The SuperNEMO and NEMO-3 collaborations enjoyed their autumn collaboration meeting this October in a yet another gorgeous spot - the VVF holiday village in Lège-Cap Ferret, on the coast of the Arcachon Bay near Bordeaux in south-west France. The little cabins in the pine forest were a perfect setting for a productive meeting, and it was great to see some real progress on the detector, with commissioning continuing apace.

The SuperNEMO collaboration at L'Herbe

We also continued our tradition of analysis workshops, with a full day of talks and tutorials from Paolo Franchini, Manu Chauveau, Yves Lemiere, Ben Morgan and Cheryl Patrick. These workshops are proving popular, and we plan to hold more in the future.

Our guest speaker this time was Masaharu Nomachi of Osaka University in Japan, who taught us about the CANDLES experiment, which is looking for neutrinoless double-beta decay in the challenging isotope calcium-48.

Oyster-tasting trip to L'Herbe

Of course, in such a lovely location, we had to see the views and enjoy some of the local fine cuisine - and what better way to do so than in an oyster- and wine-tasting evening on the waterfront, in the cute car-free village of L’Herbe? The splashing of the bay, the calls of seagulls, the breeze through the pine trees - and oysters freshly harvested from the bay that very afternoon - were a wonderful way to decompress after a busy day of physics.

With a banquet and dance party to round off the week, we all agreed this was one of our most successful meetings yet - both for physics and for camaraderie. Huge thanks go to Emmanuel Chauveau, of CENBG in Bordeaux, who arranged this fantastic event.