Today after dropping off the boys at their tennis camp (this camp is for serious tennis players, which they aren't yet, and boy did they complain about how hard it was, and boy were they tired at the end of the day, so much so that we decided to leave them there just in the morning and for lunch, picking them up at 1), Suzie and I drove south to the town of Vizille. It is famous for its Chateau and accompanying grounds, and for a meeting at the Chateau of nobles, clergy, and elected members of the middle and lower classes, known as the Assemblee de Vizille, held a year before the French Revolution began, at which the assembly protested against Louis XVI's supression of Parliament, and called for a national assembly to discuss the individual freedom of all French citizens. Thus the Chateau has been called the cradle of the French revolution.
It is a beautiful buildings on large, green, beautiful grounds, with specimens of plants and trees from throughout the world (mostly the U.S. and Europe), a fish hatchery, and a large narrow pond containing large carp. Some photos follow (I encourage you to click on the pictures to go to the page where you can get a larger view of each of these; some of them do better in a larger size):
After we left Vizille we drove south a ways, along the Lacs de Laffrey, then, low on fuel, we turned around and headed to Grenoble to pick up the boys. For the first time this trip, we got seriously lost. I took a wrong angle off of a roundabout and ended up on the expressway; when we exited we found ourselves in Grenoble Big Box Heaven, with every store looking like Wal Mart. I was totally turned around, and finally, admitting defeat (I would not have been defeated had I not forgotten the Grenoble map, I should point out), we asked for directions and, wonders of wonders, actually understood them. As it turned out, we were within minutes of the tennis facility, and actually made it ahead of schedule.
We picked up the boys and headed back to Le Sappey. After a little break at our house, we decided to go on a hike up to Charmant Som, one of the highest elevations in the Chartreuse (but easily accessible because a road goes most of the way up). The drive there (which duplicated part of the drive we took on Sunday to St. Pierre en Chartreuse) was terrific, first a winding narrow two-lane mountain road, then a smaller road up to the parking lot, through dense forests that alternated between deciduous and conifer trees. The day was brisk and only partly sunny, and we were bundled up in sweaters and jackets. The first part of the hike was up a steep (very, very steep), grassy, barren ridge. By the time we’d gotten to the first peak, we were huffing and puffing pretty good.
After cresting a first hill, we still had to go up a second, less steep but more rocky, ascent in order to get to the top.
Once at the top, we were given a 360 degree view of the other peaks and valleys of the Chartreuse. We spent about 20 minutes at the peak, and met while we were there a very nice French family, the mother and father of which live in St. Pierre en Chartreuse, and the daughter of whom lives in Paris. Our discussion led us to talking about home exchanges; they also have a house in Tahiti. No, you read that correctly. They were very excited about the possibility of a house exchange in California, so we’ll see what happens. They were also very, very nice, and we walked back down with them after we’d had our fill of views. Pictures from the top include all of us,
Suzie taking a picture of our French friends,
And a view of St. Pierre en Chartreuse from on high,
We took a different way down, which seemed a lot easier (and not only because we were going downhill; this trail cut off the first hill and thus wasn't quite as steep), and which took us right through the meadow of grazing cows, leading, of course, to the mandatory photo des vaches:
This picture reminds me that one of the most memorable experiences was being on top of the peak and hearing the chiming, chiming, chiming of the cow bells rising up from the slope and meadow below. The ringing chiming, ringing chiming, and the whisk of the wind was magical.
We finished off our day by going back to St. Pierre en Chartreuse and having an early dinner, then driving back home. A few pictures from there follow tomorrow; it's late and I'm tired.
I apologize if I’ve been blogging not quite as well this year. The computer I’m using is slow, and the internet connection is slow, so it takes quite a lot of time to download, process, and upload the pictures. I still have some odd rants and observations stored up, perhaps one day I’ll do a picture-less entry, although this is such a beautiful area I’m not sure my descriptions could do justice without them.
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