Impressions of Aix
David Singleton
The 2008 EUROSLA annual conference was the second to be held in beautiful Aix-en-Provence/Ais de Prouvènço. The first took place in 1994. How well I remember wandering through the streets on the evening of my arrival on that first occasion and delightedly coming across (and joining) an animated cluster of EUROSLA people eating fish soup with ailioli on a crowded restaurant terrasse, admirably (but only just!) kept in order by the late, great and sorely lamented Esther Glahn. My arrival in Aix last year was not so much marked by seafood and garlic as by poor map-reading and a consequently elusive hotel. All ended happily, however, the more so when I discovered that the hotel in question was just a fifteen-minute walk from the splendid conference venue, the Maison Méditerranéenne des Sciences de l'Homme.
At the venue in question the next morning, there they all were – the long-in-the-tooth veterans, the current movers-and-shakers, the bright-eyed up-and-comers and the shy-but-not-for-long newcomers. Within an hour or two of keeping company together this disparate set of ingredients had succumbed to the traditional EUROSLA culinary arts and was functioning as a single delicious dish! It never fails to astonish me how rapidly this process reaches completion at EUROSLA events, but the Aix conference certainly did not deviate from the norm, or if it did, this was only because the integration was swifter than ever.
Those of who were at EUROSLA 18 will remember it as an extremely happy experience. Of course the charms of Provence helped – including the sunshine – but so (very much!) did the high quality of the contributions – including, of course, the four excellent plenaries, the smooth running of the programme, and the hugely enjoyable catering dimension. (Who can forget those smiling lunchtime moments in the garden munching on truly irresistible delicacies and overdosing on the lavishly arrayed regional wines?) There was a solemn element in the proceedings, when tribute was paid to the life and works of Clive Perdue, but this was not so much an occasion of sadness as an entirely fitting celebration of a great man and all he gave us.
The organizers of the conference, Daniel, Claude, Marion and Martine can be well pleased with their efforts. They were responsible for a success in all dimensions, so that when we congressistes left Aix it was genuinely with heavy hearts. As I drove around the Rotonde for a final time before heading out into the less congenial world of autoroutes and car-ferries, I reflected that, on the basis of the principle that thrice is nice, it wouldn’t be such a bad idea for EUROSLA to come back to this place. Addiction threatens!
