La Motte d'Avelines France

28th Sept 2012

We have arrived at our next port of call. We had to drive through the centre of the Alps. Different scenery from Gumieres.

This time we are surrounded surrounded by mountains.

We have visited the Sanctuaire Notre Dame de La Salette, a church that was built high up in the mountains. This was pretty impressive.

Dave enjoyed having his photo taken standing next to the Virgin Mary. Lol…

The story is the weeping virgin Mary appeared to two children who where minding their sheep, it took a while for the bishop of Grenoble to say yes they were telling the truth. And he got the money to build the church. It now has a big hotel stuck on the back of it, but that's for the 20,000 pilgrims that visit each year. It's the next biggest pilgrim destination to Lourdes. A huge cross stands high on the hill next to the church, and I think people walk or get pushed up there for a blessing. Some of the gifts that people have left behind have been crutches, wheelchairs, rosary beads, bits of jewellery.

We just had a coffee and bought a postcard.

On the way back home we stopped by a very small cemetery with the Canadian flag flying. We didn't know what is was all about as it was written in French. We found out later that it was a plane crash in the nearby mountain. The monument they built to commererate the accident, the sculpture was of the Virgin Mary with the two children, and this time they had a dog with them. And t it had been sculpted out of the remains of the plane.

The Tête de l'Obiou accident was an airliner crash in France on 13 November 1950. Which had been operating a scheduled service between Paris and Rome since 1945. On November 13, 1950, a Paris-bound Douglas C-54B-1-DC aircraft crashed on the Tête de l'Obiou mountain, 48 km (30 mi) south of Grenoble. All 45 passengers and 7 crew were killed. The aircraft was 50 miles (80 km) off course.

Flight attendant Helen Johnston's body was missing for weeks until it was found in a crevasse on the mountain. One of our fellow helpxers during dinner asked if that's where they got the story for the film 'alive' from, As we tucked into our rack of ribs.

THE HIMALAYAN WALKWAY OF MONTEYNARD

Our day out today is a walk over the walkway, which is suspended over Lake Monteynard, so off we went. Taking the short cut we saw no sign of the bridge. The scenery was beautiful and we stopped along the way to take photos. The lake is so blue, the walkway is suspended over the gorge Drac.

I finally got to use my compass, the bridge was south of the lake, and we were travelling north. So well done Peter it came in handy. I did have to turn in a circle twice, very slowly for it to set itself. But any way we found the walkway. Well at least we could see it. We tried to park as near to it as we could. Driving down the walking route with the car. But, like Dave said to me 'it's not an ordinary car'…….we couldn't get right up to the bridge, the path was only wide enough for hikers. Plus we would not have got past as there were about 20 French ramblers sitting having their lunch. Probably wondering why we didn't do the 5 hour walk. And wonder why a huge car was doing a walk meant for hikers.

It was quiet warm in the valley but very windy, the bridge was full of holes. The floor and the wire sides and the wind gusted through. I was alright until I got to the middle of the bridge then had an awful thought that I might we swept over the side with the wind. Dave said don't be daft and walked on ahead. While I ducked down giving the wind less of me to blow. Then we had to walk back. And past the ramblers, all of 20 minutes from start to finish someone commented and laughed as we walked back past them. We finished the day by having ice-cream. Nougat and chocolate. They had run out of our new favorite flavour salty caramel.

Grotte de choranche

Since we have been away we have had plenty of chances to visit some caves. All boosting their splender and we have always resisted mainly because of the price. Average 10 Euros each. But, we decided to visit this one, as it had tanks of olms,

The cave is in the cliffs of the Choranche cirque, we drove through the Vercors Park which is lined with walnut (noix) trees. At first we didn't know what they were. They look like green eggs handing on the trees, splitting open, revealing the wrinkled nut inside.

The entrance is tucked away at the base of the cliff, and remained hidden until 1875. We went into the darkness of the cave. Then the light came on and it was impressive, with a shallow clear lake lit up, we followed the path along the river upstream and into the Siphon gallery, which is what it claims is the main attraction. And when the lights went on we could see why. Thousands of tubular stalactites known as straws, suspended from the ceiling.

We saw the Aquarium with the Olms, living fossils. Amphibians which became cave dwelling animals about 60 million years ago. They are colorless, blind. At first we thought they had put rubber ones in the tanks. Until one flapped its tiny feet.

Up what seemed like a thousand steps into the cathedral. With music and light show. It was a good day out. And you could imagine the cave men of 70,000 years ago living in there with the fresh supply of water and the forests outside filled with reindeer.