Propulsion in Poitiers and Beaching in Biarritz

Bonjour!

On Sunday, we left Toulouse around 9am to head for Poitiers. On the schedule, it said it would take about 3 hours to get there, but it ended up taking 9 hours total. There was the expected 3 hours, but we weren’t in Poitiers just yet. Instead we took a 3 hour break in Saint Émilion which was the halfway point to Poitiers which was a surprise to everyone, but we ended up having a nice lunch in the quiet wine town on the outskirts of the Bordeaux Region. When we were walking through the town we stumbled upon some kind of processional through the streets toward the main church. All of the people were dressed in red robes, but it didn’t look like a religious ceremony. We’re still not sure what it was for, but it was interesting to randomly find an event like that. We got back on the bus for another three hours to Poitiers. Once there, we were met by one of the program coordinators from ENSMA. She and our group leader got us checked in, and told us we were going to have breakfast in bed all week. I’m guessing they have to do breakfast in bed since there was no room in the hotel large enough for 28 students. I was feeling a little sick with a sore throat, so I decided to get to bed as early as possible.





Monday morning began with breakfast in bed then a bus ride to ENSMA for our second quiz over the aircraft structures material from the week before. The quiz was a bit more challenging than the first one, but it wasn’t horrible. We then went on a tour of the ENSMA building and then over to lunch in the ENSMA cafeteria before coming back for our first class over combustion systems. When class was over, I went back to our hotel to book my rail pass for France and Spain. Since these passes are only meant for residents outside the EU, the pass has to be sent to your home address. I just asked my mom to mail it to my address in Toulouse, and it should be waiting for me when I get back next week.



We took the city buses to ENSMA which is about a half an hour ride. We then had another class over combustion systems. We were supposed to have a tour of the ENSMA wind tunnels and labs; however they were doing testing for a company so our tour got cancelled. So, we just went to lunch and then back to our hotel to wait until it was time to meet for our cultural visit of Poitiers. The visit of the city was not as impressive as some of our other visits, but it was very informational on the church Notre Dame la Grande and Palais de Justice de Poitiers the courthouse of Poitiers. The church had many intricate statues on the façade that had either lost faces or entire heads during religious and political disputes over the centuries. The courthouse was built by a young Queen of France who later became the Queen of England after she and the King of France didn’t produce any sons and divorced. Oddly, she went on to have 6 sons with the King of England. There is also an impressive wall that has a large fireplace with a giant window above it to let in most of the light. From the outside though, the wall appears to be all chimneys and very little window. Afterwards, I went with a few of my friends to find a Chinese buffet that a Canadian woman suggested to us in a shop earlier in the day. It wasn’t great Chinese food, but it was something different than what we had been eating. Plus we found an interesting park with a small zoo.





















Wednesday turned into a long day of classes. We had two three-hour lectures over combustion. Our professor was pretty nice and easy to understand, so that made it go by quicker. I was still quite sick, so I decided to make it an early night. I ended up deciding not to go to class the next day, since I really haven’t had much time to rest in the past few days. I e-mailed my group leader to let her know my condition, and she understood since the most important thing is our health and safety. I stayed in our hotel on Thursday to catch up on sleep and rest. It was nice to recuperate, but it sucked that I had to miss the last day of lecture and the lab in the afternoon since both would be covered on the quiz scheduled for Friday. Luckily, my roommates were nice enough to grab me a copy of the PowerPoint presentation from the lecture and fill me in on the information covered in the lab. I spent the rest of the night studying those notes in order to prepare for the quiz the next morning.

Thankfully, the quiz didn’t start until 11am, so we were able to sleep in a little bit later than normal. I must say that although the quizzes are open notes, that does not make them any easier. I don’t expect to very well on this quiz, but I think it had a lot to do with missing the previous day and being sick. After the quiz we went to lunch and then met back at the school to walk over to Futuroscope. Futuroscope is basically a theme park somewhat similar to Epcot in Disney World. I guess it’s also the second biggest theme park next to Disneyland Paris. There are a lot of 3-D rides and other attractions based on technology. We went on to some of the 3-D and 4-D (water and air make up the last dimension) shows which were pretty fun, but the best ride was an unexpected one. It’s called something like “Dancing with Robots,” so I was expecting to watch small robots that were programmed to move with the music. It actually turned out to be large robotic arms with rollercoaster seats attached at the end. There were three different levels you and your partner could choose from which ranged from easy to difficult. The difficult level was what I went for which mainly meant that I would be getting tossed all over the place while the robot was dancing. Here’s a video of the dancing robots before we went on.



We actually got the song “I Love Rock ’n’ Roll” since they rotate through 4 different songs. After another 4-D show, we headed to the bus stop to head back to our hotel before the buses stopped running.







On Saturday, we had to get up early to pack and leave for the train station. Our next program stop was in Biarritz in the Basque Country on the Atlantic Ocean close to Spain. We were almost late for the high speed train, but luckily we all made it on-board. It was actually my first train that I had been on that wasn’t a steam engine. We went through about 3 stations where we had to stop for a few minutes. We didn’t have to switch trains until Bordeaux. Sadly, while getting off at the station, we ended up leaving two students on the train. They had put their luggage on the opposite side of the train, and by the time they go to it, the train was rolling out of the station. Our group leader and ENSMA leader quickly called one of the ISAE leaders who was driving to Biarritz. He was able to call people to let the train workers know that there were two students still on-board. The train workers found the two students, and made sure they got off at the next station so that the ISAE leader could drive to pick them up. In the end they ended up getting to Biarritz before us. We boarded our second train to take us to Biarritz which was still about 2 hours away. We were met at the train station by one of the ENAC professors and a former GEA Program group leader from U of M. Once we were at the hotel, I realized that I had balcony and for some reason the French do not use shower curtains. Anyways, we were in one of the best beach cities in Europe, so I had to go check it out and maybe get some sun in the process. There are several sandy beaches to choose from, so we checked out the ones closest to our hotel before settling in on one of the bigger ones by the casino. I must say I’m still experiencing a few culture shocks such as topless women and crazy bachelor parties. There was a guy in a full snow skiing outfit trying to ski along the beach while his friends cheered him on when another bachelor party showed up with the groom dressed as Superman. Superman ended up helping the skier across the beach. The sun was going down, so we went to go find a sandwich at a nearby shop before heading back to the hotel.















Tomorrow there’s going to be a trip the port city of St. Jean in the Basque Country followed by two technical visits on Monday to Messier-Dowty and Turbomeca. We will then head back to Toulouse for our last few days of class. I’ll post again around the 4th of July to let you know about what I did to celebrate it in a foreign country.

Gary