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French Sabbatical
  1. Setting It Up
  2. The Preview
  3. French Christmas
  4. Univ. of Rouen
  5. Parents Visit
  6. 2 Weeks in Paris
  7. Spring Sights
  8. 1st Week- Périgord
  9. 2nd Week- Périgord
 10. Adv. in Brittany
 11. 1st Week- Alps
 12. 2nd  Week- Alps
 13. England & Home
 14. They Visit Us
 15. Other Visits

Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology ("MAC")

12.  2^nd Week in the Alps

We started our second week in the French Alps with Jan arriving from Sweden for a couple of days, as planned.  After a quick game of miniature golf on Monday morning, the boys left for an over-night "refuge" (or camp-out) up in a shepherd's hut high on the mountain, supervised by the Sports Club.  

On our own, we took Jan to see a quaint village named, of all things, St. Martin (like the College in Lacey).  As you can see, the town, nested in a beautiful scenic valley, was almost nothing but Alpine chalets decorated with flowers, flowers, flowers — everywhere.  We also drove off to explore a smaller, dependent village that we had spotted on the edge of a nearby cliff down a gravelly, narrow road.  It definitely was not on the tourist circuit, and that made it even better.  The village was tiny, and we ended up squeezing through the narrowest little road between two ancient buildings.  "Godfrey, you can't get through there!" said Merry.  Before we knew it, we were through the tiny village and on a farmer's dirt track right on the edge of the mountain.  "Godfrey, you turn this car around, right now!" said Jan.  "Or, I'm going to get out and walk!"  "You really want me to make a U-turn here ?"  "No!  No!"

The next morning we took Jan to the town of Annecy, a town that several people had recommended.  We parked near the breathtaking spot shown here.  There were sidewalk cafés everywhere and large containers full to bursting with flowers reflecting in the water.  We strolled down some old streets with the most interesting ancient buildings, fountains, and shops.  There were flowers were everywhere and on every corner were musicians and street entertainers, with every imaginable act for the tourists. 

We also took an excursion boat for a wonderful hour-long excursion on the lake where we saw Alpine chalets and a 13th century Château with many spires and round towers.  This was the birthplace of Saint Bernard, the founder of the Alpine hospice that used dogs to find people lost on the mountains.

Well, Jan loved it all, of course, and was sorry to have to jump on the train and head out.  With Jan gone and the family back together, we left for another LDS temple, this one in Switzerland.  We mounted the highest switch-backs we had gone up so far, and quickly found ourselves high in the mountains and heading down across a corner of Italy.  Since this was our only chance to eat Italian pizza and spaghetti in Italy, we stopped and had huge, individual pizzas - price for the lunch was 78,000 lira (about $65) but it was a once in a lifetime experience.

We followed the signs to Mont Blanc, the highest peak in Western Europe, and drove through a tunnel that was over 7 miles long with 12,000 feet of rock, above us.  What a thought!   We were anxious to see the star attraction, the Aiguille du Midi ("Noon Needle" - see the little needle on the top).  The cost of this activity was a blow - almost $200 for the five of us to go up to it!  Still, it was a marvel.  

The gondola lift went up the side of the mountain at an incredibly steep angle.  Within seconds, the town was far below; and within minutes, we were up high enough to be in a great deal of snow for the end of July.  It was over 3,842 meters (13,000 feet) at the top of the gondola lift.  Although it was chilly in the breeze, it was quite warm in the sunny areas; there were even people sun­bathing out on the large deck.  Here's our boys pretending to toss Benoit over the side.

After Mont Blanc, we headed north toward Switzerland on a beautiful back road through the mountains.  We got through the customs at the Swiss border with no problem, although the guards told us we needed an annual freeway sticker to drive on the autoroutes in Switzerland.  Price, about $40!  And that for only a two-day trip.  Heading north toward Bern, we passed through some gorgeous countryside.  The prettiest sight of all was an emerald green lake, called Lac de la Gruyère.  It was breath-taking with Alpine cottages and clumps of trees dotting the surrounding hills, and the ruins of a small castle on one of the islands in the middle of the deep green water.  The town of Gruyère, of course, was the birthplace of the famous Gruyère cheese (what we call, "Swiss cheese").

We found the cheapest hotel available but, even with two of the boys on the floor in sleeping bags, they got us for over $160.  (Yikes!)  And this was only the first of the price shocks.  We had heard Switzerland was unbelievably expensive, but...wow!  We went to Wendy's for something to eat for the kids, and spent $67!  In all, we spent $825 in a two-day trip.  But we enjoyed seeing the Swiss Temple.

On our way back from the Temple in Zollikofen, we stopped at the town of Fribourg to see the University of Fribourg that I had almost gone to for the sabbatical.  It was large, if somewhat run-down looking.  Overall, it was a cute, little town, but we certainly didn't feel any regrets at having missed something by not going there.  Then we drove on to Geneva.  Despite the bumper-to-bumper traffic in Geneva, we managed to see and film the Geneva Convention and a well-known jet of water in the lake that shot 450 feet into the air.

 On to the next French Sabbatical page

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