Thomas Pesquet's space view of Paris! See the 2 islands in the Seine, Champs de Mars and even le Tour Eiffel!
Loulabelle's FrancoFiles - episode 38
Guest: Sarah Zwick
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I loved chatting to my wonderful friend Sarah Zwick from Be My Guest Immersion about Thomas Pesquet, famous acclaimed French astronaut.
Thomas Pesquet would never have dreamed as a small child in Dieppe Normandy, that he would become a household name in France as their most well known astronaut and probably the most famous astronaut in Europe. As a small boy Thomas actually wanted to be a professional basketball player!
Pesquet graduated as an Air France pilot first and then studied to become an astronaut. He was selected to train with the European Space Agency in 2008. He spent 196 days in space in 2017 and has returned to the International Space Station earlier this year.
Sarah told me of Pesquet’s huge interest in photography and how he took over 25,000 photos of Earth from space! We also chatted about how her family attended an exhibition of Pesquet‘s, and even though they knew nothing of space, the photos were fascinating.
Most concerning from our chat was the discovery Pesquet made from the difference in his photos from his 2017 space trip to his time there now. Sarah explained to me about how he has been able to compare the deterioration of the Earth’s environment, the changes to rivers, oceans and other natural areas and how he does video calls with students from the space station to raise awareness of the issues with the declining condition of the environment.
Recette
Seafood Gratin with Caramelised Apples
Sarah and I chatted about the French chefs who have made food for Thomas Pesquet to have in space, but those recipes are made in a particular fashion for space! We will steer away from that an instead focus on a dish from Pesquet’s home town of Dieppe!
I recall seeing an episode of Rick Stein’s Secret France where he visited Dieppe. I did a search of Rick’s recipes from there and found a recette délicieuse for a Seafood Gratin with Caramelised Apples. This dish comes from a restaurant he visited in Dieppe called Le Newhaven.
This is a perfect recipe for winter which is coming up in Australia, but I can imagine loving this dish in any season really. I just love the idea of the sweetness of the apples with the wonderful fish stock and seafood. C’est une combinaison très délicieuse!
Musique
Thomas Pesquet clearly likes his music! He released the Cold Play song Higher Power from the International Space Station earlier this month, May 2021. Chris Martin, lead singer of Coldplay said “This song is about how to find ‘the astronaut’ in each one of us…the person who can do amazing things.”
Thomas Pesquet also has a Spotify playlist called Alpha Mission containing songs he likes to listen to in space. The very cool French funk tune “Fou” (which translates as Crazy) by L’Imperatrice is from that playlist. I could just imagine Thomas floating around and listening to that tune up in the International Space Station!
