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Monday, 14 April 2008 |
The Pierra Menta is an imposing molar rooted solidly amidst a line of incisor-like ridges and summits that make up the Mont Blanc range. Every March it presides over almost 400 competitors who launch themselves from le Planay, Beaufortain over passes and peaks in the hope of winning the legendary ski mountaineering race known by the same name. The Pierra Menta has a rock-solid reputation as the best ski mountaineering event in the world. “Everyone knows about the Pierra Menta in ski mountaineering. Nothing compares to this”, said New Zealander Grant Guise after the third leg, and fresh from the World Championships in Switzerland. Skiing skills and endurance levels are put to the test in a race that is highly technical and takes place over tough terrain comprising a total of 10,000m of uphill over four consecutive days. Women are taking to the race in increasing numbers, and although 21 female teams in a field of 185 may seem disproportionate their number has virtually doubled in the last few years. The French-Swiss combination Laetitia Roux and Nathalie Etzensperger cleaned up the women’s division this year.
What further sets the Pierra Menta apart is its atmosphere. The mythical nature of the event comes to the fore on the third day when more than 3000 spectators make the pilgrimage to the summit of Le Grand Mont with chair lifts running from 5am. This year was no exception; by dawn a line of tiny figures could be seen winding up through the vast white landscape using snowshoes or skins fixed to their skis. Once on the top of this knob of mountain a strong sense of camaraderie prevailed, for we had just gained some insight into the Herculean efforts required to complete the course. A random cowbell jangled melodiously.
Spectators were armed with them dangling from their hands or belted around waists; some as large as footballs
and their weight didn’t bear thinking about. In this sea of mountain peaks dominated by Mont Blanc, Florent Troillet and Kilian Jornet Burgada suddenly came into view, flying down the Anticime corridor before beginning their ascent of the vertiginous ridge to the summit to a cacophony of bells and cheers in French, Catalan and Italian.
“The great thing about the Pierra Menta is that it’s a team sport. We have to compensate for each other’s weaknesses and you get yelled at by your partner,” joked British skier Carron Scrimgeour. He and fellow Brit Jon Bracey, both based in Chamonix, work as a paramedic doctor and high altitude mountain guide respectively. Ski mountaineering is what they do in their time off and there isn’t much of that; to train for the Pierra Menta Scrimgeour would shin up his local ski runs by night with a head lamp. Finishing 27th out of 164 they were all smiles. “It was amazing,” said Bracey. “Perfect weather, as usual it was perfectly organised, and the amount of spectators that create the atmosphere is magic.”
“And we did much better than we thought we would,”
added Scrimgeour with a broad grin. True, the event is hailed widely for its organisation. The fact the weather
had been far from perfect leading up to the event had sent explosives teams out to trigger avalanches only days before the start, and unfavourable conditions in the final night called for organisers to make last minute modifications and retrace the route at 4.30am.
Following their win of the men’s division, Swiss Troillet and first-timer Catalan Jornet Burgada were in a state of pure elation “La Pierra Menta is the equivalent of the “Tour de France for the Swiss; it’s the most difficult race to win.
When you win, it’s incredible!” “It’s huge! When you are a child you dream of the Pierra Menta,” added 20 year-old Jornet Burgada.
Others may well continue to dream. “We’ll definitely be back next year, stated Scrimgeour. “We’ve got a few people
to beat.”
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Monday, 04 February 2008 |
Every week, a small group of English residents and a much larger number of French residents stage a demonstration at the railway station at Saint-Sébastien, in the Creuse (Limousin). They are protesting against recent cuts in SNCF services at the station, which is on the main Toulouse-Paris line. They fear that SNCF’s real plan is to close the station altogether.
Every Saturday at 2pm, the group, under the aegis of the Committee for the Defence of the Station at Saint-Sébastien (CODEGASS), assembles, usually with a dozen or so local maires. They then descend to the track and block the Paris express, one of the services that has been cut. The train arrives and crawls up to the group, stopping a few feet away and sounding its horn. The train is held for 15 minutes and then released. From the end of January, the gendarmerie has decided that standing on the track is unsafe, but also that it would be unsafe for the train not to stop, so the protest continues on the platform, with the train still stopping.
Commented committee member and local resident Rodney Sabine: "The English know only too well the damage that is done to villages when the railway station is closed. It has happened so often in the UK. At a time of climate change, SNCF should be encouraging local services, not reducing them. Anyone who wants to support us is welcome.”
Further information can be obtained from www.codegass.free.fr
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Monday, 04 February 2008 |
The Bagatelle project for a vintage and classic car racetrack, in the protected regional park, Parc Naturel du Périgord-Limousin, has aroused much controversy since it was first mooted three years ago. The public enquiry, running until February 8 to determine the impact of the project, will soon draw up its conclusions.
A group opposing the project, Court Circuit, is holding a public meeting on Friday, February 8, in the Salle des fêtes of Saint-Crépin-de-Richemont. All concerned, including local deciders, politicians and the press are invited. The group will present its own study of the project and claims that it will show evidence of "serious anomalies" on the part of those promoting it.
Meanwhile, until February 25, the public can consult the official study on the impact of the project at the three mairies concerned, leaving their written arguments in the register provided.
Opening times of the mairies:
Saint-Front-sur-Nizonne (Tuesday all day and Friday afternoons);
Champeau et la Chapelle-Pommier (all day Mondays and Thursdays and Friday afternoons) and Saint-Crépin-de-Richemont (Monday mornings and Wednesday and Friday afternoons).
