January 11, 2007: We arrive in Martigny, Switzerland

Keith and I arrived at the Martigny train station about 10:00 PM January 9th. Just 5 minutes after calling Jose Millan, he arrived at the station with his car. He was very well prepared, with keys to the two apartments that his institute, IDIAP, is providing for our 3 month stay. We very much appreciated Jose for being so prompt after our approximately 24 hour trip from Fort Collins. He drove us to our respective apartments and we promptly crashed. Nate arrived in Martigny the following afternoon, after volunteering for a Nortwest flight voucher which cost him an all expenses-paid overnight stay in Minneapolis.

Keith and Nate's apartment is in the middle of Martigny. They are on the first floor of this white building, which is just a few blocks from the center of Martigny and from IDIAP.

Keith and Nate's apartment buiding

My apartment is about a 30 minute walk from IDIAP in the west end of Martigny, actually in the area called Martigny-Croix. I live on the third floor of this building.

Chuck's apartment building

Those little round porthole windows are on the third floor. You can see them from the inside in these interior shots.

Chuck's apartment

The center plaza of downtown Martigny is called Place Centrale. Those are actually banana trees. Evidently, they were Napolean's idea for a way to provide shade. This is close to the view from Martigny's web cam.

Place Centrale, Martigny

The pinkish building at the far end of the rows of banana trees is where we work. It is actually a Swiss bank, but IDIAP uses the third floor of the building for students, visitors, and to hold meetings. Here are Keith and Nate hard at work already at their desks with the workstations provided by IDIAP.

Desks at IDIAP

Just one block from the bank building and Place Centrale, is the main IDIAP building, on Rue du Simplon.

IDIAP

It didn't take us long to find the espresso machine in IDIAP's library.

IDIAP Library