Sophia Antipolis

I got up early to have a quick breakfast before catching the shuttle bus from the Palais des Festivals to Sophia Antipolis in the hinterland of Cannes. Sophia means wisdom in Greek and Antipolis is the ancient Roman name for Antibes. It's a technology park where INRIA, a French national research institute and the host of the conference, is one of its occupants. The tutorials were held there.


Unfortunately the lecture room was overcrowded for the airconditioning capacity making the air stale so I had difficulty paying attention even though the talk was excellent. During the recess I got acquainted with many fellow researchers and my suggestion of a group dinner in Cannes was taken up.


After the day was over, I had a dip in the hotel pool. I also managed to get some pictures of the cat, which was not at breakfast.

This is the Palais, which is where the Cannes Film Festival is held. Finally I saw for myself where the film stars parade past the crowd when they arrive.

From the Palais we walked to Les Enfants Terribles, a restaurant in a quiet quarter of Cannes. Many nationalities were represented in our group. I sat next to N, an Iranian girl who was doing her doctorate at Eurecom. She had a brilliant smile and laughed easily. However I sensed a little wariness. This photo is one of the better ones from negative scanning process. A fun time was had by all. After the dinner a sudden downpour started which drenched the shades you see in the picture. There was so much water on the ground that my shoes got waterlogged. I would be glad to jettison them soon.

Here's a charming narrow street I traversed going back to the hotel, lined with restaurants.