April 03, 2011: Grenoble - Marché, Suspension Bridge

New purchase from the market - Spanish strawberries! You could smell them from several feet away. They're not quite as sweet as fresh Ontario strawberries, but they are strongly strawberry-tasting. Today there were also musicians playing typically French music on accordions. Last week there were clowns. The market is just one big delicious party.

As we debated what to do in the afternoon, and how to get there, we got a call from Sheree to head out in the car with her and her husband, Bob, to Lac Monteynard, where there are two suspension bridges. That decided it! The lake is an artificial water reservoir for a power station on the Drac River. I read later that the suspension bridges were only built in 2007, and are a Himalayan-type design. Although they are long, thin and high, with a fair bit of sway, they were so obviously new that it felt secure walking across them. The hike was warm and sunny - 23 degrees Celsius and longish stretches without shade. This is spring verging on feeling like summer!

 

Strawberries, in a lovely little wood grain-printed cardboard box (we saw some that were parked in precisely regimented rows)

 

Fishermen, down by the shore of the oddly milky turquoise water of Lac Monteynard

 

More fishermen, who would have trecked a long way to get out to that point

 

The first of the two suspension bridges - Passerelle de l'Ébron - 180m long

 

Sheree carries Einzel across the bridge - Einzel doesn't like bridges at the best of times

 

The thinly-drawn lines of this bridge diagram make it seem all the more precarious...

 

Dramatic canyon of the Drac

 

The bridge, like a spider web

 

Mark and I posed at the starting point of the bridge

  

This is a photo of the bar at the end of our street, Loco Mosquito. I've been waiting to get a photo of it, but there's always a car parked in front, blocking the elaborately painted pull-down metal door. At least today it's a small Renault instead of a big car.

April 02, 2011: Grenoble - Marché, Cuves de Sassenage

As usual we were off to the local market this morning. We returned to the same fromagerie as last week, to buy more of the new favourite Crayeuse de Savoie, as well as another new cheese, Vieux Cantal (one of the oldest French cheese varieties, from the time of the Gauls), and a different variety of sausage, Sanglier (which I picked because I didn't know what it is - turns out it's wild boar!). After getting some farm fresh eggs, fruits, vegetables, fresh spinach and ricotta pasta and two baguettes, we were ready for home. We had an early lunch of the fresh pasta, packed some charcuterie, cheese and baguette, and we were off on our daytrip - Les Cuves de Sassenage.

I've had to wait a whole month to visit the Cuves, but it was worth it! The Cuves are the closest caves to Grenoble, just a 40 minute trip by tram and bus. They don't open to the public until April 1 because water levels through the winter are too high - the caves were originally carved out by underground rivers, and parts of the caves are still filled every year by gushing torrents of water. In fact, even today we were only able to go on an abbreviated tour of the caves, but the guide told us we can come back later on the same tickets to take the full tour after those portions of the caves are water-free. The name "cuves" comes from the bowl-like areas at the outlet of the underground river from the side of the mountain - in general, caves are referred to as "grottes".

I'm not a hard-core caver - I don't want to have to squish through spaces where I might worry about geting stuck - but I was hoping for a sense of being in an unusual space, and this was just the right cave system. There were plenty of places where we had to stoop low or carefully climb up steep narrow steps, contrasted with tall passageways and large rooms. I can't wait to go back to visit the other parts, which sound like they are even larger cathedral-like galleries. As well, those are the caves that will have stalactites and stalagmites - there weren't any in the areas we visited today, since the regular flooding washes these formations away just as they get started. Also, no cave prehistoric cave paintings, although there are plenty of other caves throughout France that do have them.

The weather today was beautiful (23 degrees Celsius and very sunny) so we were hoping to spend more time outside. As it turned out, the area around the caves was perfect for a rambling hike - we followed a river (not the same one that carved the caves out of the mountain), which rushed through gorges, tumbled over cliffs as a waterfall, and spread out in a large pool as a reservoir. I think it may be the most scenic river I've ever walked alongside.

When we'd finished exploring as much of the river as we could follow, we turned back into the historic village of Sassenage, where the old stone buildings were crowded so closely together that many of the streets were one-lane only and hardly anything more than a narrow curb for a sidewalk. The alleyways were even named as streets, with signs pointing out that only bike and motorcycle traffic are allowed along them (no room for either cars or pedestrians). Not far away was the Chateau de Sassenage, a small castle/large mansion set in a large, walled park. The house wasn't open to visitors at this time of day, but we enjoyed walking around the beautiful grounds.

After an easy transit ride home we had a hearty meal: lentils with caramelized onions, sautéed carrots and green beans, concentrated chicken stock, and a few diced slices of our new sausage. With a bottle of red French wine of course!

