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 Saturday, May 24 2003 |
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 Taking advantage of a break in the weather, we headed for the mountains after lunch on Friday. After a monster traffic jam in Ugine, we made our way to the Beaufortain country where Beaufort cheese is made. We stopped at the large coöp in Beaufort and watched large cheeses being made in a large stainless steel facility. Beaufort cheese was crowned "Best Cheese, All Categories" in the 1998 Cheese Olympiads in Austria. |
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 We went down into the temperature-controlled caves beneath the coöp to see the endless rows of ripening cheeses. There are tons upon tons of cheese down there, releasing an odor that can only be called "sui generis" (for those who know Latin) or "gym socks" (for those who wax less poetic). After convincing Bethany that we would not lock her in the basement with the cheese, she accepted to give her Vanna White pose, after which we all went up and tasted samples of this deliciously nutty and mild Swiss cheese variant. |
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  Driving higher into the mountains, we stopped at a travelers' chapel overlooking Lake Roselend and saw some rare Alpine orchids (orchys) blooming in the grass near the chapel. |
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Reaching the Cormet de Roselend mountain pass, at an altitude of 1968 meters, the students could not resist the temptation of engaging in a snowball fight and then climbing a hill overlooking the area. The air was crisp but thin, as we all noticed upon climbing just a few hundred feet.
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  The
photo at left shows Bethany jumping vigorously in a vain attempt to
coax snow out of her trousers... the shot at right is of Koch's gentians,
the bluest flowers to be found anywhere. They are a protected species
and can be found all over the mountain slopes when people actually heed
the warnings about not picking them, which isn't always the case... |
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 From
the mountain pass we proceeded down the other side of the mountain to
Bourg Saint Maurice and Aime, where we stopped to visit the thousand-year-old
basilica dedicated to St. Martin. The building was locked for a concert
later that evening, but some pleading and smiles convinced the guard
to let us in for a quick peek at the treasures inside. The photo below
left shows the key to the building; the photo at right below shows the
XIth Century crypt, which closely resembles in design and proportion
crypts in other churches as diverse as the cathedral of Worcester in
England or the cathedral of Aosta in northern Italy, which serves to
remind us of the cultural and commercial contacts that existed in Europe
even in the distant past. |
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No, Colette was not overtaken by emotion or beset by an epileptic fit : she chose to lie on her back in order to get the widest possible view of the apse's vaulted ceiling. The other picture shows some of the remaining XIIIth Century frescoes; The large image represents the Massacre of the Innocents, whereas the small panels at right represent the creation of Adam and Eve.
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Underneath the church's floor is a lapidary museum which contains an impressive collection of Roman stelae and gravestones. It is a reminder that Aime, which was called Axima in Roman times and which can be found on the famous Peutinger Table (the only surviving Roman road map), was an important stop on the roads which crossed the Alps two thousand years ago and more. The students are seen below looking at a particularly touching object, a gravestone inscribed to the memory of a boy who, while a student in Italy, died in his sixteenth year; his body was brought back to Axima and buried under the gravestone that had been ordered by his grieving mother.
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After the spectacular ride into the mountains and snowball fights and amidst the general mirth, this was a sobering memento mori that helped our students to understand the continuity of life in the region and the universality of human emotion through time and space. Saturday and Sunday are days off, though the annual AFA banquet will be held on Saturday evening and run into the wee hours of Sunday morning... |
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