Tuesday, June 8 1999 : Wednesday's Roman Digs (June 2) Thursday's School Visit (June 3) Wednesday, we held our morning classes as usual. At noon, we all had the weekly spaghetti lunch, this time at the Mimaults' house, and enjoyed the shade of the awning on their patio before going back to the archeological museum. We met our guide, Patrick Rendu, to visit the quasi-crypt under the St-Jean-Baptiste church in Viuz. We crawled on hands and knees in the narrow space, lighting our way with a few flashlights brought along for the circumstance. We examined the bones of Favergiens of the past thousand years, identifying ribs, femurs, skulls, vertebrae, ulnae and radii, a jaw and countless other skeletal remains, as different students expressed emotions from extreme reticence to enthusiasm over our little incursion into this rarely-visited area. Our guide (at left below) had in fact never been under the church's floor and had expressed some hesitation about crawling into the claustrophobia-inducing space... We brushed off the dust from our clothing, trying not to think of what it was likely constituted, and from the church, drove over to the Thovey digs on the eastern outskirts of Faverges. We descended into the area where a mansio stood between 50 B.C. and 270 A.D. Ground level at that time was some three feet lower than today, so that it quickly became clear that a dig involves the removal of many tons of soil before the diggers even reach archeological levels. The photo at bottom right shows Sharon standing on the threshold of the mansio ; the size of the stone suggests that the entrance was originally spanned by a fifteen-foot-high archway. Patrick, in clear and well-enunciated French, explained the layout of the compound, from the peristyle that surrounded an inner courtyard to the numerous different rooms that constituted the Roman baths that for centuries were an important meeting place for the Gallo-Romans who lived in the area. The lecture was followed by an initiation to the gentle and deliberate art of digging. With trowels, dustpans, buckets and brushes, we began uncovering a zone that will be more fully searched this coming summer. After some screaming and excited scurrying about occasioned by the passage of a tiny lizard that had been sunning itself peacefully on the stonework, the digging began in earnest. Some proved luckier than others; Egle, Jennifer B. and Lisa soon found Roman nails in the soft clay underneath broken Roman tiles; these nails, which had originally tied the roof structure together, fell to the ground when the building was burned down in the year 270 by a roving band of Germanic pillagers. Buried under tons of earth from collapsed rammed earth walls, the nails remain in surprisingly good condition and make good souvenirs! Storm clouds began to gather, casting welcome shadow on the sun-baked site; after a while, it seemed like a good idea to put away the equipment, as the storm clouds were growing higher in the sky. We all managed to make it to safety just before impressive thunderstorms pelted the area with rain , bringing relief from the oppressive heat of the past week. Thursday, June 3rd After our usual morning conversation groups and civilization class, three of the students spent the afternoon in the local Special Education school which is located in a modern building just above Faverges. Our three students, all of whom plan careers in teaching, were invited to observe classes and participate in the after-school conference that the center's teachers hold every afternoon to discuss the students' progress. Warmly greeted by the school's staff, our students visited the ateliers where students with learning disabilities learn usable trades while developing motor skills. The school takes in children aged 12 and above. From ages 12 to 14, they receive remedial education and training in language and arithmetic; they are encouraged to try various hobbies and crafts in the hope that they will develop skills that can later be applied to a trade. The school, which is an "institut médico-éducatif", provides psychiatric care and specially trained teachers for the students. The school's director, Jean-Marc Grange (second from left in group photo above) explained that the children who attend the school have come because of academic failure in traditional educational settings. This failure is due to either mild retardation, emotional problems, or may result from a poor home environment. By placing the children in programs in which they are encouraged to excel at a level which they can reasonably expected to attain, the cycle of failure is broken and the children are able to be mainstreamed into the workforce when they graduate. The photo at top right shows teacher Michel Duret watching over KSU student Renée Chlysta and one of the students of the school; the photos below show some of our students, future teachers all, working with some other students of the school. At the end of the school day, we attended a meeting of the student/teacher council; together they decide on school activities and funding; for example, last fall they voted to send the proceeds of a crafts fair to help the people of Guatemala. We were given brochures about the school along with an open invitation to return at any time. Our students were impressed by the beautiful setting and the dedication of the staff, as well as by the optimism and good will of the students. The Paris trip proved to be more time-consuming than anticipated, so that the reports are a bit late. Details and pictures will be posted shortly. Questions? Comments? Please write by clicking the @ link below     You are visitor No. (more or less) to one of our "Trip" pages in quite a while. Thanks for stopping by!   Page and images ©1999 by Robert F. Jeantet End of the 1999 trip06 page