Vineyards in Russin

Weather pampers us this fall, so we try to get as much of sun rays as possible before winter comes. Today we were passing by Swiss vineyards and we just couldn't help and stopped for a brief walk along.
Grapes' harvests are already finished but every now and then we could find a bunch on the grapevines.

Lac de Divonne

With a remarkably beautiful weather today, we decided to go out to catch some sun. We went to Divonne-les-bains which we had visited a week earlier for Gourmandiv' Festival. This time we went straight to the lake side (we hadn't seen it earlier). We were planning to make a tour round water, but I was too tired, so we sat on a bench instead and relaxed in the calm atmosphere of warm sunbeams and surrounding nature.

First snow in Jura

This week we're experiencing first snow in Jura mountains so I went out hiking to check it out. The conditions on route were rather difficult. The slope was slippery and visibility was almost null at the top because of mist.

Gourmandiv' festival

Today we went to a Gourmandiv' festival in a neighbouring village - Divonne-les-Bains. It was a second edition of what I would call festival of tastes and flavours. Except for a couple of tasting-stalls,  there was also a contest for amateur chefs (audience could taste their cooking and vote for the best cook) and some other animations like vegetables carving.
Well, it wouldn't be entirely honest from my part if I said it was a fantastic event, but in the end I enjoyed getting out from home.

Except from seeing tge gormandiv' attractions, we also had a tour round the villgae. The weather was just perfect so we strolled through the streets, headed up to a castle hill and back to the venue. Nice and neat - as every village in the neighbourhood.

Misty Sunday

With a truly autumn weather, I went for a hike to Le Reculet. I was hoping to see a lot of colours on the hills, instead I only saw thick mist. I guess in two-three weeks the mountain will be bursting in pastels.

Cascades de France

 

What to do when weather is rainy and "on foot" mobility is reduced? I asked myself that question on the gloomy weekend and decided to have a "waterfall excursion". There are just so many of them in the neighbourhood - easily accessible by car. Not discouraged by the rain (which later turned into actually nice and warm weather), we set off to discover the beauties of French nature.

We started with Pain de Sucre cascade. I need to say, it was pretty awesome. It felt a bit like we were in a fairy-tale forest full of magic. Dark colours, soft drizzle and a waterfall you basically can walk around and hide yourself at its back. The only thing missing was a cave with a treasure :) We really enjoyed the view as well as the humming sound of water.

Next stop: Cascade de Cerveyrieu. The water of river Seran falls down for around 60m to meet rocks on the ground and splash with great rumble. We watched it happen from the top, with a nice view on the valley.

Waterfall number 3 - Cascade de Claire Fontaine - was situated well in woods, but we managed to reach it by car and needed just a few steps up to see this beauty. I imagine it must be even prettier in spring or late autumn, when there is more water falling. Anyway, there is something ethereal about the waterfalls, is it the levitating mist? Perhaps gentle or aggressive roar of water? Crudity of rocks? Softness of moss? I don't know, but for me they are enchanting.

Lastly, we saw Cascade de Glandieu, situated in the centre of a small French village. Although it was the biggest of all we had seen, it didn't make such an impression on me. Perhaps the proximity of agglomeration stripped the waterfall from its charm? Other possibility, we had had enough of cascades for one day. I mean, don't get me wrong - it was really nice, it's just that we liked the other three better. Anyway, we stayed for a while in the village to have a meal in a restaurant and went back home.

 

LHCb and LHC point 6

Last weekend CERN organised open-days. Over 70 000 people visited CERN facilities and over 20 000 of them went underground  in one of six underground facilities. During this days 2 300 CERN volunteers cared about people's safety and good time. I was one of them. I was an underground guide in LHC Point 6 which is responsible for LHC beam dumping system.

On Monday CERN opened these six underground facilities for members of personnel so I had occasion to see LHCb experiment and once again LHC Point 6 - this time with a camera.

Before LHC was created, CERN worked with LEP (Large Electron Positron) Collider. At those times LHCb cavern was the place of DELPHI experiment. Because disassembling and removing of DELPHI detector would be very time consuming and very expensive, it was decided to keep part of the detector underground and move LHCb a bit aside. Thanks to that I was able to see not one but two detectors.

Then we moved to LHC Point 6 where I was a guide during the weekend. LHC beam dumping system was created because you can't leave circulated protons inside LHC after finishing a day of work. Protons have energy of moving train and if they hit any part of LHC they will destroy it. It is also not so easy to redirect them to some safe place because they travel with almost speed of light. So beam duping system contains three types of magnets that do this job.

First:

Kickers that extract very fast beam from LHC pipes and redirect it a bit up.

Second:

MSD that redirect beam a bit left.

Third:

MKB that spread beam from 1x1 mm (when it enters the magnet) to 30x30 cm (when beam hits block of 8 meters of graphite). Beam must be spread because even 8 meters of graphite can't handle a moving train that hits 1x1 mm spot.

At the both end of LHC Point 6 you can see LHC circle curvature

I had lots of fun while guiding people through undergrounds of Point 6 and now I saw almost all of CERN underground facilities. Next stop: ALICE and LHC Point 4.