6/9/2011
Note that none of the images are actually from Australian waters (that I can positively identify) but are the same/similar species as the drawings by Lesueur held in the Le Havre archive that did come from "Terra Australes". Tenuous link but all I have at the moment; I know what his Australian tropical marine images would/should look like.
I am now in a race to get all the manuscripts done before I my time in Paris is up. I have a four working days this week and maybe two next week (i.e., access to the archives, Monday to Thursday, 1400 to 1800 at the latest) then I leave on the 19th September. I allowed a month for what I thought would be a relatively simple task but both the size of the Paris archive and the time needed to go through the archived material were greater than I had anticipated.
My day went well. I found a barber and had a hair-cut (a mundane but still challenging task in a foreign city and a different language). Lunch then off to the Central Library and I completed Ms 1735 - 1738. The last two had dates around 1817 and mentioned earlier collections in the "South Seas" with Peron. I now have photocopies of tropical corals, nudibraches, and bivalve molluscs.
Finished the day by travelling into town to the Strazbourg area to meet with Jo and Dave for dinner, before they leave for Disneyland. I took the RER and Metro but our plans for me to call/text Jo's phone when I arrived fell through, as my much-vaunted Orange Mobicarte would not allow "International calls" to Jo's Australian mobile number. Dave walked down to the Metro Station to see where I was and luckily saw me on the other side of the street and waved frantically. We all went to a "really nice little", high-class restaurant where we had a very good meal, spent too much money, and had to leave a little bit of the wine on the table if I was to be able to navigate back to the Cite' Universitaire!
Another really good day.
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