The terrine was interesting because they layered sardines into it so that when served the fish was transversally sliced.

Later, I noticed the other table across the way had a hat with a maple leaf and the other couples leaving after resolving the bill were also speaking English with the servers. Eventually, I realized it was that this restaurant made the Michelen and Petit Futé lists that attracted so many tourists here; don't get me wrong, the food was delicious and beautifully plated.

Friday, June 21

Here we are again with another last day in the office. It's almost surreal to think this is coming to end. Last time, I left with the team planning to have me back later in the spring; this time there's an air of permanency to the departure. People have hinted to maybe wanting me to come back in the fall but I won't hold my breath for that; I've already been so fortunate to have this opportunity so I won't expect anything more (but am willing to be pleasantly surprised).

I spent most of the workday compiling notes and recommendations for what to do in the coming weeks (and who to talk to) while I'm away on vacation/returning to the US. I'll continue to support this project and production line for the foreseeable future, but it'll be from a remote position; a good exercise in projecting influence 😆

At lunch, the site had a lunch to celebrate me and the newly hired (currently being trained) operators. Sadly, the site manager who's budget paid for the lunch wasn't able to join but he sent me a very nice email farewell. Lunch was from Le Ramuntcho in Dax and included tons of small bites, hefty platters of cheese and charcuterie, then steak/duck kebabs when everyone started to feel full, and finally dessert. It was very touching to have so many people come chat with me between bites and there was even a going-away gift for me. ☺️ It was truly an honor and a pleasure to have worked here, such warm coworkers really make all the difference.

The going away gift: espadrilles featuring a pattern for les JO! I should have suspected something when somebody asked me which sized safety shoe I had borrowed so they could order a replacement 😆

After lunch, I made a quick visit into Castets and popped my head into O Saveurs Chez Carine to wish Carine and Cécile good bye. They're also getting ready to take vacation, which was why it was important to head over earlier than later. They told me about how the peanut butter M&Ms I'd given them have already been consumed 😆

One for the road (that I commuted on)

After lots of good byes, I still had a full night ahead of me. I finally started to condense stuff in my suitcases before starting a load of laundry and heading out to dinner. Tonight is the solstice, the first day of summer, AND (here in France) the national Fête de la Musique! It seems a while ago, a French president (don't quote me on that) pushed for this day to become a national festival; initially it was just encouraging everybody to take to the streets and make music but it has evolved to the point that some towns also host performances. In the case of Biarritz, stages were set up near the Grand Plage, Place St Eugénie, and in the port. I ended up dining in the port and had lively salsa music washing over me as I dined.

One band, ready to rock at the casino

Another group ready to boogie in Place St Eugenie

And there's a lot of motion of the ocean going on in the port

I gave oysters another try after being surprised in Lyon at the difference of varieties. These ones tasted almost sweet but I had to really grind 'em up in my mouth to discover this.