In a little more that a week I will be traveling to France to perform some work on the Double Chooz far detector. When I tell my friends, family, and even colleagues, more often than not they assume I am going to CERN. It’s not suprising seeing as how CERN is arguably the central hub for particle physics in Europe, and is at least partly in France. Double Chooz, however, is not located at CERN. It is located at a nuclear power plant near the town of Chooz (pronounced like “show,” not “choose”) near the French – Belgian border. 
I will be spending 3 months on site for this first trip, and likely be back later in the year for another stay. This will be my first extended stay in Europe, and first time to Belgium and France. Our collaboration is lucky to have housing near the reactor in the form of a Chateau. It is really nice to have have to deal with finding housing!
This is an exciting time for me, but there is still a lot of work that needs to get done before I leave. I look forward to sharing my stories of this new experience.
