Transatlantic Testimonies: Blue yodel number 1

We’ve all had the occasional earworm—that one song that doesn’t seem to get out of your head, the song that you sing out loud, which drives your friends crazy because they know your incessant singing will infect them with the same pitiful condition, or because your imitation of the song is just horrible to listen to.

I think if I had indulged in singing my earworm out loud in front of people this past week, it would have been the latter, and not the former, that would have probably resulted in me getting deported back home.

I’m convinced of this because my earworm, which has plagued me since I was at the Retour des Alpages Festival in Annecy last Saturday, has involved songs exclusively devoted to yodeling. And let’s face it: I can’t yodel.

The funny part about yodeling is that it’s one of those things you can’t really describe without attempting to do it yourself. To better get a grip on how to explain yodeling, in case there was someone who hadn’t ever heard Tarzan yell or listened to Jimmie Rodgers, I’ve looked up a few definitions:

Yodel (v.): to sing by suddenly changing from a natural voice to a falsetto and back

Or: a form of singing that involves singing an extended note which rapidly and repeatedly changes in pitch from the vocal or chest register to the falsetto/head register; making a high-low-high-low sound.

I’m convinced that both Merriam Webster and Wikipedia should just stick a link to “The Lonely Goatherd” from the marionette scene in the Sound of Music if they really want to illustrate what yodeling is. “Chest register” and “head register” aren’t quite descriptive enough for the musically un-inclined.

Besides that, the yodeling in Annecy may very well have had something to do with a lonely goatherd, since the festival was a celebration of the return of animals from pasture after the summer season. Annecy celebrates the health of their animals before entering the winter season every fall with parades, traditional music, food, and artisans featuring their craftsmanship. Many farmers had their animals on display throughout the city. It was sort of like a Europeanized, Alp-inized version of the fair. Laura and I coincidentally picked that day to visit Annecy, which is a small town in the Alps set on Lake Annecy. The old town was very picturesque, and even had a château (castle). I’m disappointed that there’s no university here, because with the mountains and the lake it’s hard to justify living in a big city instead!

Despite my yearning for mountains and scenic backdrops (and possibly more yodeling with accordion accompaniment), I do have to say that Old Lyon has its own charm, as well. Earlier on in October I explored the old Roman ruins of the city, including an amphitheater up on Fourvière Hill next to the basilica. Fourvière Hill was settled as a Roman colony in 43 BC. Lyon (called Lugdunum at the time, meaning something like “Hill-Fort of Light”) was the capital of Gaul, a region of Western Europe during the Roman Empire. I tried my best to do justice to the ruins in the photos, but it was hard to actually capture the immensity of the theatre and the other ruins surrounding it.

I was also able to visit the traboules a few weeks ago. Traboules are passageways typically associated with Lyon that helped workers get textiles and other products from the river into the city by cutting through buildings (there aren’t many roads perpendicular to the Saône river). The traboules were also used by resistance fighters during the Nazi occupation and helped prevent total Nazi control of Lyon. The ones I visited are used now as entrances to apartment buildings. A “true Lyonnais” knows the ins and outs of the traboules better than any tourist ever could.

I was also able to go out to a restaurant in the Old City this past week with my class on religion and the Ottoman Empire and Turkey. I’m really enjoying the three course option: I started with a salad with a warm goat cheese pastry and pine nuts; then ordered pike in a lobster sauce (so delicious!) as my dinner; and for dessert I had a crème brûlée/pineapple pie combination that was possibly the most scrumptious dessert I’ve had yet, and only because they ran out of crème brûlée and gave me the option on the dessert menu that was the most similar to it. Needless to say I was not disappointed.

Roman ruins on Fourvière Hill

Théâtre Gallo-Romain

A smaller amphitheatre on Fourvière Hill

Imagine the stagefright you'd get here!

A traboule in Vieux Lyon

A courtyard along the traboule

Dina and I on a night out

Another bizarre fact-- in France pool is played with two different colored balls, no numbers (except the 8 ball, of course).

A church in Bourgoin-Jallieu, where Laura lives and where I got to visit a few weeks back

Hôtel de Ville in Bourgoin-Jallieu

Bourgoin-Jallieu

On the Rhône River in Lyon

A memorial outside my school: "Here in 1943 and 1944 the Nazi Gestapo, aided by traitors, tortured thousands of resistant fighters and hostages before their death or their deportation. Their sacrifice allowed for the liberation of France."

The Rhône

Cider vinegar... sorry, Nathan, I don't think that will ship well ;)

Annecy -- people dining in the street!

Hand-painted crafts

Cows!

All sorts of crafts... like giant wooden boots? Shoelace included.

Cowbells... makes me think of softball tournaments!

Château d'Annecy from below

Lake Annecy and the Alps

The "cadran du frère Arsène", or the Brother Arsen sundial: the star has seven branches and is parallel to the equator. Each end stands as a polar gnomon, and the shadows give the time 25 minutes ahead of Greenwich time.

Pont des Amours (Lovers' Bridge)

Don't even think about going for a dip :)

Part of the Retour des Alpages -- traditional costumes and something sweet!

Palais de l'Isle: used to be the residence of the Lord of Annecy in the 12th century, also used to serve as a jail!

Château d'Annecy (Home of the Counts of Geneva... Annecy used to be the capital of the county of Geneva in the 14th century)

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire... no? Too early? We had some anyway!

Alpine horns!

Château d'Annecy

Palais de l'Isle from a closer point of view

Gotta love that folk music!

Talk about economy size...

Laura had a sausage, I had a tartelette--comfort food at its finest. Potatoes, sausage, cheese! The green beer is a local specialty beer with some sort of herb mixed in... not just meant for St. Patrick's Day!