Having relished Escargot Comtois’ finest samplings the day before, we awoke in the cozy surroundings of Escargot Comtois, staying in one of the three rooms at the inn. The sensation we felt was of “joie de vivre,” the French phrase meaning a feeling of healthy enjoyment of life. The “joie de vivre” kick-off to a new day began by eating what I considered the very best French made breakfast which included a very fresh homemade apple (pomme) juice.

“It is not too often when I get to drink apple juice freshly squeezed before I even wake up,” I mused.

Everything was fresh, including the bread just brought in from a local bakery. With a feeling of satisfaction, it was time for me to move on to the other assignments, I am going to miss watching the snails harvest for a special destination — my “Palais,” a most refined palate of French creativity.

We headed to go visit a cheese factory in Doucier, France, in the Franche-Comte region, which has a population of only 306 people. I have been anxious about visiting a cheese farm because that would be a first for me, and I love cheese. I am not just restricted to coffee, wherever I go, it is about trying the local specialty. It’s just the feeling that going straight to the source will introduce me to the world’s finest.

Before arriving Doucier, I didn’t see any big cities except a few small villages, small roads, and plenty of cows. It is a pretty serene and scenic environment, and as quiet it seemed to be, cheese makers were already producing cheese in the dawn of the morning just when the bustle of life starts.

Arriving at the cheese factory called “La Fuitière de la Valléedu Hérisson,” which in English, it could be translated to,”The Fruit of the Valley,” a woman named Laurence emerged from the small and quaint factory to greet us and welcome us inside. We were given protective gear to wear inside for our heads and feet, probably for sanitation reasons.

We saw two big copper bowls circling with metal along fresh milk. Milk has to be high quality, and it takes ten pounds of milk just to make one pound of cheese. It had to process for several hours before the whey, or milk liquids becomes milk solids, or what people call,”curds.” The cheesemakers cook and stir the curds and whey until the desired temperature and firmness of the curd is achieved, and the whey are drained off in the drainage bins, leaving a tightly formed curd. The hard curds are then taken out to the cellar.

I was led to the cellar, and upon walking inside, I couldn’t believe my eyes how many cheese pressed into big round shapes were being cured and aged. Different handling techniques and salting affect how the curd is transformed into the many cheese varieties. They had to salt every two days then they are turned over for 30 days, before finally storing them at least for one year in another “cave,” which are ideal storage places for cellars. They usually sell cheese one year after the production day. It is very hard work and a long process for cheese business owners.

After the cheese factory tour, I had a chance to try their cheese. I chewed broken bits of cheese very slowly, because they tasted too delicious to swallow them all at once. I wanted to savour the salty texture of cheese, a dairy product considered a treat, a luxury. Many French and American household refrigerators have a special place for cheese, it is an inescapable fact that cheese accompanies a dinner course on nearly every table we eat on. Check www.fruitiere-comte.com out!

My love for cheese more profound, having picked up snails and swished Jura wine, my contentment was apparent as I drove down to La Balme les Grottes to pay respects to our folk hero, Laurent Clerc.

Clerc was the first Deaf man in America to be a teacher to Deaf children, and among the first in the world. The village of La Balms les Grotte, population 1,400, is the birth town of the legendary Clerc, which had only 800 people living there during his time, it is a commune in the Isère department in southeastern France.

I felt so proud of myself as a Deaf person and really am indebted to Clerc for boosting Deaf education in America, we all should be thankful that Clerc established Deaf education in sign language, he truly built the first “bridge” for Deaf people to become successful in the hearing world by offering classes in sign language.

Looking at Clerc as co-founder of the first school for the deaf, he was truly the first great proponent of sign language instruction over oral instruction in this country (perhaps virtually sidestepping Alexander Graham Bell). Clerc, an advocate for fundamental rights for Deaf people, he supported the right for Deaf people to marry and inspired the spread of Deaf education throughout the United States.

I felt fortunate to have gotten good education and having the background I had, it gave me the chance to run my own business with DeafNation showing the world that Deaf people can succeed in any level, including the business world.

I met with Laurent Clerc Association members (www.assoc-laurentclerc.fr), all volunteers who drove between 45 and 90 minutes to guide us. They usually drive in to guide many Americans, they help us in a heartfelt way by offering us very good hospitality. They called the village mayor to come greet me and Seth. It was such a honor having the mayor guide us around the village of La Balme les
Grottes.

