Moving to France and Lessons From A Hiking Group
From repeat guest writer Lea Cicchiello
After 19 years of living in Wisconsin, I moved to France. I am originally from France, but I didn’t know the area I moved to at all. After hiking and running trails mostly in Wisconsin (year-round, on the Ice Age Trail and in State Parks) I arrived in Grenoble, “the door to the Alps”, a very flat city surrounded by mountains. From almost anywhere in town, you can see one of the three mountain ranges surrounding it: the Chartreuse, the Vercors, and the Belledonne.
To explore this new-to-us territory, my husband and I decided to join a hiking group. shortly after our arrival, the city held a forum where different organizations have booths to introduce themselves and recruit new members. There, we found a group that seemed good for us: they hiked every Saturday (with snowshoes during winter months) and explored all three mountain ranges. We thought it would be a great introduction to the area.
Grenoble is a very ecologically oriented city, with numerous bike paths winding through the city for people to commute by bike, and with an extended public transportation system, offering bus rides even far up the mountains. It is so great to walk to a bus stop, take a 30-minute bus drive, and walk 20km (12miles) home. But for hikes further out, and for the many people living in Grenoble who don’t own a car, our hiking group has a carpooling system: we meet in town, fill up a few cars with however many hikers are signed up for that day, and head up the mountain. As new drivers in France and especially in the mountains, we thought this would be good for us as well: it would be nice to be driven for a while, until we’d feel more comfortable, know the roads a bit better, and then it would be our turn to drive people.
It didn’t take long for us to decide: we joined the group.
The thing is: they’re older people. I’m in my forties, and I’m the youngest there. To be honest, I personally thought at the beginning that hiking with older people would be great since I’m not used to big elevation changes, and now we were in… the Alps! And I was right, the pace is slow. But not always for reasons I anticipated…
On our very first hike with the group, my husband and I arrived with our hiking clothes, running shoes, one pole each, my camera, and a small backpack each with water, an extra layer, and a sandwich for lunch on the trail. And we looked around, confused, as most of the other hikers had a pack that looked like they were going out for three days.
Turns out, these people stop often while hiking. Which means many a wardrobe change. We start walking, they take a layer off after a while, then we stop and they put that layer back on. We get up at altitude and it’s windy so they put on their windbreaker. Then we stop, and they take it off. Then we hike up and they take more off. We stop for bathroom breaks often, we stop to admire the panorama and for our guide to name all the peaks in sight, we stop for lunch (and many change their t-shirts to be dry), and we stop for stories (some people can’t walk and talk). There are many stories, which is a great way for my husband to improve his French. Immersion is a great way to learn a language, as we had seen during a one-week hiking trip in the Dolomites where my husband improved his Italian quite a bit!
Hiking with this French group, we learn a lot with these people: about their lives, about the area, about the history of the area, about mushrooms and plants, about their travels… and about food. Because when picnic time came on that first hike, my husband and I sat down and took out our little sandwiches… and they took out the baguettes, the cheeses, the bottle of rosé (with corkscrew), offering rounds of wine early on, dessert (sometimes homemade!) later on, and, of course, after dinner liqueur. That first day we were offered three different local liqueurs: chartreuse (like the mountain range), génépi, and vulnéraire. We didn’t even have cups… but they had extras! Finally, the huge backpacks made sense.
My husband and I were done with our sandwiches pretty fast, but people ate and drank for a long while, having brought the equivalent of a three-course-meal to the mountain, admiring the view or just resting for a bit, still talking and sharing stories. We learned on that first day that the picnic part of the hike mattered as much as the hike itself. Eating, in French fashion, is an important part of the day, even a day of hiking in the mountains.
Even though we had moved with quite a bit of gear, after that very first hike my husband and I headed to the local outfitters. We each bought a small pad to sit on (since we knew now we’d be sitting for a little while on those hikes), and bought a thermos for bringing coffee to share on colder hikes, making sure to choose a design with a top that turns into a cup for the next time we were offered drinks.
After months of hiking with this group, we haven’t brought a whole bottle of wine up the mountain yet, nor homemade dessert, but we often bring chocolate bars, and my husband’s offer of coffee is, more often than not, a hit.
We were right about the few things that made us want to hike with this group. We did discover new trails, new areas, got used to the mountain roads, and got our mountain legs. But we found much more. We’ve become quite fond of our old-folk hiking group, and if we skip a couple of weekends in a row, we find ourselves missing them.
Honestly, it’s inspiring to see people in their 70s still hiking, still enjoying the mountains and the trails, people generous with their liqueurs… but most importantly with their knowledge and their stories.
Born in France of Italian parents, Lea Cicchiello moved back to France last summer after living in Wisconsin for 19 years. She is rediscovering her home country and exploring new areas with her husband. Her favorite activities include reading, hiking, trail running, and kayaking, in her neighborhood and around the world. Follow her adventures on her Youtube channel or on Instagram @trailsandtravelswithlea.
Other guest posts on Hello Stranger…
Lea is our first repeat Guest Writer on Hello Stranger! Check out her previous piece, Distance Hiking in the Italian Dolomites, or Choosing Not to Summit
Explore Namibia with Steph Gregerson
Find love (or just mountain magic!) in Tajikistan with Laura Ng.
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Bonjour!
Thank you for the fun article. I am dying to know all the details of the 3 course hiking lunch. As in veggies, meats, cheeses, fruit, utensils- how was it packed?:)
I love the French way of life.
Gratefully,
Jane