Field work, particularly in the mountains, can present numerous sources of stress in the form of challenging working conditions, red tape and plants not growing where or when you expected. This stress can be somewhat lessened when the country you are working in has some of the best wine and cheese in the entire world. During my field work as a Kew MSc student in the French Alps this summer, we conducted research on a group of plants called the Asteraceae; the family that contains all daisies, dandelions and thistles.