French Alpine Adventure: Henry Richardson

6/29 - We arrived in Paris early this morning. I don't think I've ever been this tired at lunch before. Having only been here for a couple of hours, we've done more in this short time then I would have thought possible. After checking in at the hotel, my group leader, Andrew, sent us out to buy produce at one of the many open air markets of Paris. I now realize that speaking French is a lot harder than I predicted. I wasn't able to say anything to the fruit vendors. All of my food vocabulary seemed to have gone out the window this morning. Getting used to this country is going to take a lot more work than I thought. After this, we walked with our grocery bags along the Seine River to find a nice, quiet spot to have lunch( which is pretty difficult in the busy life of Paris). While walking, I made an honest effort to count every cafe that we passed, and the total for about 20 minutes of walking came to be around 15. I'm sure I looked over a few. While walking, I saw Notre Dame, happy to see something that I could almost consider "familiar." When we finally pick a little park on the river, we have our first official French picnic of the trip. Now just laying on the grass in the shade, I think I'm going to try to get some sleep before we get moving again.

7/4 - Today is our second day in the little city of Annecy, a small mountain town by one of the most beautiful lakes that I have ever seen. We just got back from a hike to the top of Mt. Saint-German, about 10 miles down the lake from the town. While hiking, our guide, whose name I seemed to have already forgotten, showed us the interesting native plants of the region. Among them were fatally poisonous berries, seeds that had so much nutrition they rivaled a multivitamin, and even some apparently edible larva. Today was my first glimpse of the beautiful French mountainsides that I hope to see everyday on the five day mountain trek trough the Alps that we go on on the end on the trip. Unfortunately, I only got one good pick of the hike today, but I would say that its hands down the best so far. After our hike, Andrew let us walk around the city all afternoon, giving us our first real free time of the trip. After wandering around the old city for a couple hours, swimming in the lake, and talking to a few natives in the park, I decided that I officially liked Annecy more than Paris. The more laid-back nature of it feels a lot more welcoming than Paris, plus the people seem more eager to give directions. While it may be the forth of July back in the U.S., it seems that I have to wait another 10 days for fireworks here.

7/17 - Today I returned from a 4 day camping trip with my family and their friend family. My family has a 16 year old sister, a 14 year old brother, and a 9 year old brother. However, you could consider the dad, Francis, to be one of the kids. He is definitely one of my favorite member of the family. Even though he speaks the least amount of English in the family (arguably even less than the 9 year old), he seems to be the one that I can most converse with. He constantly made fun of me for being the "strong American," which would lead to us having wrestling matches in front of the whole family. While camping, he pegged me with with pine cones all day long. I saw my chance to get him back when we were kayaking one day and he was standing out in the middle of the river. I came up behind him, wrapped my arms around him, and threw him in the river. Following this act of bravery was a thundering applause from both his and his friend's family standing on the bank. They had been waiting for me to get him back for days. When we weren't joking around with each other, he talked about how I should ride his motorcycle with him. Knowing the mom wouldn't allow anything of the sort, I declined saying that I was afraid his ponytail would keep slapping me in the face.

7/25- Today was our last day hiking in the Alps. After saying goodbye to my host family, we took a short bus ride to the small town of Nevache. From there we packed a few key items in our backpacks, and set out on a five day hike into the Alps. Words can't describe how beautiful the scenery was. We spent our nights in "refuges", or small cabins lacking sheets, electricity, and free showers. Although the nights were pretty rough, seeing one of the most beautiful areas in the world all day made up for it. Can't wait to upload all of my pics onto my computer. Tonight I don't think I'll have any trouble getting asleep. Tomorrow we get to go back to Paris for one last night!


Thank you Wilson Family!!