 

While waiting for our cave tour to start a woman with a ferret on a leash walked up - even from afar you could tell it was a ferret by the way it moved about

 

Following Mark (and our tour guide) into the depths of the caves

 

The Germe River - not flowing as furiously here as it was in other passages

 

The Germe, pouring forth at the exit from the caves

 

We spotted adventurers of some type heading down to the Furon River (they seemed to be in wetsuits)

 

Alongside the river were large, crumbling stoneworks, from a time when the source of the Sassenage village's water came from up here on the mountain

 

Backlit maple leaves, just starting to come forth this week (finally - it's been warm enough for spring since we got here!)

 

The river, flowing through a gorge

 

Beautiful green forest floor, with a sheer cliff face in the background

 

As we walked along the river we came across a group of teenagers dressed as Star Wars characters, with light sabres and a video camera. We hummed and whistled the theme music the rest of the afternoon

 

The Furon, as a lovely, tall waterfall

 

The Furon, as a series of small falls cascading over a crescent-shaped shelf of rock

 

A rock, entirely embedded in a tree that (for some crazy reason!) has been growing around it for years

 

The historic village of Sassenage, with the Furon and Germe rivers channeled in a canal

 

An alleyway, marked as "Chemin de la Passerelle" (which translates as "Road Bridge"), with only motorcycles and bicycles permitted

 

A stone lion takes a bite out of me at the historic Chateau de Sassenage

 

Precise topiary, in line with precise rooftop peak  - I do love symmetry

 

One of many huge trees in the ground of the Chateau

April 01, 2011: Grenoble - Bon Anniversaire Ma Soeur, French Philosophy, Last of the Caves, Chinese/Cambodian Food, Poisson Avril

Bon Anniversaire Ma Soeur! Today is Heather's birthday. 

Today was my first time at a different French/English exchange group which is organized more as a "class". We all sat around one large table for discussion, and since the group was about three quarters French, it was good practice for me. The topic was "happiness", with questions posed, answers debated, and people taking turns going around the table to respond.

After that I finally finished reading Jean Auel's "The Painted Caves". What an abysmal novel. Clearly the author made far too much money early on in the series for her editor to have any power over her at this point - 90% of the book should have been cut, because it reiterated the same stories, characters and scenarios over and over. I could tell only 10% of the way in what I was letting myself in for, but I just couldn't give up part ways through - I slogged through the gargantuan book, desperately hoping for some sort of plot. Even the descriptions of the prehistoric cave paintings became painfully boring, as each one was described in mind-numbing detail - as a travel guide to cave paintings, this would fail.

For dinner we went to Phnom Penh, a Chinese/Cambodian restaurant just down the street. It's one of the more upscale Chinese restaurants I've ever been to (I've never been to a Cambodian one; it's difficult to know what aspects were Cambodian). The food had more kick than our Indian dining of week before, but still wasn't as good as we could get along Spadina - and it was more expensive. But we enjoyed debating the mystery ingredients on the French-language menu: St. Jacques (squid?) and gamba (prawns).

And I found out that April Fool's Day is Poisson Avril in France (courtesy of Maureen's blog about life in Grenoble). Stores sell fish-shaped chocolates, and children have only one prank to play - sticking paper fish on each others' backs, and yelling out "Poisson Avril" when it's discovered.

March 31, 2011: Grenoble - La Fin du Premier Mois

This morning was the French conversation coffee get-together at Pain et Cie with Open House. We switched over to a bit of English at the end, because Sophie's son stopped by. He studied English in school, so was quite good, but a bit shy about speaking in it, so she welcomed the chance for him to be "immersed".

After that it was back home, where I had some proof-reading work awaiting me. Between that, some reading and trip planning, and the daily trip to Monoprix to pick up some things for dinner, time flew by.

No new photos or other activities to report - today just felt like a regular day of life, which just happened to be set in France. Which is perhaps appropriate, at the end of our first month in France, that I've developed a daily routine of life. Some observations, looking back over the past month:

- I look French. All I have to do is put on a scarf, and I resemble the French women around me, who have simple hairstyles and minimal make-up. This is rather strange for me, because in other countries where I couldn't speak the language, like Mexico, Greece or Cyprus, it was obvious that I was a newcomer because I lacked the all-pervasive tan. On the one hand I get a kick out of blending in here. On the other hand it means that strangers are far more likely to launch into a barrage of French that I can't understand.

- I hear far more singing on the street. Kids singing out loud. Parents singing songs to their children. I can't think of the last time I heard anyone singing in Toronto.

March 30, 2011: Grenoble - English Tutoring, Good-bye Julie, Work

This morning I was invited over to the home of a new friend from Open House, Anne. She's interested in giving her young daughter more opportunities to practice English, and they live in an apartment building only a short walk away from my own. Because French children don't go to school on Wednesdays, it was a good day to arrange for some tutoring for Naola.

For an hour we played card games (which gave Naola a chance to explain the rules and instructions to me in English) and did some drawing (Naola asked me to draw a wolf, and seemed delighted by my rather cartoonish effort). She clearly understood most of what I said, but was shy about speaking in English herself. When we finished tutoring we dropped her off for catechism classes, and Anne and I went back to the apartment to chat in (mostly) French for an hour - good practice for me.

