5: les Trois
Vallées
I returned
to France last week, on March 3rd, after suffering with a cold for virtually
the entire time I was home. And due to a British Airlines flight
cancellation (their flight schedules are as reliable as their cars), my
return trip took me 26 hours door-to-door. Painful!
Spring is about to arrive here. More and more
often the daytime temps are in the 50's and 60's and the sun shines often,
at least during the day. Yesterday (Saturday) I spent most of the day
window shopping in Grenoble. As soon as the temperatures become tolerable
the outside tables appear on every sidewalk, corner, and square. And
you are probably getting the correct impression that I am loving it here.
A couple of the smaller movie
theaters occasionally present recent movies in Anglais (English). We saw
Catch Me If You Can last night, a real treat. Movies which are
presented with the original dialogue are identified with the letters VO in
the description. Often, the VO is followed by STF. Translated, VOSTF essentially
means Version Original, Sub-Title French (it just happens that the French
words for VOSTF begin with these same letters, and probably mean about the
same thing).
Typically, the country of "origin" of the
movie is not mentioned. It's up to the reader to determine if the movie was
"original in English". You do this by trying to recognize one of the
actors, or the director, etc. Obviously, a movie directed by Hong Sang-Soo
is not likely to be in English! (I didn't make this up). Catch Me If you
Can translates to Arrête-moi si tu peux. When I requested tickets I
couldn't remember any of the title so I just said "Tom Hanks". They got the
message. This week is Monsieur Schmidt avec Jack Nicholson. I'm looking
forward to it.
A friend who I work with and have known for years
made an interesting observation yesterday. John said he can empathize with
how an illiterate person must feel. Occasionally we read something that
makes some sense but usually the combination of letters and words on a sign
or in a newspaper is a mystery. Definitely frustrating.
Today the itinerary consisted of a short drive
back to the mountains (on the map, #2 is Méribel and #3 is Courchevel. I
work in Crolles which is along this route, near Grenoble.) Yes, as many of
you know, I love the mountains. It took a little over an hour to drive to
Méribel, a beautiful resort in the Alps and one of the venues of the 1992
Winter Olympics. My friend Jim lived here for six months in 1992.
Vallée
de Méribel is the middle valley of three valleys, an area appropriately known
as les les Trois Vallées here in France. To the south of Méribel is Vallée
des Belleville (Val Thorens at the top of the valley but not shown on the
map), and to the east is Vallée de Courchevel, another Olympic venue. The
area spans about 20+ miles, as the crow flies, and the entire area is linked
via a maze of ski lifts and gondolas. You can go from Courchevel to Val
Throrens and seldom touch the ground. But if you're afraid of heights, take
the bus.
Here is a an example of a rather nice Boulangerie
/ Chocolatier in Méribel. Of course, you will find a boulangerie on
practically every street in France. There is no shortage of bread (i.e.
pain, say "pa", while you hold your nose), cheese (i.e. fromage, say "fro-maazh") and
wine (i.e. vin say "va") here.
And, given the beautiful weather, lunch and a
beer on the terrace in Courchevel was not to be missed. My red
fleece has been perfect for most days.
A popular sport in this area, in addition to
skiing of course, is paragliding. A huge air-filled parafoil, similar to a
very large modern parachute, is used to glide amongst the peaks in a manner
similar to hang gliding. Another popular sport is rock climbing. In fact,
I belive that nearby Chamonix is the capital of rock climbing in Europe.
Ice climbing in popular this time of year. In the photo at left, notice
the climber on the ice spire with top rope. I would love to try this but
unfortunately I don't have the proper contacts and I'd probably hit myself
in the head with the ice axe. But I'm asking around.
Today was beautiful. Sunny with temps in the
sixties Fahrenheit (14C to be exact), but it felt much warmer in the thin
air and intense sunshine. Next weekend perhaps skiing will be on the
agenda.