Abbaye de Montbenoit

We left the mountain and headed for a local cave we had passed on another journey.  But, driving along, we couldn’t resist stopping at the Abbaye de Mont Benoit.  The kids, who had their shoes off in the back seat, stayed in the car while André and I took a look around.  It was a very interesting church because it was a great blend of old and new architecture.  The nave and part of the cloister were originally built in the twelfth century.  They were added onto in the 15th and 16th centuries and the tower was not raised until 1903.  The priory was a stop between France and Switzerland for thousands of pilgrims and the trail they carved, called “La Vy aux Moins” was used for centuries by salt sellers, smugglers and refugees.  It is still a hiking trail today. The phrase over the beautifully carved entry way to the church reads “Vos Esti Lux Mundi” or “You are the light of the world”

We were the only ones in the church.  It was beautiful and peaceful.  The woodwork was late Renaissance- so incredibly detailed and I was in love with the Italian renaissance-inspired ceiling over the alter.  I haven’t seen a comparable cieling since we visited Lausanne.

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We then headed over to check out the cloister.  The only other cloister we’ve seen in our travels was at Mont St. Michel.  In fact, Wiki claims that, due to wars and fires, this is the only preserved medieval religious complex in the Doubs.  This part of the building is the oldest and I could definitely see the Celtic/Megalithic influence over the stone carvings.

 

 

There was an amazing garden behind the cloister and a cemetery across the street with a  war memorial.  It is pretty common for these war memorials to have giant shell casings as part of them but it always makes me cringe a bit.  We were a bit surprised that all the headstones were fairly recent.  We noticed that the steps up to another monument that were actually made of old headstones – guess that’s what happened to the old timers in that plot of land.

   

On to the cave!  (Yes, it is still Sunday)

On the road again….

We saw lots of random cool things on our Sunday drive that had nothing to do with where we stopped. 

We drove down an amazing tree-lined road for about 20 minutes…

I loved the colors and lighting on this gorgeous house at left.

Sometimes I wish I could just knock on random doors.

We saw a few interesting churches on the way – the first is called Saint Just and I don’t know the names of the others.  I shot the second because of the typical Franch comtoise roof of amazingly beautiful tiles, and the second because it appeared as if the siding on it (though quite old) was made of metal. Also, very unusual for France, it was kind of falling apart!

And, of course, there were the views of the misty mountains and cliffs we were passing all the drizzly long day and the smell of the lilacs that we pulled over to pick as we went home for dinner and our beds.

And these are the days of our lives…..

Mont D’Or

After the waterfall we decided to hit one of the highest peaks in the Franche Comté, Mont D’Or.   This mountain is famous not only for its height, but for the yummy cheese that comes from the area around the mountain.  This cheese comes in a round spruce box and is usually served hot – like a fondue, straight from the package.  The odor of the cheese is a bit strong, and the rest of my family doesn’t like it very much, but I LOVE it!  (This rule holds true for almost all the strong cheeses – the rest of them are all wimps)

It wasn’t clear how to get to the top of the mountain and we ended up doing a bit of “off-roading” (always fun with our little sedan) before we got off the logging road. The higher we got, the weirder it got.  It got colder and colder as we climbed. The shape of the landscape changed, the trees were scrubbier and the ground more visibly rocky.  The flowers that grew were quite different.  At first I thought there was an abundance of cowslip – my personal favorite French flower due to the smell!  Then, I smelled one and it had no odor – weird!  The other flowers were strange to me but quite interesting.  Soon enough, we had a hard time noticing such changes since we were literally climbing into the clouds.

I could only see clearly about 3 feet in front of the car on the winding mountain road – which, of course, was far too narrow to imagine passing on.  Luckily no one else was around and we finally made it to the parking lot. The sign said we had reached the towering height of 1430 meters.  Of course, even though I have lived here for a year and a half, metric still means absolutely nothing to me.  So, for your information, that would be 4700 feet – or 9/10ths of a mile above sea level.  That’s high! When we got out of the car, the adventure really started.  We walked through a turnstile opening in a fence onto a largely unmarked field.  We headed in a general upwards direction and could no longer see the parking lot in less than a minute of walking. We continued bravely onwards and eventually came to the summit.

 

We were supposed to be able to see the view pictured, below, left (even Mont Blanc!), instead all we saw was what’s below right…C’est la vie

 

The wind was blowing like crazy and it is (unsurprisingly) quite wet inside a cloud. The elevation made it colder as well – there were crocuses all over the place at the top of the mountain.  The snails seemed OK but we were freezing!  Predictably, we got a bit confused on the cloudy way down the mountain and ended up exiting the field at the other end of the parking lot.  I’ll admit we were all a bit freaked out as we walked through the giant parking lot for several minutes, straining our eyes for the familiar friendly shape of Mr. Liberty.  My imagination had us wandering around forever, lost in the shrouded mists.  Of course, I hid my fear so the children wouldn’t be frightened.  I accomplished this by running ahead of them so they wouldn’t see me trembling.  

