I learned a great deal about low-mass stars and brown dwarfs at the CoolStars conference in Toulouse, France, especially at the breakout session for atmospheric retrievals. I am also glad to see many familiar faces after a two-year hiatus from traveling. Can you spot me and a Nobel Prize winner?

I had a great time visiting Marseille and Nice after the CoolStars conference. LAM was fun to visit as always. I was updated about the HiRISE project led by Arthur Vigan, preparation for PLATO by Alexandre Santerne, and stress mirror polishing for future telescopes by Emmanuel Hugot. The SPEED lab (Left) and Kernel lab (Right) at Nice were very impressive. I predict that photonic chips and single-mode fibers will rule future astronomy. Mamadou N'Diaye was a great host and I could not thank him enough for arranging the Nice visit.

My France trip concluded with a visit to the high contrast imaging lab led by Johan Mazoyer at the historic Paris Meudon Observatory.