When I was in Paris in June I stumbled across a copy of "Espace Magazine" that turned out to be pretty good. Much better than anything I've found here in the U.S., which seems to be focused on astronomy and telescopes.

I finally amassed enough free cash to get a subscription, which I sent in not too long ago. My first issue arrived today and it is glorious. It is packed with just beautiful images, like Itokawa, Tempel 1, Encelade, oops, Enceladus, un poster de Venus (see how easy French is!), the moons of Saturn, the cool flip that Discovery did, the articles are great and really cover a broad range of stuff.

The next issue, in a month, is Images du Futur (or Images of the Future for the Francophobic). I really, really wish we had a magazine of this quality readily available here in the U.S. I may be able to use it as an example at outreach displays to highlight the relative paucity of such here as compared with our global competitors. Maybe I'll also dig out my Ariane 5 rocket model that I picked up in Toulouse at the really cool Cite de l'espace (Space City). My fear is that I'm going to have to cut them up to make space displays for my NSS chapter.

Y'all just don't realize how lucky Raoul is.

Oh, and for all the Mars-o-philes out there, there's going to be a Soiree Mars (Mars Soiree) at the Space City in Toulouse, France. It will feature Conferences, Images en relief, Spectacle Planetarium, Observations du ciel, Expo de rovers martiens and the Cafe Astro. Only 5 euros!