  

I don’t know why I’m into poetry lately – but I blog wherever my whims take me.  Now this poem makes me laugh – but it captures how I was feeling at the time…  We hope to return again, on some unfoggy day!

The Fog, adapted from the poem by Andrew D Robertson

Oh fog! Oh fog!
What do I see?
Nothing! Nothing!
I can't even see me!
Oh fog! Oh fog!
Why are you so mean?
Go away! Go away!
Just let me be me!
Oh fog! Oh fog!
What can I say?
You've painted this mountain
A thick shade of grey.
Oh fog! Oh fog!
What can I do?
I wanna go home,
But I'm stuck in you. 

La Gorge de Langouette

On Sunday, we decided to go on an adventure.  We packed a lunch and left around 10am.  We were headed for a new waterfall we heard of from our tutor, Kelly.  We got totally lost on the way there and it ended up taking over 2 hours, but the end result was worth every minute of driving.

We were immediately rewarded by the sight of the La Seine river running through a deep gorge. Signs posted around claimed this was the land of the fairies, and entering the fresh green woods, I was inclined to agree.

 

It was a bit rainy but the trail was well maintained and easy to follow.  The final waterfall was amazing and Callie found the enchanted tree where the fairies (and some friendly snail neighbors) make their home.

We walked past the falls, seeing some great wildflowers and a bit of the outskirts of town.

We have seen so many waterfalls….they are so life giving – I’m not quite sure why – but they always make me happy.

Waterfall – by Goeffrey Schmidt

Drops and drops of rain descending

With a million million joining

‘till a mighty river flowing

Yields to gravity in falling

Cascading in majestic white

Immense in power beauty of sight

With rainbow mist because of light

Refracting rays for our delight

Beyond Fort de Planoise

I fell ill on Friday and slept all afternoon – then I did the same most of Saturday morning.  By the late afternoon I was going stir-crazy and suggested a hike.  André refused at first, saying I needed to stay in bed – but I thought I must be better.  We headed up to check out the battlements near Fort de Planoise.  I was also hoping to find some muguets.  Muguets are a small flower that is traditionally shared on May 1st as a symbol of fortune for the upcoming year.  It is also, of course, May Day, Beltane, and in France, Labor Day. (In fact, the US labor day also used to be in May – then it was moved to September).  It is a national holiday, but this year, since it is on a Saturday, we didn’t get a day off work.  For more information on muguet (our lily of the valley) in France see here for history and here for another expat’s view – includes the traditional May Day muguet song! We looked all over, and saw lots of flowers but we didn’t find muguets.  Griffin was lucky enough to get some from a classmate on Monday, so I guess we still have a chance for a lucky year.  We still had a wonderful (though rainy) hike and saw some great views, explored some amazing old barracks and powder houses.  We also said hi to the goats we had escorted a few weeks ago.  It seems they run free all day until the farmers call them back into their pen every night.  They have a few dogs that help out.  We splashed in puddles and played with the snails – who were all over the place.

 

Just a typical Saturday in Besancon for us!

FROGS! YES, FROGS at Chez La Marie

André and I had a date one night.  The early spring, according to real French Comtois citizens, is the only time to try frogs.  The fact of the matter is, the rest of the year they are FROZEN.  (Yuck…) So, having a date night seemed like the perfect opportunity to try them.  We asked around but couldn’t find anyone who knew a local place.  I ended up researching it on the internet.   I was a bit worried but the reviews were good and it was only a half an hour outside Besancon.  We got there early and did a bit of exploring, ending up driving down this dirt road.  We even saw a hedgehog.

Then it was time for dinner – it was the best meal I’ve had in France and it wasn’t even that expensive.  The total for us was 43 Euros – and that included appetizer (snails for me, mushrooms in sauce for André), main course (20 teeny frogs for me, a whole trout for André) and dessert (Strawberry Melba for me and red fruit mousse pie for André.

I would love to return someday. The place was called Chez La Marie and it is located at 25807 Cussey-Sur-L’Ognon. Telephone is 03 81 57 78 32.  If you are ever in the area – check it out!

PS – The morning after this super meal, André finally made it up over the local mountain named La Dame Blanche – it was the third time he had tried!  Must have been the mushrooms….