Geocaching!

Tues 22 May 2012 continued

Sheep outside of Vergons

After descending from the mountain, Bryce, David and I made a quick pit stop at the gite before continuing on to Notre-Dame-de-Valvert, a church on the outskirts of Vergons.  As we were leaving the village to head up the road, we saw one of the local farmers with his sheep across the road.  Bryce got a little excited - as his chapter for Dr. Wingerd's class was all about the animals of France and it talked about taking sheep from one part of the mountains to another.

Cemetery at Notre-Dame-de-Valvert

The church was all made of stone, with a stone wall surrounding the cemetery.  Right in front, surrounded by a wrought iron fence as the memorial to the war dead, Paul Simon included.

Interior Alter

The interior of the church was very dark - as the stone structure had few interior windows.  It was, after all, a medieval fortified church.  Originally the village of Vergons was much closer to this church, but it was destroyed by a landslide and those who survived relocated the village to its current location.

After talking about geocaching for a few days - annoying some and intriguing others - I finally had the opportunity to introduce Bryce and David to the game.  GC1WENW Vergones - Notre Dame de Valvert was located somewhere on the grounds.  I went and found the cache when the guys explored the cemetery.  Once I found it, I got them to ground zero and made them hunt for it themselves. 

The geocache is in this picture - can you find it?

Bryce has good geosence and walked straight to it. The pressure's off - I found one cache in France and any others are a wonderful bonus.  We each signed the log and put it back in its hiding place.  Too bad the container was too small for me to put my geocoin in.  Perhaps the next one will be better. 

Michel and me with our winning score

We walked back to the gite, worked on some homework for a while.  Bryce noticed that sometime in the next couple of days we were to have a Boule tournament, so I suggested that we go and practice.  It was a close game - Michel and I with a final score of 13 and Bryce and David with 11.  We're improving, but I know I still need more practice.

The rest of the evening consisted of dinner and more homework/hanging out at the gite.  For more pictures of the day go here.

Hiking Le Chamatte

Tuesday 22 May 2012

Thankfully Tim woke me up this morning - otherwise I would have been late for class.  We finished discussing Becoming Roman and got a few more chapters accomplished in The Discovery of France.  Not bad for what was supposed to be our free day.  Our free day came earlier than planned, as the weather was not the most cooperative for touring the Gorges of Verdon, so we swapped a few things around with the hope for better weather later in the week.

Following class, several of us grabbed lunch at the local resturant, named Le Chamatte after the mountain, and then we got ready to go for a hike up the mountain near Vergons.  Dr. O'Brien and Michel lead the way.

Heading up the mountain.  The village of Vergons is in the background.

Marker for Paul Simon

Our first stop along the way was at a memorial dedicated to a man named Paul Simon.  He was shot by the Germans in June 1944 at this location, as he was hiding outside of town when they came through the area during WWII.  It is unsure why he was there in the first place.  Perhaps he was part of the Resistance, perhaps he had other reasons.

Me with a view of the valley

A view of the village of Vergons

From this point, some in our group turned back to town, while the rest of us continued onward and upward.  Our destination was a hunting shack located about a third of the way up the mountain.

So many amazing views were to be had as we continued onward and upward.

David and Bryce making the final approach

It was such a great feeling to reach the hunting shack and see how small Vergons was below.  Dr. O'Brien had fun showing us the rustic outhouse (see picture below).  You know you are in a remote location when the "house" part of the outhouse is nonexistant!

The best view of them all

While we were tinkering around Bryce and David went to see where the rock-slide happened.  Then the three of us descended much quicker than it too us to make the climb.  We wanted to see Notre-Dame-de Valvert and I wanted to find a geocache - more on that adventure in my next post. :)

View of the mountain

Looking back up at the mountain, it is amazing to think how far up we really were.  I wish I could point it out to you in the photograph, but I really have no idea where we were :)

For more pictures go here.

Entrevaux

Monday 21 May 2012

We began the morning with another round of class - almost finishing our discussion of Becoming Roman, just one more chapter to go.  It became clear that it wasn't just conquering when the Roman Empire expanded.  Yes there was bloodshed, but there was also adaptation, mixing of culture, acculturation - the Gauls choose what they wanted to keep beyond the basic forced acceptance.  They even went as far to embrace certain aspects of the Roman culture as their own.  This gave me something to look for as we went off exploring ancient sites.

Following class, we had a short break and then boarded the little bus that we would come to spend way too much time on over the next three weeks and headed to the train station at St-Andre-les-Alpes and caught the train to the village of Entrevaux.

