La Mine de l'Echaillon

We are so blessed to be able to be living in this amazing city! There are countless opportunities to go skiing, hiking, and biking.  Today, I had the opportunity to visit La Mine de l'Echaillon with my new friends Alexis, Katy, and Vincent! Vincent is French and does things like this all the time, and we are extremely thankful to have met him because he takes us on amazing trips like this one, helps us practice our French, and is just a really great guy!

To prepare for the trip, Vincent told us to bring a flashlight and a helmet, which I was able to borrow from my host family.  He said we would have to hike up to the entrance of the mine, and that it would only take about 10 to 15 minutes, but that it would be pretty steep, and it definitely was!

The view from the top made the rough hike worthwhile.

It was really interesting because we could see all sorts of old mining equipment that had just been left there when they stopped mining.  Vincent said it hasn't been a functioning mine in over 50 years.

We spent a good amount of time looking around outside and enjoying the view before actually going into the mine.  Here is a photo of the four of us!

When we finally reached the entrance to the mine, I was amazed.  It was massive.  We went in and began exploring.  We asked Vincent how long it would take and were shocked when he replied that we would be in there for about two hours!  Looking back on it, however, that time flew by and it only seemed like we were there for half an hour.  We had a great time exploring the mine and even got to ride in a mining cart!

It was an amazing experience to be in the mine and see how everything worked.  We were able to see many items that were used by miners that had been left behind, and we could even tell when they began to dig in a certain area but stopped because they weren't finding the limestone they were looking for.  Vincent told us that the limestone they mined was the same type of limestone they used for the base of the Statue of Liberty! It was amazing to be able to connect this experience in a random mine in Grenoble to such an important landmark for us!  It was also really interesting because I grew up near several coal mines but never had the opportunity to see how they actually work because it was too dangerous to go inside.  I love that I was able to learn more about my area in Appalachian Ohio from this experience in France.

I think the fact that we did this also says something about French culture in general in relation to American culture.  Based on my experiences, specifically with my host family, it seams that the French are never okay with just doing nothing, which is great! If we hadn't done this I likely would have stayed in my room most of the day and studied or watched Netflix, and in America there's no shame in wasting your day on Netflix, (okay maybe a little) but here I am much more motivated to get out and do something every day because I know that when I sit down for dinner, my host mom is going to expect a good story about my day!

-Rebecca