Un bel endroit pour vivre (A beautiful place to live)

As a family, deciding to move is never easy. We had a wonderful six years in Iowa, where I completed my PhD and a short post-doc in the lab of Anne Bronikowski. Despite that we were comfortable and happy and surrounded by great friends, the academic life rarely allows one to settle for too long, at least until you land a permanent position (and sometimes not even then). Weighing our options, Becky and I were concerned about transitioning the kids too many times, so hoped to avoid moving somewhere for just a couple years, then moving again. That is, of course, unless that ‘somewhere’ happened to be an exciting location we could pass off as a family adventure. Last January, I learned that I’d received the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship to work with Fabien Aubret here at the SETE du CNRS in the south of France. Professionally, I knew it was a superlative opportunity. But would it pass as a family adventure? It certainly would!

Panoramic photo of the walk down to town from our house. Most months of the year, wall lizards are easy to spot perched on the rocks on either side of the road. Notice the remnants left by recent sheep traffic.

I’m glad to say that we adore this region of France. It is just stunningly beautiful in its tranquil pastoralism. We live in an old stone farmhouse in a tiny hamlet of about 30 people about 5 km from the research station in Moulis. We have a babbling brook in the backyard, delightful views of the Pyrenees, and the worst of our traffic jams is when a flock of sheep is passing up the narrow road in their daily migration out to the fields. Our house is literally crawling with the ubiquitous wall lizards – indeed, it seems as if the past 1500 years of European history may have been largely dedicated to creating and improving habitat for this species. Most importantly, we have met some lovely people who have welcomed us to the community and displayed great patience with our burgeoning French.

Our family’s story was unique enough to garner the interest of an American TV show, House Hunters International. Our episode debuted in the U.S. last week and is available locally and for streaming (look for the episode “Leapin’ Lizards in France”). I actually haven’t seen it yet, so it’s with a bit of trepidation that I share the link. We debated if this was something we wanted to do – I’m not a big fan of TV generally – but decided that it would be a unique and fun opportunity. Plus, if I could get in even a few words about how climate change is affecting biodiversity, that message would reach a much broader audience than any conference presentation. We had a great time filming for five days with the crew back in November. Maybe we’ll have to contact them again next year…

Many thanks to everyone who has helped make this leap to France a great experience, both professionally and personally!

Our little hamlet, Astien, as seen from the ridge across the valley.