France, not Turkey

Yesterday evening Alex and I returned from our visit with his family in France. It was great to see everyone again and enjoy seeing the Alps for the first time. Alex's sister and her family live in very small settlement, Les Geymonds, in a plateau of the Vercors range of the French Alps. Of course, people there love skiing and anything wintery-outdoorsy. This winter, though, has been a big disappointment--when we arrived the high temperatures were in the 50s. It did snow a little, but the rain kept winning out. For us, the point was to spend time with family, so no skiing was not an issue at all! It was a lovely visit with time to hang out, play cards, play chess, eat incredibly delicious vegetarian meals prepared by Alex's sister, and just be.
Here are a few side trips we took:

Le Palais Idéal du Facteur Cheval / The Ideal Palace of Postman Cheval

Ferdinand Cheval (1836-1924) collected rocks on his route delivering the mail and built the palace of his dreams over 33 years! It was such a delight to explore this fanciful place. 

Le Mémorial de la Résistance / The Resistance Memorial

Reminders of the struggle and sacrifice of World War II are frequent around Vercors. With Alex's dad, we went to the Resistance Memorial which commemorates local fighters and supporters in the local community. Some of the most cruel massacres happened in the last months of the war. 

The road from the memorial to Pont-en-Royans

Gorgeous gorges, winding roads, one-lane archways--truly astounding!

Pont-en-Royans

Don't let cliffs or a river stand in the way of building a town!

Grenoble

Look, a Calder!

Alex and I spent one day in Grenoble, where we visited two museums and walked around the old part of town. The Archeological Museum encompassed a two-thousand-year-old-site which had begun as a Gallo-Roman burial ground and developed over time as a church and monastery. The website is worth seeing for the photos, but here is a montage from the postcards and bookmarks we got:

At the Musée Dauphinois, we saw a variety of exhibits based in local culture and arts. The most interesting to me was one about sundials, and the surprise was a history of the lingerie industry in Grenoble--who knew?

On the last day, some of us went on a hike to a mountain inn. The weather was pretty cold and wet, so Alex chose not to get soaked in his only pair of shoes. It was definitely an effort for me to keep up, but I'm glad I did, and the rain turned to snow as we went up. Our reward was blueberry/raspberry pie with mulled wine!

And then it was time to go back to Turkey... the end!