(本文所有照片都可以点击看大图)

标题是春天的巴黎的意思。好久没有写中文的东西了，上次还是两年前写南京的游记，今天写写巴黎之行。

小豆诧异了半天，说我变风格了。

这次是受邀于巴黎第十大学(Universite de Paris X) 和 Universite de Rennes I参加一个workshop。本来假期时间很紧，不想去的，不过和Erik的东西需要有个契机推动一下，另外对方报销所有费用，所以就勉为其难的去了，呵呵。

巴黎大学也叫 Sorbonne, 我住的附近路名都叫 Rue de la Sorbonne。这里也是著名的拉丁区，以前做学术的都要讲拉丁文，所以这个地方就叫Latin Quarter。国内经常看到左岸这，左岸那的，就是指的这个区域，因在塞纳河的左岸而得名，是小资一派的麦加圣地。

附近著名的景点就是卢森堡公园 (Jardin du Luxembourg)：里面以诸多文艺愤青的雕像而著名，我看到了乔治桑（George Sand）, 肖邦和她同居10年之久，并曾经为她谱过曲。

Workshop两天，日程及其紧，比较失望的是第一天不少talk都很preliminary，没有什么意思，好在第二天有些不错的paper。另外见到了一直想交流一下的几个人，所以时间不能算浪费啦。 巴黎偶来过3次了，这次是第一次做学术交流而来，很久之前给公司做路演，参加展会，去年来参加wedding，所以身份从白领，到游客，再到学者，每次的体会也会不同。

中午的午餐很别致，我吃得不多，和与会者聊天更有意思一些。

Paul Belleflamme给我的印象很深，以前做Piracy和Pricing of Music研究的时候读过他的文章，最近他出了一本IO的书

有机会会买一本读一下。

我的那个session叫做 Socially Optimal Incentives，看了一下，至少还可以在另外两个session讲我另外的paper，分别是 Online Advertising 和 User Generated Content （UGC）。

Workshop结束的时候正好赶上法国的Gay parade，看到不少有趣的人。

队伍里有帅哥美女，也有大爷和小朋友。那个白胡子大爷举的旗子是法国西北部著名的Brittany的旗子，去年参加Grace和Benoit的婚礼曾经去过。

这些人都很友善，而且游行时都很proud，偶很受感染。（不是说取向方面，而是positive面对人生方面）。

第一天会议结束后随便走了走，照了些像，都是去过的地方，所以玩了些艺术手法：

晚上和组织会议的Eric和Thierry吃饭，竟然用了4个小时，8点一直到12点多。完了顺道去拍了几张夜景照片。

第二天下午有一点点时间，就在傍晚前拍了些日落前后的照片，效果更佳。

我自己最喜欢的是这下面的巴黎圣母院的照片：

开完会后的周日，我很想去巴黎附近的小城看看，其实有不少选择的，可以去枫丹白露Fontainebleu（直译是蓝喷泉的意思），或者一个叫Provins的地方看中世纪的古堡和教堂，或者去重游Brittany，去上次没有去过的Mont Saint-Michel, 也可以去Loire谷看城堡，不过这几个地方小豆也都没有去过，而且有些地方开车去比较方便，所以可以留着下次一起去。最后决定了去一个叫Chartre的地方，离巴黎有80公里远，此地有名气仅次于巴黎圣母院的一个教堂(Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Chartres)。火车站就在离我不远的Montpanasse，走路就可以到了。卖票的黑人大叔态度不怎么样，所以我费了半天劲才figure out怎么找火车的站台，多亏当年学过一年法语的底子，连猜带问人，总算上了车。一个小时后火车开到一个叫Maintenon的地方，我还在车上美呢，列车员过来告诉我这个车马上就原路返回巴黎了，下面要换坐大巴了。我还是很牛的，这些法语都听懂啦。

大巴开了20分钟远远就看到那个教堂了，下了车是火车站(Gare Chartre):

小城很不错，教堂也很壮观，当天还有礼拜，正好赶上了

周一去巴黎大学访问，顺便去了旁边的L’Ecole Normale Superieur 是居里夫人等牛人工作过的地方，出过12个诺贝尔奖和9个菲尔兹奖的得主。

当然在巴黎还有必做的两件事：美食和购物。

我每次去都不会错过的就是 鹅肝酱（foie gras），牛排（entrecote），生蚝和海鲜盘（fruits de mer）和比利时的Moules。在我附近有一家我仰慕已久的餐馆叫 Les Papilles，刚到的那天就去采了点，准备周日去，结果他们很拽，周日休息。 等到周一去，waiter告诉我又不营业，只有等到周二中午才在走前匆匆去试一下。结果吃到了我此生最好吃的午餐。本来没有太多期望的，所以就点了不起眼的”marmite du marché”, 就是个午餐套餐。上来的鸭胸肉火候几乎perfect, 撒些旁边的颗粒状海盐吃，简直让我惊艳万分。比起前几日在比其贵很多的餐厅里吃过的鸭胸肉还好，水准直追米其林3星的水平。

购物方面就是四处转转了，看到LV门口永远排着一串中国，韩国和日本的女士们。去老佛爷的酒窖看看，一个华人sales围着我让我买Chateau Lafite， 当我是国内暴发户啊。最后买了性价比极高的 Chateau Canon 05 和 Chateau Magdaleine 03。

It is renovated when I visited. But I could manage to get a picture like this.

