ancestor who lived in Toulouse around 1700 which we can document. Her
nephew, Paul, and my son, Robert, have visted each other's homes for
extended visits. Hortense's daughter, Mathilde, has spent the past year
studying at Edmonds Community College, so has been to our home several
times during the year. My sons are the fifth consecutive generation to
visit Hortense's family in Bordeaux. Hortense is the only one of four
sisters in my generation that I had not yet met.
Conveniently, Hortense and three of her children were staying at their ski
chalet in Morzine, about a two hour drive away. Many emails, some owing
to my disrupted travel, finally resulted in a visit being organized. Tom
and I drove out Sunday morninng, and we promptly set out for a day hike.
We drove to the edge of the alpine village, then turned up the road to the
Joux-Plane. At a final elevation of 1700 meters, the steep road is famous
as the place where Lance Armstrong bonked in the 2000 Tour de France. We
hiked for several hours, mostly on a ridge line up towards the very top of
the ski lift. It was never flat. Lunch was baguette sandwiches with
blueberry sausage and soft cheese. The six of us all sat on a single
chair of the chairlift, parked at the upper terminus. Soundtrack for the
afternoon was the continuous cow bells from the two herds of about fifty
cows each.
On the way home we stopped at a marvelous shop in the village. Cheeses,
sausages, hams, jams, yogurt, wine and many other regional specialties
were displayed in a rustic setting. Hortense made a selction for dinner.
The most outstanding part of dinner was raclette. This begins
with half of a large cheese round. It is placed under a heating element
table-side with the exposed part of the cheese placed facing upward to be
heated. When the cheese is melted, it is slid out from under the heating
element, then tilted so the melted cheese can be scraped onto your plate.
Delicious!
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