Wednesday, May 30 2007

Over the weekend, the weather cooled suddenly. From the mid-80s on Friday, temperatures plummeted to the 40s and 50s as the mountains around Faverges all received a fresh coating of snow above 1500 meters. Students have changed back into sweaters and jeans. The photo at right shows students during break, along with conversation teacher Marie-Caroline Boubée who, though wearing a heavy Irish sweater, seems absolutely frozen !

On Tuesday afternoon we drove a few miles to the Morette Military Cemetery, burial site of some 100 resistance fighters executed by the Germans in the spring of 1944. The Resistance had, under orders from London, "liberated" a high mountain plateau (Le Plateau des Glières) in January 1944. Some 500 resistance fighters and military officers spent two months in deep snow as Vichy French, and later 12,000 SS troops surrounded the plateau. The SS troops had been trucked in from Normandy, and were still in Savoie at the time of D-Day, which was the idea behind the entire scheme. Once the "liberation" of the plateau had been sufficiently exploited by the Allied propaganda machine (it was front-page news in the US) ,the Resistance fighters were given the order to disperse. Not all were able to make it to safety: about 100 were killed as they tried to escape; those who were captured were quickly executed. These men are buried in Morette, which is the most important WW2 memorial in the region. The weather was rainy and grey, matching the mood of the students who, reading the inscriptions on the crosses, saw that many of the soldiers buried here were about the same age as they.

We continued on to the Resistance Museum, which chronicles all of the important events of World War 2. Period posters, newspapers, photographs, uniforms and weapons make the war tangible to the students. The museum is housed in an 18th century chalet which used to be on the plateau and was used by the resistance fighters during the cold winter months of 1944; the chalet was taken down and reassembled next to the cemetery, in a beautiful and deep valley. We were especially moved to see photographs of now-familiar places as they were during the war, strewn with the bodies of dead soldiers and civilians.

Our next stop was the nearby town of Thônes, now a colorful little market town nestled between high mountains. The old church contains a striking baroque altarpiece, this one complete with a representation of God the Father way at the top ! Savoie baroque altarpieces often contain such representations, reverently carved by local craftsmen in centuries past.

By Wednesday, the snow had descended to the 1200-meter level, just a couple of thousand feet above Faverges. The local cows took it all in stride, grazing on the frozen grass. The local Montbéliarde cows are a hardy mountain breed, and changes in the weather don't seem to faze them in the least. Though I'm not sure what a fazed cow looks like. The temperatures in Faverges hovered around the freezing mark overnight, but as the sun rose, springtime returned in all its glory.

In the picture at left, students sun themselves for the first time in days during a break between classes on Wednesday morning. A photo of mountains near Faverges can be seen by clicking here.

After classes, some students went to the weekly marché while others went to the bank to get funds for the Paris trip, which is to start on Thursday morning. Host families will provide transportation to Annecy; we are taking the 9:38 TGV to Paris, arriving in the early afternoon. The students have their tickets and are set to go.

But before the Paris trip, a couple more things to mention: Wednesday was pasta lunch at Yvette's, and the pièce de résistance this time was homemade vegetarian lasagna. After lunch, Bernard drove several of the students to the Col du Joly mountain pass, where 15 inches of fresh snow still covered the ground. The students report that a couple of chamois crossed the road in front of the car: hopefully we can get some pictures posted on this page !

Almost three weeks into the program, the students are eager to go to the big city; we have gone over basic safety rules, and should have relatively mild (though occasionally rainy) weather over the next few days. We will start our high-powered tour of the city on Thursday afternoon, with a very full day also on Friday, starting at 9:30am and finishing around 11pm. Students will have free time on Saturday and Sunday, and are beginning to choose the museums and sites they want to visit in detail. It may not be possible to post reports from Paris; but if it is, a report will be posted probably on Sunday.