12. High-flying, Cheese-Making, Ice Cream Eating, September 29

Like many other days we had great class sessions this morning, then activities afterwards. First off, of course, was LUNCH for all the students! A full blown three-course affair at “Bon Pain Bon Vin” in the middle of the Vielle Ville. Lynn and the others attended, while classmate Slim and I took off for other adventures. 

After a long lunch, Lynn  & the class attended the special session of Cheese Making, hosted by a master cheese maker here in town. The point was to learn how the dairy products are made, which make this Savoie region so famous. Everyone had their own cheese making supplies and equipment, so for a couple of hours they mixed. beat, strained, and mashed the cheese ingredients into submission. She brought the completed cheese back to our room in the hotel, so tomorrow after some refrigeration, we’ll try it out. 

Slim and I missed the group activities, in favor of Slim’s reservation to take a paraglider trip. He needed a ride to the little town of Doussant, and I needed an excuse to get out of town for a rural bike ride, so we connected and took off. We arrived at a huge hay field, the landing area for the paragliders, and headquarters for his instructor. While waiting for that guy to show up, we watched about a dozen different paragliders return from the mountains and gracefully land near us. Amazing to see half a dozen paragliders in the air at once, coming toward the landing zone. We could hear some screams of fear or delight drifting down from the passengers as the instructors sometimes did huge loops, swoops, and fancy-looking maneuvers before lightly touching the ground. 

                            

These WWI and WWII monuments are found in almost in every French town, usually at the town's Marie.  Names of the local people killed in the conflict are carved in stone, and the monuments are always immaculately kept up. The smaller monument here lists the members of the French Resistance who were assassinated or killed in conflict.

Slim had to ride a group van to the top of a local mountain for his ride, while I took off for my bike ride in the country. The route I mapped out ended up being too aggressive: VERY steep for VERY long, changing to VERY crude gravel/river rock surface…so I came back down to avoid injury! Found lots of paved roads through and around the small burgs of Saury and Lathuile, then headed to Doussard for a look-see, then out to the southbound Voie Verte bike path. Probably no more than 20 miles, but after two hours I was toast from fighting the steep mountain stuff. Back to the hayfield, just to discover that Slim had landed just a few minutes before…so we were ready to drive back to Annecy.

Slim sadly slipped suddenly on sailing, shredding skin on his shin. So we stopped at a Pharmacie in Saint-Jorioz. He politely introduced himself, and asked the lady inside if she could help him with his paragliding leg injury, speaking French the whole way. She took him into a small curtained-off room, professionally cleaned the wound, applied medication and bandage…then would accept no payment for anything, and complimented him on his French. Wow, what a wonderful thing. If we’d tried this at a CVS or Walgreens, we would have been immediately told to go to an Urgent Care center, with all the hassle that involves. Nice experience here with this health care system. 

   

Celebrations are frequent and welcome here. Slim and I celebrated his safe return to earth after flying higher than the mountains on the paraglider, and his return to health after the Pharmacie encounter, AND his upcoming 83rd birthday. How’d we do it? With excessive ice cream, of course! We both ordered the spectacular dish called “The Royal” at the outdoor "Cafe de The and Chocolatier". Several scoops of ice cream, sauces, whipped cream, etc. We sat, ate, drank,  and enjoyed some cafe culture, which encourages idle sitting & talking, watching the world go by, with no agenda or hurry. After we were done, we contacted our spouses and reestablished contact with regular life again. Tomorrow: class again!