Program 549: Searching for Stars; Stoked My Spirit; Champagne

Novelist and MIT physics professor Alan Lightman describes how a little time alone with Maine's night sky illuminated his awareness of the universe, and his place in it. Then listeners share stories of inspiring travel experiences, before we welcome the new year with a toast to Champagne — both the bubbly and its French region of origin.

• MIT professor Alan Lightman, author of "Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine" (Pantheon)
• Virginie Moré, tour guide from Lyon, France
• Julie Sonveau, tour guide from Burgundy, France

• The latest books by Alan Lightman are "Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine," and "In Praise of Wasting Time."  He is also Professor of the Practice of the Humanities at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 
• The Acadia Night Sky Festival is held annually in late September at Acadia National Park.
• As caller Carol notes, the hymn "St. Patrick's Breastplate" is based on a poem St. Patrick is believed to have written.  
• Taizé is a meditative spiritual community in France that Rick has visited.
• The Prado Museum in Madrid posts photos of many of its paintings by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo online.
• Rick writes about Reims in the Champagne region as a possible day trip from Paris.
• The Telegraph writes about "the art of the sabrage," in which you open a champagne bottle with a sword.  
• Tour guide Virginie Moré can be contacted through her website.