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Sunday,
June 10, 2001
(Have another look at the Eighth
Report, a few photos were added).
On Thursday, the weather
proved nicer than anticipated, so that we headed for the Chamonix
valley instead of Geneva (we'll hit Geneva next week). After a
long drive on a very winding road in the Arly river gorge, we
caught sight of the Mont Blanc, the highest peak in Europe. We
stopped outside of the village of Combloux to take a first picture
of the mountain massif, little grasping the actual size of the
huge mountain that loomed high into the sky in front of us.
 
After another stretch
on the road, we arrived in Chamonix, which was the site in 1924
of the very first Winter Olympics. We boarded the Montenvers cog
railway for a trip to the Mer de Glace (Sea of Ice) glacier.
 
As we reached the Montenvers station,
we saw the breathtaking panorama of the glacier and surrounding
mountain peaks unfold before our eyes in the morning light.
 
The cog railway, built
in 1908, allowed us to climb thousands of feet and to view the
spectacular vista without any real effort on our part. In the
image below, the Mer de Glace glacier can be seen snaking its
way down from the Grandes Jorasses massif; global warming has
considerably reduced the mass of ice, which has shrunk by close
to half in the past seventy-five years.
After a picninc lunch near the glacier,
we went back down to Chamonix to stroll around town for about
an hour. Souvenir pictures were snapped (note the pile of cameras
to the right of the photographer... everyone is going to end up
with the same shots!), and students sampled the Italian ices from
sidewalk vendors.
 
Since both the Brévent and Flégère
cablecars were closed for maintenance, we opted to go up to the
Aiguille du Midi cablecar which rises about two miles above the
valley floor. We boarded the modern car for the speedy ride into
the clouds. A couple of the students weren't too sure about the
ride, so they were provided with tickets to the first level, plenty
high but not nearly as frightening for true acrophobics!
The view from Plan l'Aiguille (below)
shows our destination in the clouds; when we got to the top, we
went through the tunnels that criss-cross the rocky pillar on
top of which an observation platform allows for a magnificent
view of the Alps. While there are elevators to the highest platforms,
we did take a few short stairways and found ourselves gasping
for air at the 12,500 foot altitude.
 
As we looked out toward the mountain
that rose yet another thousand meters  above
us, we could glimpse, both above and below us, climbers who had
taken the long and slow way up. The telephoto shot at left shows
some climbers close to our mountain peak; most had been climbing
since before dawn, and we were filled with admiration at their
stamina and resolve.
Looking at the mass of the Mont Blanc
further to the right, we began to realize how huge the mountain
was, especially when we could spot the tiny black dots that were
the mountain climbers. It eventually hit us that what seemed merely
like a white hill was evidently huge, and that there were still
miles of climbing ahead for the people we could see nearby.
The air was clear, and we could see
the Po valley in northern Italy, and the famed Matterhorn far
away in Switzerland. The air temperature was surprisingly mild
until the wind started to blow; the feel of the wind on our exposed
hands reminded us all of the danger of wind chill and we headed
indoors to the cafeteria for a cup of hot chocolate!
The trip concluded with a bus ride
back to Faverges; the repeated changes in altitude were surprisingly
tiring, and most of the students fell asleep during the ninety-minute
ride back home. Our bus driver remarked that the students
were not "très résistants" and I for
one was grateful that she did not need to sleep!
Friday, classes as usual in the morning.
Some students did some research at the local médiathèque
in the afternoon.
Saturday morning, the weather was
not cooperating as the AFA-sponsored day trip began. The twelve
students and twenty-two host family members boarded the bus
in Faverges.
 
