A Visit to Grenoble

You know those little fairy tale villages surrounded by mountains that you think only exist in postcards?  Yeah, I visited one a few weekends ago.

Seriously.  Look at this.

Grenoble is one of the most amazing cities-- towns-- villages-- who knows how to classify it-- that I've ever visited.  Part of that could be my ongoing love affair with mountains, but it was just such an amazing place to walk through.  My friend Grace came with me, and we left Paris around 10, after our train was delayed for unknown reasons (probably the rain) for about an hour.  We made it to Grenoble towards the end of lunchtime-- 1:30 or so-- and checked into the hotel before beginning our quest for food.

One thing I love about France is that you can never quite tell when it's going to rain and when it's going to shine.  Sure, you have your weather reports-- which are about as accurate as my sister's cat trying to catch the red dot.  Things weren't looking so hot on the weather report for Grenoble, with rain scheduled pretty much all day every day.  Despite that, I rarely used my umbrella; France prefers to rain in little sprits and then stop for a while before raining again.

Our first day in Grenoble, we headed out to see the Cathedral of Grenoble, also known as the Notre Dame de Grenoble (yes, every town has a Notre Dame-- no, none are as impressive as the one in Paris).  We wandered down from our hotel though the old part of the city, stopping for lunch and then stopping for coffee.  It was a very chill start, and ended with a wonderful fondue date-- did you know I've never had actual fondue?  I've only ever had chocolate fondue.  Yes, I know that doesn't shock you, be quiet.

An overcast day

The square next to the cathedral

Chez Marius-- because I'm a musical nerd

Inside the cathedral

Shakesbeer pub-- because I'm also a Shakespeare nerd

Day two at Grenoble saw us spending a really large amount of time up at the top of the Bastille.  We grabbed pastries on our way to the cable car up to the top of one of the mountains, and once there, we settled in for the long haul.  We must've spent one or two hours wandering around the top and gawking at the view, and then another one or two hours having lunch at the restaurant up at the top (sidenote: eating while looking out at the Alps?  Phenomenal.  Try it if you ever have the chance).

The sun began to appear, finally

Wow I'm actually in one of the pictures

I would like it noted that I took 37 pictures of the mountains while at the top.  Be glad I figured out how to cut them down.

We decided we wanted to chill after a very filling lunch, so we headed back to the hotel.  Grace napped and I managed to get some homework done before we went to get dinner.  We were shockingly exhausted, so we fell into bed almost immediately after eating.  Combination of altitude, travel, and the wonder of mountains?

Our last day in Grenoble was spent wandering through museums.  We visited the Musee de Grenoble, which was full of art from the medieval period through today, which was super interesting to walk through.  There were paintings, sculptures, and tapestries scattered throughout the museum, as well as (shockingly) amazing views of the mountains.  We also saw the Musee Dauphinois, which had various histories of Grenoble, from the mountain men who lived there to the history of skiing (which I was particularly interested it).

A fun jokester statue

Painted during one of the Grenoble snows?

Joan of Arc portrayal

La comedie portraying la tragedie

And, finally, we headed home.  I was sad to say goodbye to the mountains, but it was a wonderful break from the hectic-ness that a student living in Paris can experience.  We got back to the apartment around 1 AM, after which I fell into bed and went straight to sleep, still dreaming of snow-topped mountains.

Katrina