Bardonecchia, World School, hiking and pizza

The last few days in Nevache were equally as enjoyable as

before. On the first couple of days after Alex left we did a

couple of visits to Plumpinet, the next village down the

valley. Once with Richard, then without him on the day after. 

On Saturday there was a bread festival there, but by the

time Richard finished all his work we arrived too late for the

bread. However, this didn’t bother us, as we walked around,

looking for something to eat and just sightseeing. We got

lucky, there was one last pizza left, so we bought that,

took it home, made a salad to go with it and had a feast.

Ginny dwarfed by a  giant plant

Before that I took lots of photos, including one of the lamb,

that was roasting on the spit in the middle of the village.

I immediately thought of Roy, as he is rather fond of l

amb, but doesn’t get it too often due to his gout. As we

were all hungry, we didn’t stay long, but Ginny was also

planning a further visit, which we duly did on Sunday,

but this time without Richard.

A magnificent  wild flower

That was a brilliant visit, totally by accident. As we were

passing the old chapel, which they don’t use any more,

Ginny noticed the door was ajar. It turned out that we could

join a group of people who were led by a knowledgeable

lady on a tour of the chapel and the church. She told us lots

of interesting facts and I took a lot of photos. Both buildings

are extremely photogenic, so I had a blast.

The strange fluffy chicken in the smallholding

The later pattern during the week was mostly: Get up, have

a quick bowl of cereal, run down for the bread and

croissants/pain de chocolat, have a cup of coffee or tea

with the croissants/pain de chocolat, then Ginny and

Richard went off to do some work on their copmuters,

followed by a salad lunch. During this time I was also on

my computer or reading my book. The afternoon usually

included some veging out, followed by a small walk with

Ginny somewhere in and around Nevache.

Nice big lamb roasting on the spit

We did a few of these walks: first they were just extensions

of the morning bread run, later they included a few extra

kilometres by the river, through some forest and even up to

the origin of the mudslide of last August.

Fresco in the XVth century chapel in Plumpinet

The first riverwalk went West out of the village to a

smallholding where there were chickens, some very

peculiar looking. We also saw some guinea fowl and a

lovely big vegetable garden. En route home on this walk

we got a bit lost and came down quite steeply on the

terraces behind the house.

The VIth century church

The second riverwalk went East, passing a lovely, but yet

unrenovated chapel, then crossed the road, came out by a

lovely and steep forest, finally taking a rough road back to

the house. I also returned to the last kilometre of this  walk

on the morning of my departure, to get the sun behind me

for photographing the mountains. 

Frescos in the XVIth century church

The most fascinating of the walks, however, took us to the

source of the mudslide last August, which was a bit rocky

and steep, but afforded lovely views and explained a lot

about the topography, both natural and man-made, of the

village.

The course of the mudflow

We walked up next to the ski lift, while the actual piste was

running parallel to our route. It got more and more steep

and rocky until we found the bend in the mudflow. The

villagers believe that the large hump on the hillside is the

remnant of a 300 year old barrier that the villagers built then

for the same reason as it was very useful last August: to

stop or at least direct the flow away from the village. That is

exactly what happened. There were still a few properties

that had mud in and around them, but no real loss of

property or of life was recorded.

The little chapel by the river

After what was a really lovely stay at Ginny’s, I finally

departed on Tuesday, 23rd July, and arrived at

Bardonecchia.  Unfortunately the hostel was so stretched

with cleaners that I had to wait 4 hours + 1.5 hours to get

into my room. The latter was spent queueing to register, as

they were not exactly on top of that process either. Other

than this slight hiccup, my stay until today was very

enjoyable in several aspects.

Alex making a contribution

The leadoffs are generally very good,  enjoyable,

educational and in some cases contained lots of new

information for me. The best so far was Alan on Franco’s

Spain, which was a revelation. The Canadian youngsters

are as brilliant as they usually are and I love spending time

with them. This year, one thing is different from 2 and 4

years ago, namely the preponderance of francophone

members. I often listen to them chatting amongst

themselves fast and honestly, it does NOT sound like

French to me at all.

Rock face en route to the fort

On the free afternoon, Alex and I did a medium length hike

with maximum climb up the mountain opposite the hostel

to an old fort. That was honestly the best hike I have done

around there for sure. We had beautiful views, photographed

some lovely wildflowers, visited the fort, although it was

closed, so we couldn’t go inside, walked up the long but not

so steep way, and came back down the short and

murderously steep path.

The fort

We watched the last few matches of the comrades’ football

tournament and then gather the brood for a common dinner

of pizza. There were 23 of us, which is always fun, but this

time with the French youngsters from Quebec, it was even

more fun.

The Canadian delegation after dinner

The pizza place was great, which is not surprising as I have

been there before with Rob and Alex 2 years ago and it was

great then as well. After pizza, we walked another kilometre

up the valley to a pub, sat outside, had good beer and a

lovely time. 

Writing the song for Monday

We also wrote a song for the last night’s party, which is

based on “The Drunken Sailor” sea shanty and has a wicked

text now.  With having added a French first bit, I hope it will

have great success next Monday evening.

My small beer

I was in bed by 10:30pm, which means that I missed chatting

to the comrades in the bar last night, but I needed my beauty

sleep. I have actually had nearly 9 hours, but at least I am in

good shape this morning. Next post is probably from home,

after I got there.