During the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Opening Ceremonies, we witnessed the sheer power and brilliance of what it looks like when thousands of individuals come together for one purpose: to blow your f*cking mind. Throughout the event, I felt a mix of wonder, awe, surprise, joy, inadequacy, terror, and self-hatred – in other words, I was either whispering through tears �It�s just so�beautiful!� or I was sh*tting my pants.

I�ll admit it, it�s a little frightening to see what a country as big as China can pull off when they put their minds to it. I wondered what was responsible for such perfection: a culture of teamwork and self-pride? Or an authoritative regime with significantly more control over their people than we realized? Either way, I had a hard time imagining the U.S. pulling off something with such human precision, and half the time I felt like a fat, lazy slob. In the end, however, there�s no doubt, I�m JAZZED ABOUT CHINA! Who needs human rights when you can have human LIGHTS?

Here are the most pants-crapping moments from the ceremony:

IF GOD HAD A DRUMLINE�

�this is what it might look like. As 2,008 drummers beat on drums that were thousands of years old (outfitted with some space-agey lights), Matt Lauer noted that the men were told to smile, because they realized this could be mistaken for a Persian-Army-esque battle cry. MY FLAT SCREEN TV DOESN�T ROLL UP LIKE FABRIC

The ceremony featured several light displays, screens, and electronic surfaces that seemed to flow as smoothly as silk. The grandest of all these was a giant LED screen that unfurled like a scroll. Do you think Circuit City will be selling these any time soon? PIN ART ON A MASSIVE SCALE

Remember those little Pin Art things we used to stick on our faces? Imagine it the size of a football field. While watching this, I couldn�t tell how on earth they were doing it – it didn�t look real. It was too fluid for machines, but I couldn�t comprehend how people could be doing this. Given what we�d already seen, I should never have underestimated them. At the end of this segment, thousands of men popped out from the boxes, waving happily. MY CURVES CLASS COULD TOTALLY DO THIS

From above, the 2,008 men doing Tai Chi in unison looked like crop circles. Because let�s face it, only aliens could make circles this perfect. LITTLE GREEN MEN

These guys lit up like Peter Gabriel�s light bulb suit from the Sledgehammer video. They moved around the floor like swirling beads of water, eventually forming a beautiful bird. Then, they came together and formed a replica of the Bird�s Nest stadium, all standing on each other, for at least 3 minutes, while a small girl flew above them with a kite. Seriously, how did they HOLD THAT FORMATION for that long??? Communism, that�s how. THIS OAR ISN�T HEAVY AT ALL! SERIOUSLY, WE�RE FIIINE.

These oars were probably over 12 feet long each, but they waved them this way and that as if they were feathers. WHAT NOW? I KNOW! LET�S BRING OUT A GIANT GLOBE!

I kept wondering what the HELL was going on underneath the stadium – to house all these thousands of people, and giant structures like the globe. And I thought backstage at my college�s production of A Midsummer Night�s Dream was chaotic! Then, during the song, pictures of children from all over the earth appeared above and on umbrella-like things held up by another hoard of people on the floor. Was it super cheesy? Yes. Was I sobbing uncontrollably? Maybe. TINY EARTHQUAKE HERO + GIANT BASKETBALL STAR = HEART BONER

NBA star and Chinese Olympian Yao Ming walked alongside a tiny boy, who had not only survived the earthquake, but had saved two of his classmates from his school, where most of the children died. It�s just. Too. Much.Needless to say, it was a grand, beautiful, and inspiring event that I�m pretty sure made London say �Well, f*ck.�

More pictures:

The torch bearer shows us a new sport: fly-running! Also, note that this happened at the 4 and a half hour mark on my DVR. Wouldn�t it be creepy if your saw yourself on one of those? The Tai Chi men do a move called �Collapse From Exhaustion.� Last time you checked, little Fei Yen was in the backyard flying her kite� I was at a party like this once in Prague. I feel like I am at the Electric parade in Disney World! Pop goes the army of two thousand men! How did they know when to stand up, and just how high to go??? It boggles the mind. At this point we heard the first of about 1 million references by broadcasters to the metaphorical �great wall� coming down in China. The torch burns bright, symbolizing China�s firey passion for perfection and pollution. We got the beat.
For some more pictures, check out BOSTON GLOBE.