Emilie's birthday - Fête de la châtaigne - Bisse du Torrent-neuf - Vendange - Bex salt mines/Lavey-les-Bains

Saturday: In the afternoon, I met up with Gabriel in Sion, and he showed me downtown (keep in mind, the population is about 30,000). We then went to a newly opened brew-pub, where I saw beer towers ("girafes") for the first time. They are three and five liter cylinders with a tap on the bottom. It's the same principle as a pitcher, a group of friends orders one and shares it among themselves. We then headed back to his father's appartement to have a cheese fondue for supper. His dad showed up after supper, and we tasted a few of the local varieties of liquors and liqueurs, mainly based on local fruits such as apricots and pears. He also told me about his experience in the "patrouille des glaciers" (glacier patrol), which is a multi-discipline race from Zermatt to Verbier. They use "peaux de phoques" (seal skins) on their skies to go up mountains, since they also the ski to slide forwards, but block when going backwards, so it's possible to ski much like cross-country skiing, but uphill. Obviously, once at the top of the hill, you remove the peaux de phoques and simply ski down. The whole race lasts between six and aixteen hours, depending on your fitness. Gabriel and I then went to join Emilie at a local bar, as she was celebrating her birthday with some friends. We eventually ended up at a club named "trente quarante" (thirty forty), which as the name implies, is meant for the older crowd and ended the evening there.

Sunday: In the afternoon I went to the Fête de la chataigne (Chestnut festival) with Emilie and two of her friends. It's basically a steeet festival with a bunch of kiosks selling different types of food and local specialties. I tried a bunch of different cheeses and sausages. In the evening, I went to see "Des hommes et des dieux" (Men and Gods), which tells the true story of a French catholic monestary in the Maghreb during the 90s. The monks are witness to the rise of extremism in the region and though the local government wants them to leave, they decide to stay.

Monday: In the morning we vendanged a few hundred kilos of Fendant, another Valais specific white-grape variety. In the afternoon, I went with Gregoire to see the bisse du torrent neuf. A bisse is a small man-made stream on the side of the mountain. The purpose is bring water from the mountains down,into the plains to irrigate the different crops. They were quite dangrous to build at the time, and the one we visited had a chapel at the beginning of the trail where the workers would pray before heading out to work in the morning.

Tuesday: The last day of the vendange, we got a couples thousand kilos off the mountain. Parts of the vineyard are inaccesable by road, and so the collecting bins had to be airlifted out. The last of the rows were inaccesible by road, so I wore the "cacolet" to brong down cases by the road. The cacolet is backpack like and allows someone else to install three cases of grapes on your back, weighing about 50 kilos. I only had two trips to do with it, which was just enough to realise how hard it must have been previously when all the grapes were transported like that.

Wedesnday: In the morning, I visited the salt mines at Bex, which are still in use today. They took us around the old parts of the mine, most of them dug out by hand with hammer and chisel. They have a wine cellar in the mines with 5000 bottles, and since the mines are at a constant 18°C all year round (because of a reaction between water and gypsum in the rock around the mines), with a constant humidity level, one year aged in the mines is the equivalent to four years in a normal cellar. In the afternoon I went to Lavey-les-Bains with Grégoire. It's the biggest thermal baths in the region, and their thermal source has water coming out at 70°C, which they cool down for all the different pools. I tried a hammam for the first time, which is basically a sauna but with a constant 100% humidity. I also had a sauna and tried out chromotherapy, which uses music, lights and aromas to either calm you or energize you. Of course, I spent a good amount of time in the thermal baths as well.