After a quick stop by the apartment I was off again to a good-bye lunch for Julie, who is returning to England this upcoming weekend. The lunch was hosted by Maureen, and several of us from the Open House group were there. Maureen served a lunch of some typically American dishes that she hasn't seen much of while in France: deviled eggs, bean salad and coleslaw. However, like a French meal, it unfolded at a leisurely pace, and we didn't part ways until 5:00.

When I got home I discovered that I had a bit of freelance work - a proof-reading job that I managed to finish off before supper, and then another one that I would be able to polish off the next morning. The time difference from Toronto really works to my advantage - I can head out for a day of activities and get home just as the Toronto work world is getting started for the day.

March 29, 2011: Grenoble - Préfecture, Painted Caves, Julia Child's Cabbage

Today we returned to the Préfecture, hoping that we'd successfully gathered and translated all the appropriate documents for the carte de séjour application, based on the list we'd received on our last visit. And indeed we had! The woman we dealt with was rather severe and abrupt, but by the end of our transaction seemed to have softened up a bit - perhaps my extreme preparedness with five photocopies of every possible document showed her how willing I was to work with the French bureaucracy. She pulled out all the pieces of paper she wanted, stapled them into a folder, and told us we'd receive a letter in the mail that would tell us about the next step.

To reward myself for our Préfecture triumph I went home and purchased Jean M. Auel's new book, "The Land of Painted Caves". Her series, set in prehistoric France/Spain, had been on my mind since seeing the cave near Seyssinet-Periset on the weekend. When I Googled to find out where the caves in the novels were located, I found out that a new book was being released on March 29, 2011 - what a coincidence! The last novel wasn't very good (very derivative of the first four books in the series), but I can't help but wonder how it's all going to turn out. This was also my first e-book purchase ever - although I don't have an e-reader, I can read it on my laptop.

While I sat down to an afternoon of reading I planned a leisurely dinner dish - Julia Child's red cabbage, braised in red wine. Here's a modified version of her recipe, which is what I made based on our small oven and a few ingredient substitutions - delicious!

Half Batch of Julia Child's Braised Red Cabbage with Red Wine

Ingredients

1/8 lb sausage

1 cup thinly sliced carrots

1/2 cup sliced onion

2 Tbsp butter

1 lb (3 or 4 cups) small red cabbage, quartered and cut into 1/2" slices

2 cups diced tart apples

1 clove mashed garlic

2 ground bay leavves (if you only have dried leaves, soak first and then chop as finely as possible)

1/8 tsp clove

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

1 cup good, young red wine (Bordeaux, Chianti)

1cup chicken stock

Salt & pepper to taste

 

Preheat oven to 325 degrees (or in Europe, th 7).

Chop the sausage into strips 1 1/2" long & 1/4" across. Cook the sauage, carrots and onion in the butter slowly in a large, covered pot for 10 minutes on medium-low heat without browning. Stir in the cabbage leaves and when well covered with the butter and vegetables, cook at the same temperature slowly for 10 minutes. Add all additional ingredients and increase heat. Bring to a simmer on top of the stove.

Transfer to a glass casserole dish, cover tightly with foil and place in the middle of the preheated oven. Regulate heat so cabbage bubbles slowly for 2 to 3 hours until all the liquid has been absorbed by the cabbage. Serves 4 people.

March 28, 2011: Grenoble - French/English, Laundry, Post Office

This morning I went to Sweet Home Grenoble's coffee get-together. Today was the first time in a new cafe - opinion was divided on whether it was an improvement. Top of the list is the desire for good acoustics - we're all working so much harder than usual on trying to listen and understand each other.

In the afternoon I did the laundry again. This time I divided it into two smaller washes and two smaller dryer loads - it dried much more satisfactorily than last time (although it still took about 2 hours).

While the laundry was in the works I ran errands, including visiting the Post Office. This turned out to be my most involved French transaction thus far. I had three letters to mail, but I also needed stamps for two envelopes that I wasn't mailing yet - just submitting with our carte de séjour application to the Préfecture. I prepared a script for what I needed ("J'ai trois lettres à envoyer. Je voudrais aussi des timbres pour deux enveloppes que je dois donner à la préfecture."). It seemed straightforward, but when I went to the office down the street it turns out that it is closed on Mondays. I rushed home, pulled up the French Post Office website, and searched for a way to find another nearby location that was open - a function that I finally found buried several levels deep in an obscure link. When I found the new office, I was confronted with five different desks - French Post Offices also serve as basic service banks, and I had no idea what desk I needed to visit. Happily a woman stepped out from behind one to greet me. Unhappily she replied to each of my carefully worded requests with a barrage of options (I think) in French. All I could do was keep repeating what I needed, hoping she would select the appropriate solution for me, which she did eventually, after a great deal of one-sided conversation on her part. Phew - far more complex than buying train tickets, which I would not have expected!

For supper it was a quick supper of couscous with warmed chicken and arugula and tomato and caramelized onions (the caramelized onions wouldn't have been quick, but I'd made them a few days before, during a leisurely afternoon of cooking).