Back to Meribel
Trip Start
Jun 23, 2008
1
20
25
Trip End
Ongoing
Meribel,
Rhône-Alpes,
France
Friday, August 29, 2008
So what have I been up to you ask?
Well, I have spent most of my days on Reddit.Com. If you want to visit this site be warned: It is addictive. I have also, almost every day, worked out. I enjoy the 8 minute abs and 8 minute arms. I also have begun downloading pod casts regularly to listen to while I'm on the exercise bike. It really helps because instead of thinking about how boring it is to just sit on an exercise bike I am listening to a pod cast.
Sophie and I hiked up to a village named la Traie and spent the night in a little chalet her family has there. This village is like a trip to the past. Sophie's Grandmother used to stay up there for a few weeks in the summer when she was a little girl. Back then they were taking their cattle up there to graze. The thing that is cool about this area is that you can really see the edge of modernization. La Traie is a one and a half hour walk from Les Allues but there is no electricity or phones. It is completely cut off in winter. I brought a constellation map with me hoping that there would be no light pollution and that we would be high enough in the mountains to get a descent view. For awhile, while Sophie and I sat next to a little fire drinking some wine, there were a lot of clouds in the sky and I was afraid I would miss my chance. But then everything cleared up and the stars were beautiful. In order to get a really good view of the stars you have to sit out for about half an hour and let your eyes adjust. It was pretty cold though so I just concentrated on picking out the constellations around Ursa Major. So we found Draco, Ursa Minor, and Bootes.
Ursa Major means "The Great Bear" in Latin. It has been interpreted as many things in other cultures. Obviously ho a culture perceives a constellation is flexible. Most English speaking people today call it "the Big Dipper". Interestingly, Native Americans also interpreted the constellation as a bear. Though they, because bears have short tails, interpreted the three trailing stars, Alkaid, Mizar, and Alioth, as hunters pursuing the bear itself. Did the Natives bring these stories with them hen they crossed the Bering Strait? Or did the just happen to look up and see, of all things, a bear in the night sky?
Imagine the big dipper in your mind. You can see the tail and the bowl. The bowl, as you know, is made of four stars. Look at the two furthest on your right. Starting from the bottom star, draw a line through the second and continue until you hit another bright star. This is Polaris, the North Star. Wherever you are if you find this star you know what direction is north. If you were standing on the North pole this star would be right above your head. Polaris is the last star in the tail of Ursa Minor. Which, as I'm sure you have guessed, means "Little Bear". If you look between Ursa Major and Ursa Minor you may be able to find Draco. Draco is just a long, backward S shaped line that, like Ursa Major and Minor, is capped with four stars in a relatively square composition. Draco means "Dragon" and at one time Ursa Minor was considered it's wing. If we go back to imagining the Big Dipper but this time we follow the curve of it's handle and keep bending at the same rate you will meet a series of four stars that seem to continue the same curve. This is the right side of Bootes. Bootes is harder to see. The names origin is lost in antiquity but there are a series of different stories featuring it. In fact every constellation I've mentioned has stories about them. What you have to remember is that the stars were very important. Not only were they beautiful and mysterious but they were indispensable for navigation. The stories attached to them helped to explain which constellations would move where. Polaris stayed in the same spot all night. Orion appeared in the summer. Draco circled endlessly. Important stuff.
Sophie and I hiked back down to Meribel in the morning. A few weeks later there was a family dinner at the same chalet. there was a good pasta salad with crab.
We went for a double date to a chalet in, another town like La Traie, Les Prioux. This place is also abandoned in winter but in the summer it's old fashioned charm attracts a lot of people. We went to a restaurant that was lit entirely with candle light. Very nice. I had a cheese fondue. Also very nice.
Antoine went to Bulgaria for 3 weeks. Sophie and I dropped him off in Chambery. We also picked him up in Lyon. We ate at an indian restaurant.
The fish in the pond are growing up nice. They are baby koi.
Thats all for now
Comments
Constellations...
Speaking of cultures assigning their own names to constellations, there's one I call the Big Diaper, because I can never remember it's real name. It looks like a boxed in W. You've got me pondering the earth's rotation and what you might see that we cannot. Anything to the south of you, maybe along the horizon would be stars you can't see in the Ottawa Valley. Maybe, I'm guessing, head spinning along with planet.
J can't remember his password, if you are wondering why you haven't heard from him. Your gramps turns 80 in early October, you are forwarned if you want to score brownie points.
CNN is full of near panic hurricane evacuation of New Orleans news.Encore! Incroyable!
There are 7 reported bears behind my place, yikes, and my dog Louey & Toby are barking like crazy. So much for the rural idyll. Visiting your folks later this aft. Saw Miffy yesterday, very handsome lad.
Hi Sophie! Are you searching for artifacts while you hike? I've been looking at mudlarking images on Google. So many people fleeing over the Alps for centuries, they must have dropped something.
Take care, eh. J.