January 16, 2021

Saturday

I’ve been struggling with teaching, so having the time off on the weekends has been a huge pleasure. New COVID restrictions have made it difficult to travel to other towns and to see new things. Still, by the time Saturday rolled around, I was itching to get out of the house and to do something new. The weather seemed to agree, so I set out to the neighboring town of Chavanoz.

It was a beautiful day for a walk. It took me about thirty minutes at a brisk pace to reach the little village. My first stop was the Mairie (town hall). I pass this in the car on the way to Charvieu every Thursday and wanted to get a closer look. The building was apparently constructed in the 14th century.

Side view of the building, faces the road coming into town

On the fourth side of the building, I had the pleasure of seeing a group of locals playing pétanque. This is a very French game. Players each have a few metal boules (balls) that they throw towards a target boule. When throwing, the object is to get as many of your boules as close as possible to the target. You can knock opponents’ balls out of the way to ensure more of your boules are closer. This is often played in parks where there are hard gravel surfaces.

I was curious to see the wonderful church downtown, so I wandered next door. This is one of the stops that the bus makes on my way home from school on Monday. I’ve never been able to get a good picture through the buss window haha.

Here’s a little statue of the Virgin Mary. She’s got a not-so-little pigeon hanging out on her crown.

In the parking lot in front of there church, there is an obelisk dedicated to men from the community that have died in wars. I’m always interested to see these in each town. In Anthon, the obelisk is almost empty. Here, it was full. There were plaques below and on the sides for those that didn’t make it on the obelisk or those that were somehow special. The entire thing is surrounded by beautiful flowers and is protected by a wrought iron fence.

“20th anniversary remembrance from former soldiers to our comrades.”
“In memory of the children of Chavanoz who died for the fatherland.”
“MARGUET Georges, deported to Germany and mortally wounded in 1945.”

I wandered around a bit more, but honestly there wasn’t anything else to do. There were no grocery stores or boulangeries to be seen. The Tobac was empty and looked sad on the corner of town. I headed back home along the side of the main road.

Enjoying some good walking with my handy little adventure backpack and my Michigan mask! Gotta be careful with that British COVID variant out there.

I made it back home and spent the rest of the day relaxing. I worked my way through about half of Angela Davis’ “Women, Race, and Class.” Truly fascinating analysis. As I got ready for bed, I went around the apartment to close my curtains and lock up. When I looked out the kitchen door, I was absolutely shocked! There was snow! Thick, puffy, beautiful snow! I threw on my boots, zipped up my coat, and yanked on my hat as I ran out the door. Wow! I must’ve looked ridiculous standing outside crying because snow was falling all around me. I didn’t realize how much I’ve missed Michigan. I just had to see the village draped in white.