news-bulletins – Cambridge Society of Paris

2 January, 2023

Freshers event 2022

On September 24^th last year, we hosted our annual Freshers’ Welcome Drinks, as part of the University’s world-wide program of events for those students who have recently been successful in gaining a place at Cambridge, whether as an Undergraduate or a Graduate.

After a successful first event there in 2021, we returned to the Fondation Goodplanet in the Bois de Boulogne, in the grounds of the Château de Longchamp.

Over several hours on a (surprisingly dry) afternoon, freshers had an opportunity to meet other new students coming from France and to chat to Society members about their experience in Cambridge.

We are grateful to our long-standing committee member Peter Salinson who organised the event and shared anecdotes of his time at Cambridge with the freshers in attendance.

Matthew Kay

President, Cambridge Society of Paris

2^nd January 2023

2 January, 2023

Carols event 2022

After a prolonged COVID gap, and for the first time since 2019, we were delighted to bring back our annual carol singing last Monday 12^th December, organised in conjunction with our friends at the Oxford University Society of Paris.

Turnout was fantastic, with 100 in attendance drawn from the Cambridge and Oxford alumni societies (and friends from other associations.) Across a little over an hour of singing we enjoyed mulled wine and mince pies at the splendid Travellers Club, led by musical coordinators John Thompson and Christopher Wells.

We are very grateful as ever to the wonderful Edward Archer for organising, and of course to musicians Madeleine Bergna, Christine Peiffer, David Morgan-Smith, and Odile Wells.

Matthew Kay

President, Cambridge Society of Paris

2^nd January 2023

7 March, 201927 March, 2019

Cambridge Society of Paris News Bulletin 9

A glorious launch to the Cambridge Cutting Edge Lectures

Today, Thursday 7^th March, the first of the Cambridge Cutting Edge Lectures was held, at the prestigious Institut Pasteur in Paris.

With an audience of well over 200, the large amphitheatre at the Institut Pasteur was full to overflowing. Not surprising given the immense good fortune of having a Nobel Prize winner, President of the Royal Society, Venki Ramakrishnan as our first speaker.

Venkiâ€™s career has been dedicated to the discovery of the form and function of ribosomes, the million atom molecules that provide the interface between DNA based genes and the proteins forming every cell in every form of life on earth.

His talk, describing his struggle in the race to decipher the secrets of the ribosome was not only a voyage at the pinnacle of modern science, but also a very human saga showing how modern science really works. The competition, the ambition, the goals, and integrity. The anxiety and need for self-belief, with occasional strokes of extraordinary good fortune, or the reverse.

We were hugely privileged to be given these insights by one of the greatest living scientists, and all this from the little acorn, the conversation over lunch between myself and Moez Draief, that first gave birth to the Cambridge Cutting Edge Lectures.

We could not have hoped for a better launch and immense thanks are due to Venki Ramakrishnan for accepting our invitation, to Terry Quinn for having proffered the invitation, and the Institut Pasteur for their wonderful amphitheatre and for hosting us in such splendid style.

The next Cambridge Cutting Edge Lecture will be delivered by Professor Sir Roger Penrose on Thursday 24^th October and, before that, on Thursday 16^th May we have the start of the Glory Days of Paris series, commencing with The Pilgrims of Babylon, the revolutionary Artists of Montmartre.

With very best wishes,

Andrew Lyndon-Skeggs

President, Cambridge Society of Paris

Thursday 7^th March 2019