I have been invited by the board of the French Society of Cell Biology (SBCF) to write a text around my presentation in the Symposium 'A day at the Cell Centre', held at the Curie Institute on May 17, 2019, and organized by four of my former students, namely Juliette Azimzadeh, Nathalie Delgehyr, Matthieu Piel and Manuel Théry. I have to thank them warmly for the quality of the science during this day. It was also a moving day for me indeed to listen to so many figures in the field.