Mining.

Thursday, October 2nd. We had a trip to the Mines with Gerry & Sandrine (another professor of ours). This mine was in Albi, near 20 minutes away. The actual Mine itself was shut down completely around 1987 and torn down so no one could have any memory of it. Not long after, they decided to rebuild a piece of it so that people could come to see it. The "elevator" the miners took went near 7 times faster than the speed of an elevator today. Our tour guide (who spoke great English!) told us we would be going down one of these shafts at 6 meters per second and would be going down 200 meters. I was sooo nervous!! Here... check out some of the pictures and see what a mine in France is like!

Here is our tour guide... and the elevator we would be going down! AHH!

First walking into the mine.. some of the halls were kinda small.

haha. Me & Teddy!! We had to wear those helmets incase rocks fell!

The group standing around what was once the train the miners rode in.

some tracks..

A close up of the train cars.

LUNCH TIME! (eww)

Some of their equipment.. you can see in the wall, the line of light grey. This is stone, it is not the coal. For a long time, when they had the stone in their carts that they collected, they did not get paid for that cart. The miners couldn't tell a difference from where the coal was to where the stone was because it was dark and there was dust flying everywhere..

These were called "Swings." Originally designed so that the workers could hop on them and it would be a quicker ride back to the exit. Unfortunately, it was a harder process than what it looks like. The actually "swing" weighed a decent amount. The would be leaning against the wall. The minor would have to place it on the rope that was continuously moving at a decent speed. So the minor would place it on and have to jump. But be aware of the person behind him. This was more difficult than it sounds because it was pitch black and you couldn't see who was where... Then jumping off was another challenge because you had to take it off with you. And, again, you didn't know where the person was behind you and had a chance of being hit. This ended up not being a good means of transportation in order to leave. Instead they would walk. Not long after, they made a game out of this so they could have a good laugh now and then, too...

Here's me & Sandrine, one of our professors!

Me & Gerry.. he's our professor that lives with us!

& the whole gang... plus our tour guide! :)

Okay, well I need to inform you all that the "elevator ride" that was 200 meters at 6 meters a second.. did not exist!! We didn't move.. at all! We just went out the door on the other side. There was a stimulator that made it feel like we were jerking around.. Talking about feeling dumb!!

God bless you all