Report on Mini-Reunion in France, October 2002
Mal Green writes that the October mini-reunion in France was filled with a wide variety of experiences. Mal, John Kern, Don Bishop and their wives began with a pre-tour extension to Normandy, Calais, and Caen. The visit to the Normandy landing beaches was especially moving and was enhanced by John Kern’s remembrances. John landed at those beaches about three months after D-Day and retained vivid memories. While in Calais MIT had arranged a special visit to the "Chunnel" where we were graciously received and escorted on a tour of the operations center and driven down into them service tunnel between the two railroad tubes.
After the pre-tour we bussed to Paris where we were joined by Dick Poirier, Don Harnsberger, Karl Ahlstrand, Oz Honkalehto, Bill Murphy, wives and guests. From our historic Paris hotel we toured the area and made several MIT-arranged visits. One was to l`Ecole Polytechnique, the French MIT, where we toured a laboratory, had an hour presentation by the admiral in charge of communications, and met two top students who want to do graduate work at MIT. The tuition-free Ecole is funded by the Department of Defense but, they feel, insufficiently so they were very interested in how our Alumni Fund raises money. Another visit was to RATP, the Paris Metro and bus system, where we had a comprehensive explanation and a ride on the new completely-automated, unmanned subway line. While in Paris we were treated to a dinner with the MIT Club of Paris and had a chance to compare post-grad experiences and careers.
A bus took us to Versailles where we toured the Opera House and the private apartments, not normally open to the public. A final treat in the area was lunch at the Chateau de Breteuil with the Marquis and Marchioness whose family had owned the chateau since it was built around 1605. They were gracious hosts and gave us some insight into the lives of royalty.
The TGV high speed train then whisked us to Bordeaux where we boarded a bus to drive through the Dordogne region. We stopped for a delicious lunch at St. Emilion accompanied by four wines of the region.
The next two days were spent touring the picturesque towns of Montignac and Sarlat and visiting the caves with prehistoric drawings, perhaps 15,000 years old. Though the drawings were beautiful and quite representative, their purpose has still not been fully explained.
Our tour continued southeast to Toulouse, France’s largest industrial city. Here, again MIT-arranged visits added new information and experiences. An MIT alum guided us through EADS Aerospatiale where the Airbus is built. We got a description of the Airbus 380, a 550 passenger double-decked aircraft now in the preliminary stages of construction. A visit to a wind-tunnel in the area was of particular interest to some of our classmates. At the University of Toulouse we had a lecture by a professor, who is a Sloan School alum, on the economy of France. Our final event, other than more eating and wine-drinking, was lunch aboard a barge cruising down the Canal du Midi on what may have been the nicest day of the fall season. The attached picture shows your classmates at a farewell reception at our hotel before leaving for home the next morning. Look at our class web page at http://alumweb.mit.edu/classes/1950/ for more pictures to come later of what was a delightful trip.
L to R: Oz, John, Dick, Karl, Mal, Don H., Bill, Don B.
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