Chapter 3b Baptism of History (and Art and Fun)

 
I thought I was finished with Besançon at the end of the last post,  but... not so. Friend Madonna has taken me to task for leaving out the "Night of the Guinea Pigs" (I know! How could I?). And I have realized that I forgot one of my favorite Besançon moments. So, here goes.



 On our last evening in Besançon, balmy for end-of-September, we passed through a public square where this clock was showing the wrong time. Every now and again, it would spin and show a different wrong time.

Under the clock were large white tents (7 or 8, I think) inside a roped-off area. People with clipboards were recruiting folks to go into the tents and be "cobayes" (guinea pigs). So of course we agreed to do so as the "cobayes" received some kind of survey paper and a really cool pen.


The hypodermic needle pen says "Virus de la science: à inoculer sans modération." (Science virus: to inject without moderation.) 


We lined up at the tent with the shortest line, waited 20 minutes or so, and went in with a group of 8 - 10 others. Then, we got our test, listened to instructions, were admonished not to talk or collaborate, (Madonna was trying to cheat) and at the signal began our test. It was geometry - I believe matching the footprint of a 3 dimensional shape with its 3 dimensional rendering. Neither of us won but a very nice young woman we had met in line did -she won a t-shirt. We gave up on any more tests because the lines were quite long by that time. Besides, we already had the pens, which were the best part. I was surprised by how many people wanted to take tests for fun, but it was a very crowded event.


Another great moment came as we passed by a "médiathèque". All the "bibliothèques", or libraries, have become media centers. I spotted a strange object in the little square in front of the library.

Cinematographe

We walked past the tripod to the bronze figures in the background.

This one,
















....and this one.

This scene represents one of the earliest motion pictures ever made, "L'Arroseur, arrosé" ("The Sprinkler, Sprinkled").  The inventors, Auguste and Louis Lumière, showed off their invention, the "Cinematographe", in Paris on December 28, 1895. It was the first movie camera that could also project a film for a large audience. It seems that Edison had invented the Kinetograph, but hesitated to apply earlier discoveries about film projection. His invention        allowed only one person at a time to watch short films through a peephole. According to the History of Cinema he thought it would be more profitable to charge a nickel per person than to show films to a large audience. Guess he rejected 3D as well.

To see the original Lumière Brothers film (44 seconds), click this link to Youtube. It's a riot.       http://youtu.be/Frl0K09o-KA

A wonderful aspect of French life is the fact that art and history are all around you, and incorporated into daily life. Like this little park in Besançon.


 It was nestled into an old Roman theater site, which was also the site of the earliest Christian church in the city.

On the morning of September 24, we got up our courage to drive out of the old city in Besançon. Thanks to good directions and a pink highlighted route on our map, we not only made it out, but were actually on the right road heading in the right direction. Next stop - Chateau de Joux. The N57 route took us to the southeast into the Jura mountains, through the city of Pontarlier and right to the foot of the little road up to the Chateau. Our little Picasso car climbed confidently, though its occupants were less confident about the narrowness of the road and the likelihood of another car coming down at some high rate of speed. Once parked at the top, we found the entrance to the chateau -

firmly locked. Next tour: 14h30 (2:30pm). Current time: 11h30. Merde.


So we went back down the road to check out the village below, named La Cluse-et-Mijoux. The village lay between two tall peaks, each with a chateau on the top. I was curious what a "cluse" was so I questioned a man working on the road who pointed at the narrow gap between the peaks and said "Voilà!" And here it is, from down the road.

Voilà! La Cluse, or gap. The Chateau de Joux is on the left. The fort on the right is named Larmont.

The gap between the two peaks is just wide enough for the road and a railroad track, as shown in these photos I took later from the top.

and....

So having learned a new vocabulary word, we went for a walk to kill time during this serious two-hour lunchbreak. We had eaten late morning so were not in tune with French time at all!

As in every French town, there was a war memorial to their soldiers lost in multiple wars. This one commemorated three wars; WW1, WW2, 

and the Algerian War of the late 1950's (gray stele on the staircase).

There was also a memorial to the 3rd regiment of the Algerian infantry and the FFI French resistance group who liberated the town on Sept 3, 1944. There has been a movement lately in France to acknowledge the role played by soldiers from its former colonies in the World Wars. This one seems old enough to have been put up after the war.


Finally time to visit the Chateau! A great guide told us of its long history as a feudal castle, fort, and prison. And guess who was put in charge of renovating it in the 1600's - Vauban, of course! It's one of his 300 fortress renovations, all required to defend the empire of Louis XIV. 


The compound consists of 5 successive fortified enclosures - one inside the other. There is a museum of antique weapons and military uniforms. Every fortress needed a well of course, and here we see a large and very deep one - 120 meters deep (almost 400 feet or the height of a 33 story building.)

Any former French students out there who remember the well and the movie it's in?

The well figures in a scene of one of the best of the many "Les Misérables" movies. In the Claude Lelouch film of 1995, Jean-Paul Belmondo plays Henri Fortin, a 20th centruy man whose life is "affected by and somewhat duplicated by the Hugo story of the beleaguered Jean Valjean" (imdb.com at this link - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113828/ ) In it, one of the three characters played by Belmondo and another prisoner seek to escape from the Chateau de Joux prison by swimming through an underground channel to the bottom of the well and then climb out using a rope thrown in by a guard that they had bribed. His fellow prisoner can't make it to the top and falls to his death. Found the scene on Youtube!!!! (They really do have everything.)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBiq_ykvu0E&feature=related


Belmondo keeps climbing only to discover that ****Spoiler Alert*** he's been betrayed and that the guards are waiting for him. He refuses to come out of the well to face a lifetime of prison, and instead lets himself fall backwards into the well.  Great scene - great movie.  I own it so let me know if you want to come over and watch it. I'll make popcorn.


Here's the English movie trailer:
        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvP_b_0pcI0




We saw the cells of all the famous prisoners - Mirabeau, Toussaint Louverture, and the tragic Berthe. I know that I blathered on about all of this in my post of Oct. 14, so I will just show pictures this time.

Down in the moat.

The Larmont Fortress across the Gap.

One of the residents.

Secret tunnel with mood lighting...

and dormitory accommodations for those unlucky prisoners whose families couldn't pay for a room and some amenities. Notice the leg irons on the "beds".












At the end of the 90 minute tour, our guide told us that we had walked 2 1/2 kilometers, climbed up and down 520 stairs, and had only seen 5% of the Chateau. 


Stunning as the chateau is, the geology of the Jura amazes me more. In fact, there were a couple of graduate students on the tour who were earning degrees in geology from the University of Illinois. They were traveling in the Jura for research. 

On the back side of this escarpement, was a steep hill with a small road that switchbacked its way to the top. I didn't take a photo of that, but here is the road on a model of the area at the chateau:

We watched a cyclist ride up that road, all the way to the top. Impressive feat.


I will leave you with one more photo of rock. And a promise for next time of lions, modern architecture and a salad dressing receipe for a crowd.


À bientôt!