Narnia

Well, I thought spring was on its way: trees are budding, snow drops and primroses appearing, and my eyes itching like crazy! I woke up last Sunday morning to snow falling, and it continued to fall, fairly steadily, all day. My friend Adrian took up the search for two daughters of Eve and two sons of Adam in order to banish the unending winter.

It was a truly quiet Sunday. We went to morning mass as usual. I’m working on learning the Lord’s Prayer in French. A couple rounds of Rummikub after lunch and café. Homework. We watched “Le Petit Nicholas” before dinner – I think the snow was making Claire feel a bit stir-crazy.

Saturday, I went with Claire and Pierre-Jacques on a hike. We went up into the mountains, and then through a rural area. Our path took us by a pasture with two Haflingers (I’m pretty sure that the horses were Haflingers). One of them came right up to me when I clucked at her, sniffed me, and then let me pet her. She really enjoyed having her forehead scratched, and would but my shoulder to ask for more when I stopped. We also saw an Appaloosa, a paint, and the filthiest donkey ever – it had dreadlocks!

Rewind to February 26 – the Friday after break. We met up with API right after our vocabulary class, many of us with sandwiches, as our class ended at 12:30. We all loaded onto an autocar, and drove about a half an hour away to the town of Voiron. This is where the liqueur, Chartreuse, is distilled. It has historically been made by the Chartreuse – an order of monks whose monastery rests in the Chartreuse Mountains. Today, there are a few monks who continue to mix the secret recipe of herbs, allowing the rest of the community to focus on prayer and meditation. The mixed herbs are then transported to the distillery in nearby Voiron, where the actual alcohol is distilled, using computers to monitor temperatures and such.

We toured the distillery, including a couple horribly cheesy films, and some terribly cheesy displays. However, at the end of the tour, we got to enjoy a degustation – a tasting. We had various choices: the standard vert et jaune – green and yellow – as well as a vintage green, mix of green and yellow, and other specialty liqueurs from the area. I tried the mix, as I tasted the yellow Chartreuse with my host family on a couple of occasions, and wanted to try something a little different. The yellow is very sweet, and the green has a very herby quality. All Chartreuse is best served cold, either chilled, or served with on ice, though with varying ideal temperatures. Of course the exit, as always, was through the gift shop – however, the prices for plain bottles was quite reasonable, however the gift boxes were rather exorbitant.

Our next stop was the Grand Chartreuse. The monastery is situated in the mist of these mountains, the site chosen by St Bruno, because of its desolation – he called the area a desert. Typically, we would have visited the museum, but as it has been closed for repairs, we hiked to the location of the monastery, and then climbed the hill beyond it, in order to have the best possible view. The whole area was magnificent! The monastery is closed to visitors – when the brothers have visitors (the occurrence of which is limited by the order) they meet their visitors outside of the walls of the monastery. From the hill, we could see the small, individual houses, which are in addition to the communal buildings within the walls. Each monk keeps his own residence and garden, aiding the practice of individual silence, mediation, and prayer.
On our way back down to the autocar, the clouds were breaking at the same time as the sun began to drop behind the mountains. The effect was a magnificent golden light, which would fall here and there, constantly changing and calling to attention different elements of the landscape. It was breathtaking, and I couldn’t take enough pictures. Unfortunately, a camera just can’t capture everything, and I’m not the best photographer either. Therefore, my photos are not nearly as grandiose as what we experienced!