I got permission. I was obviously a very junior faculty member, not anywhere near eligible for a sabbatical, but I took a year leave of absence, got a Fellowship from the Commonwealth Fund, and Doris and I and our three children went to Paris. It was clearly the most exciting year of our lives, for all of us. I worked with François Gros who was one of the people who had gotten a degree with Jacques Monod, and with, subsequently with François Jacob, and our children were in French schools. John and Deborah, then 11 and 9, in a private French school and Fred, then 5, in a... in a kindergarten.

The... my introduction to François Jacob came on day one. I walked into his office and he was sitting talking to a man. I excused myself for interrupting, said in the... the glorious French that I had learned during the year getting ready to go, stumbled through my introduction, and whereupon the small man sitting at his side said, in what was clearly a South African English accent, said to me, 'How is that yours is the only French I can understand in this city?' That man was Sydney Brenner and that compliment was one that I have remembered, as you can see.

I did have, actually, a comment on my accent. Later on, at the end of that year there, there was a biochemistry congress, an international congress in... Moscow and François Gros was supposed to present the paper that we had worked on during the year at the congress, but at the last minute was unable to go and asked me to go in his place. The French, at that time, were reluctant to have their funds used in ways that would not promote France, so I was asked to wear not a US badge on my jacket, but a badge that said France. I was entering the... one of the... halls where papers were being given and stopped to greet, be greeted by and to greet an American friend whom I hadn't seen for some time and we talked at length, and I saw somebody nearby watching me, listening, and then that person came over to me and excused himself for the intrusion, but said, 'You know, I can't help but notice', he said looking at me and looking at my badge that said France, 'I can't help but notice that you speak English with a decidedly American accent'. The, I indicated that my mother was American and felt that this was... the circle had come around from my earlier... the earlier comment about the quality of my, of my language.