Our collaboration started in September 1977. I met Zdzislaw for the first time during the Dresden conference. At the conference dinner, we had very nice discussions, not only about physics but also about other subjects of interest we had in common. I took this opportunity to invite him to visit our small lab of Theoreticians at the Institut des Sciences Nucléaires in Grenoble. He immediately accepted enthusiastically and so begun a collaboration which lasted over a decade.

It was so nice and fruitful to collaborate with Zdzislaw. I shall not try to summarise here the scientific achievements, which resulted from our long collaboration, they can be seen in Zdzislaw's long list of publications. I would rather like to emphasise the human side.

The first time Zdzislaw came to Grenoble as an associate professor, he was in charge of some lectures. He started to deliver them in English. But he was very eager to improve his knowledge of the French language and very soon he switched to French. He asked me to note on a paper the mistakes he made during his talks and, at the end of each lecture, he wanted to discuss about them. He was also very eager to learn the popular daily spoken French language and slang. So we decided to add each day one new word to his vocabulary. It was a quite successful experience and Zdzislaw was very proud when he could use these new words in some conversation or seminar. Sometimes, it led to some very good jokes appreciated by the audience.

Once, he was asked to take part to the examination board of a thesis. But, for some unknown reason, he forgot at which time the talk took place. So he arrived one hour late and after that the poor candidate had started her speech. Without any hesitation, Zdzislaw went to the first rank and took his place at the board. When it was his turn to ask questions, he formulated the most relevant ones, showing that he had seriously looked into the manuscript!

Zdzislaw was also very interested to visit the countryside of Grenoble, whatever the season was. He had bought some compact skis and his favourite ski station was Chamrousse. How nice it was to go out for skiing with him: with his red anorak and his frosty beard, Zdzislaw looked very often like Father Christmas. He had also bought some excursion guides and every Friday he asked for some recommendations for some nice trip to do during the weekend. And every Monday, at lunchtime, he reported on his adventures. Once he was very proud to tell us that he had seen some nice gemsbok. We asked where he had seen it and how it looked like. He said that the gemsbok he saw was surrounded by some sheep. So we came to the evident conclusion that it was in fact some goat!

When Zdzislaw was invited for a rather long period to visit us in Grenoble, he always came by car, with his faithful French Peugeot 404. He took also regularly the opportunity to check his car in the garage we recommended to him. How depressed Zdzislaw was when the garage keeper told him that the car could no more be repaired and that it would be dangerous to continue to use it. So, after some complicated custom procedure, it was decided to destroy the car. With some small tear at his eye, Zdzislaw asked the permission not to attend to the crushing of his venerable 404. It was his last French car.

And how could we forget the period when Zdzislaw had his myocardial infarction three days before he was intended to join Lund. He staid at the "clinique Belledonne" and at this period we were just achieving a common paper. In the first draft of it, Zdzislaw wanted to add some acknowledgements to Dr Richalet, his cardiologist, and to the staff of the clinic for the good working conditions: a sign that, even in one of the most difficult period of his life, Zdzislaw had preserved all his sense of humour!

All those who collaborate with Zdzislaw are unanimous to say that it was a great chance. We all learned very much from him about physics certainly but also about human relations. He was so modest and so tactful. When, in some discussions, we did no agree, he found always the good words to converge. And he was almost right!