After an hour's trip past Albertville
and down the Combe de Savoie, we reached the Cruet wine coöperative,
where we were given a tour of the coöp which produces one-eighth
of Savoie's wine. Some 350 different wine-growers are associated
in the coöp which has recently produced gold-medal-winning wines.
Our guide, an oenologist of the coöperative,
explained the complexities of gathering the harvest from hundreds
of winegrowers working with a fair number of varietals. In the
stock room which is called "the cathedral", he spoke
of the the 4.6 million liters stored in the huge thermally-controlled
vats; we saw also the 28 stainless steel vats used for the confection
of the local red wines, which in recent years have improved
from the traditional "piquette" (lousy wine) to award-winning
vintages, thanks to improved scientific knowledge and techniques.
 
The tour ended with an extended wine-tasting,
as our visit coincided with the annual "portes ouvertes"
(open door) tasting; we all wolfed down the excellent local
 saucisson
(hard salami), Beaufort cheese, and bread as we sampled four
different wines. Everyone agreed that the local Chardonnay was
very easy to drink, the Rosé was middling, but the local
oak-barrel-aged Pinot Noir was outstanding. (Orange juice was
available for the abstainers in the group, by the way).
A half-hour after the tasting, we
stopped along the highway for our lunchtime picnic, elaborately
prepared by AFA president Yvette Millot. Her view of a picnic
involves five courses, and the food was delicious as always.
The weather, however, was not coöperating, and we took refuge
either in the bus or in the baggage hold, and a fine time was
had by all despite the persistent drizzle.
 
Another half hour's ride took us
into Lyon, where we drove through the famed "Tête
d'Or" park, whose zoo has a good number of endangered species,
most notably 
several pair of Bengal tigers. The rain kept us from visiting the enormous rose
garden, which we viewed from the comfort of the bus.
As we arrived in the center of the
city, the group split into shoppers and tourists. Eight of the
students accompanied some of the French host families in visiting
a shopping center, and then headed into the old part of town.
The other four students went directly to Fourvières,
the hilltop which affords a view of Lyon, the second-largest
city in France.
At the top of the hill is the marvelously
gaudy Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvières, a church
built in the late XIXth century. The imitation Byzantine interior
is entirely covered with Murano glass mosaic tile whose glitter
cannot fail to impress even the casual onlooker.
 
The hilltop site has been inhabited
for an enormously long time. Lyon two thousand years ago was
the capital of Roman Gaul, and was peopled long before that
by the Gauls and their predecessors. Not two hundred meters
from the basilica is a large archeological complex which encompasses
a museum of Gallo-Roman archeology as well as the huge hillside
Roman theater of the city that was then called Lugdunum.
The two theaters, of which the photo
above shows the larger, are still used in the summertime for
both theater festivals and musical concerts. (By the way, the
small red figure three steps up from the stage is UA student
Kendra Miller).
 
From the hilltop we then proceeded
to the "Vieille Ville," specifically the medieval
St Jean district whose cathedral antedates Paris' Notre Dame
by some decades. The statuary on the façade having been
destroyed during the French Revolution, the building is less
interesting to visit than some; however, the astronomical clock
within, first mentionned in a document dating to 1236, is an
impressive example of medieval technology. It marks the time,
date, phases and position of the moon in the heavens, and continues
to run quite accurately, though the date dial will have to be
changed come the year 2020.
 We
walked through the very well preserved neighborhood which extends
for many blocks, and is currently in the process of gentrification.
As we ambled past cafés, restaurants, gift shops and
sidewalk musicians, we looked for the city's characteristic
"traboules", pedestrian alleyways which run through
and connect many of the buildings of the area.
The two groups met again early in
the evening so that we could go to dinner at the "Brasserie
Georges", a restaurant that has been in business since
1836.
 
We spent the usual two and a half
hours at the table and compared notes of the day's activities,
before boarding the bus for the two-hour drive back to Faverges.
Everyone was ready to go to bed and
sleep in on Sunday, which is a rainy day, perfect for writing
web pages or reading a few chapters out of the course textbook!
In the coming week, we plan to hold
classes as usual, go to Geneva on Tuesday, and, if the weather
is good, to the Beaufort cheese cooperative and Cormet de Roselend
mountain pass on Friday afternoon.
Next
report to be posted Wednesday, June 13, 2001
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