My gym bag was filled with packets of freezer bags and Russian cheese as I crossed the border from France to Switzerland. Hours prior, I had asked my friend Polina whether she needed anything from the Eastern European spice shop across our street. Her request was simple: творог. The gentleman at the counter understood. This Russian cottage cheese would be the main ingredient in waffles prepared over the weekend to come.
Each year Polina and I go on a new adventure to celebrate our birthdays – 13 August and 31 August. We’ve always thought that our friendship was somehow aligned in the stars as our birthdays have inverted numbers, reflecting our diverse personalities which harmoniously complement one another.
The Cold War – our nickname from students and professors alike when we studied at the Université Savoie Mont Blanc in Chambéry, France ten-years-ago. The French students had a group that seemed tight knit and closed off from the world, as well as the group of foreign exchange students from China. Polina and I were both outcasts that didn’t quite fit in with either community. And to be fair, we didn’t particularly like one another either. She voiced how she was irritated at how much I smiled, my high-rise jeans and bandana in my hair, and that looked way too American for her taste. I thought she was a German student who talked too much in class, and rolled my eyes each time she raised her hand each time the professor spoke.
It wasn’t until we were paired together in a group exercise that we discovered that she had grown up in rural Russia with a single mom, and I in middle America with a single mom. We were both dreamers who escaped from our realities in Harry Potter novels and planned on one day seeing all that the world had to offer.
“Polina is a dreamer,” her husband once said. “It’s exhausting.”
Next year Polina plans on traveling to Japan. She talks of Argentina and walking across the Salinas Grandes salt flats. She suggests that we rent a house in the vineyards of Tuscany and make a stop in Venice during Carnival. She aspires to live one day in London, and is learning Mandarin, German and takes any opportunity to practice English.
“People say that you can’t do it all,” Polina once said, “but I really believe you can.”
She keeps a list of experiences that she’d like to achieve in this lifetime such as swimming with dolphins, shooting a bow and arrow and taking a dip underneath the moonlight in the Mediterranean Sea.
Today our adventure was in Beaufort, France, located one hour from Chambéry, in France’s Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. As we zig-zagged our way up the mountain, we noticed large rocks that had dropped onto the road, a reality of alpine driving. In the winter this roadway is closed off to the public.
The weather channel had predicted thunderstorms, and we began noticing clouds drifting ever so quickly our way beneath the mountain peaks, giving the illusion that we could reach out and touch them. Rain or shine, we were going to explore.
As we pulled into the parking lot to begin our hike to la Grande Berge, it seemed as if we had arrived on another planet. Colossal boulders were spread out as if dropped from the sky across the lush landscape that surrounded us. It reminded me of scenes from the Hobbit, or how I imagined the Scottish countryside, complete with clouds and light rain.
We crossed pigs rummaging in muck and alpine sea holly, also known as Queen of the Alps, a spiky blue plant in the mountains. Passers-by were few and far between, perhaps due to the uncertain weather forecast. Thirty minutes into our hike, we spotted an unusual object at the top of a hill: an English telephone booth, overlooking the turquoise water in the Roselend Dam. The red telephone box was installed in 2018 by the Refuge Plan-Mya, placed in the only location in the area that received phone reception to signal to hikers where to make calls. In an interview by Le Dauphiné libéré, the owners of the mountain refuge state that the booth was one of 900 that were to be taken down and demolished.
After several photos (a hike that takes approximately three hours to complete we were able to finish in five and a half), we continued our journey to la Grande Berge. The clouds had caught up with us, and upon our arrival to the top of the mountain, we could see rolling hills and grey skies. We set up camp for a picnic of tuna fish, crackers, and tomatoes, taking off our muddy shoes to eat beneath the misty rain. Polina set her phone timer to five minutes, and we attempted to meditate in silence, taking in the sounds of sparrows, cow bells and light rain. I peeled my eyes open after four minutes and saw that the clouds had cleared, giving us a striking view of the Roselend Lake below, often selected as a passage during the Tour de France bicycle race.
Beginning our trek to where we began, we crossed paths with a few trucks transporting large canisters of milk to produce the region’s famous Beaufort cheese. The cheese has a protected designated of origin and is only produced in the high mountains of France’s Savoie region, and with two types of cow breeds. In this interview, which showcases the ancient techniques used to make Beaufort, it states that in tasting the cheese, one can often sense the environment in which it was made. The minimum maturing period is at least five months, ahead of devouring it with Savoyard dishes such as raclette or fondue.
As we finished our hike, the sun peaked out from beneath the clouds. We concluded the day with two large coffees at the Chalet de Roselend, dreaming of what new adventures lay ahead.
Resources:
Le fromage beaufort | LE FROMAGE BEAUFORT (fromage-beaufort.com)
So beautiful place ! Amazing pictures Laura!you are so talented!
Thank you Popo! Taking your advice in responding to comments!
Amazing story. You are beautiful girls. Have a more wonderful adventures!
Thank you Valentina! 🙂
I enjoyed learning how your relationship with Polina started and love the photos! It all looks so dreamy!
Thank you Miriam!