April 08, 2011: Grenoble - Bernin Exposition, Cose Sia, Woody Allen

Today I had an outing to the village of Bernin. Several artists from the Sweet Home Grenoble group were having an art exhibition ("exposition" en françaid) and I got a ride with Linda, along with Dominique. And, since I had spent a couple of years working in an art gallery, I was able to make myself useful by helping to hang paintings. I do find it satisfying to eyeball whether things are hanging straight!

I didn't have time to explore the village at all, but I think the whole village was coming to the show - two municipal police officers walked through, looking at all the art at length. Might this be the French equivalent of the American police officer doughnut break - a culture break?

For dinner we went to Cose Sia; I had been planning on going for Italian for a while, since Grenoble has such a high Italian populatio. For the appetizer I had beef carpaccio, which had a beautiful soft texture, but the taste was milder than what I've had in Toronto at Terroni's - I was expecting a bit more savouriness. And for the main course I had a calzone - it's rare that I can resist ordering a pizza, but the calzone toppings intrigued me - mushrooms, tomatoes, ham, and an egg. Our waitress got a kick out of speaking English to us, which made ordering dinner easy.

On the way home I was telling Mark how I'd read that the French are big fans of Woody Allen movies - and only minutes later we passed a movie theatre, with a mural of Woody Allen's face outside!

 

Dominique and her paintings

 

Woody Allen!