Nonno and The Great Grenoble Ascent

Thank you everyone for keeping Nonno in your prayers right now.

May eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and perpetual light shine upon him. May his soul and all the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

I wish I was home right now with my family, but I know that if I left, it'd be the hardest flight back to France ever. I'm thankful for skype and being able to see my family in that way at least.

The night before, Nonno had everyone over for supper. All my cousins, aunts and uncles had "Nonno's pasta." I'm sure that's the way he'd want to go anyways, making sure everyone was on a full stomach. He was happy and in a good mood, joking around. I was able to skype with him not too long ago and he was hilarious, in a great mood. I'm so thankful for being able to do that.

I miss him already so much. I love him.

Nanni and Nonno moved to Canada about 50 years ago to, like many immigrants, open more opportunities for their family. Nonno worked in construction for many years, he was a very hard worker. In the past few years, he's been telling me and Frank more stories about coming to Canada. I'm so happy that Nonno and Frank were able to become so close. Nanni and Nonno were so brave.

My three favourite men in the world,
Frank, Frank, and Frank

And look at the opportunities I've been given thanks to them, I'm studying in France right now. Last week, I was in Ireland. Yesterday, I climbed one of the Grenoble mountains alone, right to the top, just before sunset.

Nice battle wound, eh? And it's 10ºC here! Shorts weather for running.

My residence is only half way up the mountain, so yesterday after class, I decided to climb the rest of the way to "La Bastille," which was an old military fort I think. 

First I ran up the switch-back path. 

It's hard to put it in perspective. Here's the view of "the tunnels" as I call them, from my res. 

And here's my res from the tunnels.

My res is the building on the right, "Vercors"

At that point, it was a complete maze through the tunnels. It was actually extraordinary. There were so many!

Not a bad view from the windows up there.

Surrounding mountains

Check out those stairs!

After I made my way through them, I got to the caves. The military made these years ago, I don’t know much more than that about the history. 

Some of the tunnels and stairs went on for what seemed like forever! A French girl told me, "Il faut faire attention!" before I left (Be careful!) I understood why when I saw these caves. Wouldn't want to be there alone at night.

And some are more lit than others.

At the end, I came out to these beautiful vines growing up a cliff.

My goal was to get to the very top of the mountain though. So began my ascent through the rocks and forest!

I made it up just in time to see the sunset.

Remember my bloody knee? Well I actually didn't cut it falling up the rocks. I cut it trying to get to the VERY top of the mountain, on these pillars. 

After many unsuccessful attempts of pulling myself up onto this wall (as seen from the brown marks where my feet were), and trying to "grip the wall" with my knees, I remembered, brains over brawn, Christina.

Other side of the wall.

Success!

Breath-taking views...

My favourite time of day, when the mountains turn pink

I owe this opportunity, and all, really, to Nonno and Nanni. I miss them so much, I love them even more, and I am so thankful.

Sleep with the angels tonight Nonno. Buonanotte ! I love you!