Life in Martigny

Multi-Lingual Card Game

Yesterday a friend of Gloria’s came for lunch.  Her name is Olga, and she is in her mid-eighties.  Gloria met her on her last trip here, and they really hit it off.  We ate out on the patio, which we do usually for lunch, as it is still quite warm here in the middle of the day.  With our meal we had local wine, grapes that just came off the vine, figs from the tree in the backyard, local cheese and of course, Swiss chocolate. 

After lunch, they wanted to play cards, and needed a fourth, so I joined in, along with Loriane.  It was the funniest thing, like something from Alice in Wonderland.  Olga was going to teach us a traditional Swiss card game that was new to all of us.  Olga was instructing us in Swiss French.  Sometimes Lorianne had to translate for Gloria because of the differences with Quebec French.  Gloria would say things to Olga in English sometimes, and to me in French.  After they got the gist of what was going on, Loriane tried to pass it on to me in English. I tried to listen and pick up what I could. We started laughing so hard about all of this, and made it through the game.  Loriane and I actually won.  Then we played another game that was new to Olga, and that was just as funny.  So there we sat for much of the afternoon-----Olga, who spoke very little English (I was told that people her age usually only learn the three official languages—French, Italian and German, but kids in school now also have the option to take English.) -- Gloria with her “Franglish”, Loriane, a Swiss who is an English teacher, and me with my smattering of French.  At least I know my numbers.  It was a delightful experience.

Later we drove Olga home to the village where she lives way up in the mountains.  It was just like one imagines villages in the Alps.  Until fairly recently they did not have a grocery store, but trucks would stop by and the people would buy the things they needed right from the truck. 

The Roman City

Today we visited a number of places in the city where old Roman buildings have been excavated.  There is a Roman style house built around 380 AD that had central heating and baths.  Also an amphitheatre, which is now used for cow fights (not bullfights, but cows. When the cows come down from the mountains in the fall, they want to fight to see who is the “queen cow.”  The locals take great pride in their cow being queen, so they bring them together in the amphitheatre to fight it out.)  There is part of the Roman Road that came through Martigny, on the way to Londinium.  Often these ruins are found when a new building is being built, like the apartment building we saw where a large Roman villa is underneath, protected by a concrete and steel floor and then the apartment build on top.  What a nightmare for the contractor when they begin to dig and uncover something like that!