Unite d’Habitation

By | | ,
2 Comments

On the 14th of July of this year, Bastille Day – the important French holiday – we inhabitants of the mathematics “monastery” at which I was staying in Luminy in the South of France (see a CV post about this here) were forced to wander out into the outside world. There was no food and no lectures, you see. So off to Marseille! The plan was to go up to have a look around the city and stay for the fireworks in the evening if we were not too exhausted. I was accompanied by Ilarion Melnikov (a postdoc at Chicago) and Claudine Chen (a postdoc at Penn State) initially, and the plan was to wander up to the city, and meet up with David Kutasov (professor at Chicago) to wander around the port.

I found Marseille a big surprise in one major respect, which in retrospect I should have anticipated. (1) It is huge. Larger than Paris geographically, and among France’s cities it is second only to Paris in population. I did not get that impression from walking around it. (2) Given fact (1), there are no great museums or galleries that you might expect for a city this size!

It’s quite remarkable in a way. I imagine it is because France’s organization may be even more highly centralized than I’d realised. Perhaps even more so than England was not so long ago, back in the day when if you wanted to see that type of thing you had to go up to the “big city”, London. Perhaps that’s the same here and now, given the Marseille observation (confirmed by locals, I hasten to add), but I should not generalize.

le corbusier buildingThe absence of big museums showing art from around the world, etc, is not a shortcoming in an of itself. That is not what I am saying. It was just interesting, as one has got more used to a much more decentralized model of how things are distributed in a country. What is just great about Marseille and the region is simply that it does not matter. The attitude seems to be: Just come, wander around the port, look at the work of the local artists here and there, swim in the nearby excellent beaches, and go find a good restaurant and sample the Bouillabaisse with a good beer or glass of wine. What more do you need from life? Well, when the temperature is high and the sky is blue, it is hard to disagree. Just do as the local do.

But there are, as with any city, hidden treasures. Click to continue reading this post →

Welcome

By | |
26 Comments

Welcome, readers old and new, to Asymptotia. I hope that the things that you find here will be interesting (and perhaps even enjoyable), and at least a welcome distraction from your main activity. Perhaps you’ll find several reasons to return regularly for more. If you consistently don’t like what you find, that’s ok, I won’t be offended. Just move along to elsewhere and don’t get in the way of those who would like to stay.

One way to help enhance everyone’s experience here is to join in with the chatter and discussions in the comment threads following the main posts. Just say “hi” and let everyone reading know you found the article provoking in some way. Share your own experiences, point out other sources of relevant information, contrasting views, etc. Engage in conversations with me and -most definitely and probably more interestingly- with other commenters. Imagine that we’re all in a lounge somewhere sitting together chatting, perhaps in the warm sun or by a fire, each drinking our favourite drink, each perhaps nibbling on something sweet or savoury that takes their fancy. Let’s try to engage with each other in the spirit of the environment just described. (If you’re not sure what I’m getting at, see the comments policy at this link.)

So…. Enjoy.

-cvj