![\"The](\"https:\/\/arctrain.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Frozen_St.Lawrence_2.jpg\")
<\/a>The frozen St Lawrence estuary. (Credit : Quentin Duboc)<\/p><\/div>\n
Before coming to Rimouski at 18 years old to do a C\u00e9gep (kind of post-secondary studies preceding university, existing only in Qu\u00e9bec country) in natural sciences, I had never seen snow in my life. Of course, because it is between 26\u00b0C and 35\u00b0C 365 days per year in Martinique!! With 90% of humidity, don\u2019t even try to do your jogging at 2 pm there. So, I was happy to finally discover this famous white stuff that can paralyse Paris with a thickness of only 3 cm! But for my first winter in Rimouski, we got about 4 meters of snow at all! It is amazing how that can change the city landscape. And what about the St. Lawrence Estuary just in front of the city? A long island is located 2 km offshore the city, blocking the waves and allow the water to freeze enough for walking, ice-fishing or snow-kiting on the ice covered by snow.<\/p>\n
It is also a good choice to live in Qu\u00e9bec country, and even more in Rimouski, if you like seasonal changes. Because the weather is just crazy here: In winter the temperature can go down to -35\u00b0C sometimes and, in summer, temperatures are above 20\u00b0C during the day, but can reach 35\u00b0C during heat waves. And this is accentuated to -45\u00b0C and +45\u00b0C respectively if you take into account the effects of wind in winter and humidity in summer. An amplitude of 90\u00b0C through the year\u2026 So that\u2019s why you need a bigger wardrobe here. And you can have a drop of 25\u00b0C in only one day in winter! This is just crazy, but I love this country.<\/p>\n
10 years later, I am still not tired of that, and I am now doing my PhD at the Universit\u00e9 du Qu\u00e9bec \u00e0 Rimouski (UQAR) since January 2017 with Guillaume St-Onge, who was already supervising my master thesis. I work on sedimentary processes occurring on the continental margin of Qu\u00e9bec and Labrador throughout the Holocene deglaciation. What is funny is that Guillaume gave me the choice between two subjects: this one about the Arctic (and subarctic) and another one\u2026 in the Caribbean! Exactly where I spent my young years (pure coincidence). This other project was about the effects of seismically triggered turbidites on the paleomagnetic signal in sediment cores. I did not hesitate too much as I really wanted to work in the Arctic, and it was also the occasion to be part of ArcTrain and meet other people working on this famous remote area.<\/p>\n