Erica and Minda in front of the bus

The train was a fun adventure.  We saw some sheep along the way and I learned about automated restroom doors.  Be sure to look for the buttons to open and close, then be a little patient instead of trying to force the door open as I did.  The mountains in this area are beautiful.  It amazes me the lengths people will go to in order to live and travel through country like this.  The infrastructure of roads, rail-lines, bridges over deep revines, and tunnels through thick mountains of stone far surpasses the amount of effort I would think to put in in order to live in such a place.  What people will do to connect one desirable area with another.

Sheep in the mountain pasture viewed from the train window

We arrived at Entrevaux in early afternoon and immediately headed straight up to the Citadel.  It was an interesting process to watch several American get tokens out of the machine and go through the turnstile to access the road that lead up to the citadel.  Eventually we all made it through, but there were a couple of small boys with their father who must have had a good laugh at our expense.   

Cannon in the Museum

The first thing I did on the other side was check out the little museum.  Its largest feature was a cannon in the center, but no interpretive information to go along with it and all the signs within the room were written in French.  So needless to say, I gleaned what I could, but mostly just looked at the pictures.  Coming out of the museum I discovered that I had been left behind by my friends - as they had already started climbing the road without me.  The little boy who had been at the turnstile shouted "Allez, allez, allez" so up I went after them.

Entrevaux - City and Citadel

Path to the top

Now to give you an idea of what challenge faced us - my professor has not even been to the top of the Citadel.  If you look on the left side of the photograph above and you'll see the edge of the wall sticking out of the buildings.  Follow the zig-zag pattern to the top - that is what we had to climb.  No idea how far or high it is, but it took us at least thirty minutes to climb.  We did make it to the top and enjoyed exploring the ruins, which have been partially restored in recent years.

We explored prisons that held German POWs during WWI, murder holes above entrances, and underground tunnels that connect all the way to the top level of the citadel.  However, nothing could beat the view from the top - see for yourself.  Wouldn't you want to defend this too?  Look how far into the valley you can see on this cloudy day.  Imagine how much farther you could potentially see your enemy and get your people to safety if it was bright and clear?  Now you'd be thinking like a medieval leader!

Following exploring the citadel, we grabbed some lunch - successfully ordered hamburgers, fries, and coke all in French!  After lunch we wandered through the old part of town, explored the Cathedral which was built in the 17th Century and housed relics belonging to St. John the Baptist.  Through the Port d'Italie, which is the entrance to the city on this side of the river, I discovered a nice monument to those who were killed during the Great War.

We boarded our little bus back to Vergons and had a nice dinner at the local restaurant.  Following dinner we returned to our Gites and I taught Minda, Bryce, David, and Erica how to play Carcassonne- the board game named after a city we were to visit later in the trip.  I think they enjoyed the game - we did play three rounds before turning in for the night. :)

Minda, Bryce, David, and Erica playing Carcassonne

For more photographs of Entrevaux - go here.  Also, if you have been checking out the photographs, check back every now and again - the rest of the group is starting to add their pictures to mine!

A Day of Discussion

Sunday 20 May 2012

No rest for the weary - this was a study abroad trip, so we spent most of the day in class, which started at 9:00 am.  The local cafe/restaurant was kind enough to let us use their room as a gathering place.  We had a great discussion on the first four chapters of Becoming Roman for my Ancient and Medieval Southern France class .  It was good to get some background information before going out and exploring the sites.  It made it a lot easier to understand what I was seeing.

We took a break around lunch time and I took a much needed nap.  It seemed to take me forever to get onto French time and be able to get enough sleep.  I seemed to remedy this problem by just sleeping on the bus all the time.  Oh well.

For the afternoon we discussed The Discovery of France for my Monuments and Memory in France class.  Things started to connect and blend between the two classes, helping ideas to solidify.  It also helped me understand the book better as we only had to read our assigned portions and I had the last chapters.  This is a book I do want to go back and read in its entirety.  It seems like a lot of fun based on what I did read and what was brought up in discussion.

Tim, David, Dr. Wingerd, and Cindy

Muaamar and Nathan

Following class we were invited to Gilbert's (sounds more like Gee bear) for dinner.  Gilbert is a good friend of Dr. O'Brien and Michel who lives in Vergons.  Michel cooked sausage on the grill, along with chicken legs and pasta salad.

Following dinner we walked back to the gite in the rain and spent the evening attempting to do homework.

Cards are a lot more fun than homework!