The 2013 visit started with quite a long drive into the mountains to the village of Beaufort to visit the cooperative producing the famous Beaufort cheese. Donning a less than flattering ‘charlotte’ (hat to cover the hair) we were told about how the production of this alpine cheese was revived in the 1960s and gained appellation d’origine contrôlée status in 1968. The visit ended with a tasting of the cheese and a local wine before we set out to discover the village itself.
After lunch we drove on to the hydroelectric dam at Roselend (Savoie) from where we were able to see Mont Blanc. This visit was particularly special as, in addition to the adults, there was a party of school children from Ladygrove Park school in Didcot on their first trip to Ecole des Bealieres, Meylan, accompanied by some of their teachers. There was time during the visit to go out with our host families, taking a walk in the mountains, attending the nearby Gala of Flying, or lunching on the Bastille overlooking Grenoble. The gala dinner ended with dancing.