I was informed that the mayor had been so generous in helping save the historic landmark of Laurent Clerc by purchasing his birthplace home and gave the Laurent Clerc Association their own office. I tolde Michelle Bonnot, a well known Deaf guide that “we are lucky to have the right mayor,” and she nodded, agreeing with me that if we had a mayor who was cranky and unsupportive, we would not be able to preserve the historic legacy of Laurent Clerc for our future generations of Deaf people.

I was shocked to learn that there was never an organization for Clerc until an American named Gil Eastman, former professor of Gallaudet University encouraged these same people to establish the Clerc Association in 1980. Four years later in 1984 they finally finalized all details for forming the organization and started the same year.

I couldn’t believe the fact that even if Laurent Clerc was a very famous Deaf figure who tried to preserve our Deaf education, there was no formal museum to honor his name anywhere in the world. It would bring closure to formally recognize Clerc for his pioneering efforts with Deaf people in the educational and cultural fields, who promoted sign language.

Many Americans don’t realize that Clerc was born in France and brought to America by Thomas Gallaudet. We should respect all the other important Deaf people who taught Clerc and had influence into what has evolved into Deaf culture of today.

They would love to have your kind support for their new office and Clerc museum.

After the tour, I had such a great feeling knowing that our old generation of Deaf people in the pride of their signed language made it possible for all of us to be where we are today. It was a very special time for me as a Deaf person to pay my respects at Clerc’s own birthplace. If it wasn’t for them, I would not be here. I would probably be in a freak show at a zoo, grossly undereducated. Clerc changed all that.

Time is running out before the sun comes down. There is a four hour drive down to Marseille, so we gassed it and finally arrived just before the sun went completely down at 10:00pm. We met up with a local Deaf named Jean-Marc, who said we must meet another Deaf couple named Jean-Pierre and Janine Guerin. We all strolled together at the famous Port Viuex, there were so many cafes and restaurants along the street, a long string of them. People were eating outside, it was a very outdoor atmosphere to indulge in.

c
I went to the Guerin home, which was built in 1657 during the reign of King Louis XIV, and as I came inside, my mouth dropped to the floor when I discovered that they retrieved a ship’s wooden masts setting up as their roof. I looked up and wondered how they were able to preserve a 400 year old ship mast to use for roof tiles, wall, wood, you name it, it was used. The couple kept renovating the ship mast as an “original” home. They explained to me that home was for ship’s sail sheet. If the sail sheet were torn or damaged, they were sewn. Later a nearby hospital used that place as a hospital expansion place where patients were on the recovery beds. Jean-Pierre’s mother bought the place.

The ship mast converted to a home, it was so cozy, it felt like a huge studio. I could see their upstairs bedroom from the lower level where the family room was. I walked to the balcony and I could see with almost a panoramic view of the action from 3 stories above, I could see the port filled with yachts, boats, ships. Standing on the balcony, I asked Janine “Have you seen many funny things happening in this intersection?” Nodding, Janine replied, “Yes, I have seen crazy brawling at the restaurant and police cars arriving.” It was evident she has so much fun watching the street action, and in the ten minutes I stood watching the action, we laughed together about the different things we saw, so many people were eating and cars were cruising around the port.

Janine nudged me to come follow her, because she wanted to show me the other part of her home. It was a huge top floor almost a block long above the restaurants. She runs her own mailing business and she teaches French Sign Language, which in the French language is called Langu des Signed Francais (LSF), it is the sign language of the Deaf in France.

The amazing thing was, the brick floors are the same as it was 400 years ago! It was almost surreal to walk on something so ancient, almost putting me into a time machine and taking me on a trajectory 400 years back!  We shared our experiences about Deaf cultures around the world.

Visit her website: www.visucom.fr

Both of them gave me a book of La Marseillaise which is is the French National Anthem in DVD with sign language. It was way past midnight. I am glad I got the French National Anthem in a language that I could understand (gestuno has prepared me for understanding LSF).

We needed to stop and go back to the hotel preparing for next early morning assignments.

Laurent Clerc is smiling on us, because we carried his torch in promoting sign language so that Deaf people would have a language and the cultural pride that goes with our beautiful language.