During February, the investigators conducting the public enquiry will also be on hand at certain times to discuss the enquiry with members of the public:
Saint-Front-sur-Nizonne, February 4 (9.30am-12.30), 6, 20, 25 (2-5pm);
Champeau et la Chapelle-Pommier, February 15, 20 (9.30am-12.30) and
Saint-Crépin-de-Richemont, February 4, 15 (2-5pm) and 25 (9.30am-12.30).
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Thursday, 31 January 2008 |
Civray's PTA and Cicérone association are sponsoring 700 children from the Civray area.
Festivities start at place du petit Paradis at 2 pm
and continue after 5 pm in the Salle d'animation with :
5 pm country dance with the Heartlanders
5.30 pm rock with "don't no"
6pm salsa and african dancing with Valérie Loussier of the assciation Cicérone
poster by David Blake
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Tuesday, 22 January 2008 |
Visualise a typical provencal image: south facing villages nestled into hillsides, a cluster of stone built homes with roofs of clay tiles that reflect the red and golden hues of the brightest sunshine on earth; little church towers with elaborate iron grids through which the bell can be seen ; fields of orchards and market garden produce separated by larch trees; roadsides bordered by tall Poplars and the clearest light that nature can provide under the luminous blue skies that are unique to this corner of the world. A perfect and happily accurate picture but did you know it looks like this because of the wind ?
Most summer tourists heading south will be lucky enough to spend their fortnight’s break without a whisper of adverse meteorological conditions or will find the odd passing puff of air a welcome antidote to the season’s intense heat. However, those that choose to stay longer know that something unpleasant waits like an unsuspected troll at the top of seemingly distant mountain ranges; and even if you’ve had no personal experience, readers of literature set in Provence, from Pagnol to Mayle, will have heard of the Mistral.
The Mistral, which regularly reaches speeds of 90 and sometimes as much as 120 kilometres an hour in the peak period between November and April, is a katabatic wind which originates in the Massif Central. When high pressure cools the air above the plateau and low pressure exists over the Mediterranean, the cold mountain breeze flows downhill and accelerates rapidly as it enters the funnel created by the Rhone valley. It has the potential to cause mayhem and once it hits the coast at speeds of over 100 knots, the Mistral is considered the most dangerous of all the various Mediterranean winds; creating havoc for sailors and fishermen who have to traverse the accompanying high seas especially where the wind climaxes in the Strait of Bonifacio between Corsica and Sardinia.
Apart from being difficult to accurately forecast, it is never certain how long the Mistral will stay: it might be a few hours or it could be a week or more. People in Provence claim that it always lasts an odd number of days but this might be a traditional and essential coping mechanism because much of provencal life has to take account of the phenomenon. To examine the evidence for the influence of the Mistral, we must first return to our picture postcard.
Those beautiful old homes are built into the hillside for protection against the wind and rarely have any north-facing windows; likewise for the traditional farmhouse, known as the Mas, which generally faces south-west with its back to the Mistral. Little villages away from the hills are often sheltered by trees to the north; and those colourful roofs? A closer inspection will reveal large stones or other heavy objects atop as the Mistral’s wrath can easily wrench away clay tiles and chimney pots. The intricate grid on the bell-tower may be attractive but its architectural significance is to allow the wind to pass safely through. Even that ugly monstrosity at Tricastin, which was France’s first atomic energy plant, was sited on that particular part of the Rhone in the path of the Mistral for a specific reason: the engineers and designers knew that, in the event of an accident, the wind would carry any pollution in a south-easterly direction to the sparsely populated mountainous area of the Vauclause.
The farmers, meanwhile, also have to legislate for this destructive element. The high trees that divide the orchards and fields have been planted to act as windbreaks as have the rows of bamboo and poplars by the side of the roads. Have another look at those trees: they’re generally only on one side of the route, nearest the crops and always bent in the same direction. The extra irrigation facilities amongst the fruit and vegetables are there because it’s the wind that dries up the soil whilst all new nursery stock must be anchored in three directions for several years.
And if all of that was not enough, there are the psychological effects to contend with. Reported feelings of depression before the onset of the Mistral followed by once it arrives may seem anecdotal but untold numbers of sleepless nights caused by the noise of the wind can cause migraine. It’s even been cited as a cause of madness and suicide, the rationale being that its continuous sudden appearances cause people to make rash decisions: the Mistral must be the only meteorological phenomenon to be used as a defence in a murder trial, defendants claiming that it forced them to kill!
The Mistral can occur between 100 and 150 days a year and having considered the evidence, it might be difficult to imagine why anyone would choose to live in Provence. Some people think that it may have even agitated Van Gogh’s tenuous mental state but he, as with many others, came here for the light and this too is caused by the wind. The Mistral cleans the whole countryside: it gets rid of all the grime, disperses the clouds, dries the atmosphere and leaves us with 2800 hours of wonderful sunshine each year which enhances all the colours of Provence. This uniqueness is called the beauty after the wind and this is why we stay.
by Alison Green
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Thursday, 06 December 2007 |
Julien Johnston is a British-born, French-qualified European mountain leader, qualified with the 'Accompagnateur en Montagne' state qualification since 1998.
"I organise all sorts of walking breaks for all sorts of people: rambles, hikes, holidays, treks, snowshoeing, birdwatching, plant spotting, rural and mountain heritage and history - in both the French and Spanish Pyrenees. I'd like people to go home feeling, yes, they've had a really good walk, but also that they understand how this place 'ticks' a bit more: the people, the wildlife, the whole environment."
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