April 10, 2011: Grenoble - Monoprix Shopping, Walk by the River, Rome

With all of the delightfully unexpected warm weather, Mark has realized he doesn't have enough short-sleeved shirts. So this morning we went shopping at Monoprix - it's where I'm usually shopping for our groceries, but they also have a good-sized clothing department. We found one shirt that was just right - easy shopping!

In the afternoon Mark did a bit of work and I did some travel planning. By the end of the day we were ready for some outdoor air. We went for a walk along the Isère river, in the opposite direction from the way we usually go. It wasn't as scenic at that end, but there were some interesting signs and businesses. We looped back along the usual stretch of the river, passed through the center of the old city and about 1.5 hours later we were home.

In the evening we watched a couple of episodes of "Rome" - Jenn sent me the first season, and we're hooked. I'm impressed with the sets - someone went to alot of work to create the surroundings - right down to the details of colourfully painted marble buildings (and not white as we know them now).

 

Have I already posted a photo of these great elephant decorations? Or do I just keep thinking I should take a photo of them every time I walk by?

 

I've been down this sidewalk many times now, but only today did I notice the metal "Cularo" plaque - I imagine it marks the boundary of the original Roman walled city from the third century AD.

 

Mark pointed out that this fountain has mermen rather than mermaids, and that they've got two tails, not just one!

 

A friend told me that someone has photographed all the instances of this sheep graffiti, and has made a blog about it. There must be dozens, maybe even hundreds, of the sheep.

 

The signage is too psychedelic for it to be just a regular gardening store...

 

I love the cartoon car in this garage's sign.

 

Yet another collection of wine bottles to take to the glass recycling center. They're lined up more or less from least to most favourite, left to right.

April 09, 2011: Grenoble - Lilacs, Early Pâques in Meylan, Drinks with Friends

At the market this morning there was something new for sale - lilacs. Branches of lilacs of all colours, cut and bundled for sale. I don't know that I've ever seen lilacs cut for sale in Toronto, but here they are definitely a popular item.

Today was an early Easter (Pâques) in Meylan. Open House had organized a "treasure hunt" for all the families that had children, and Anne had invited me and Mark to come along with her and Naola. It was being held on the grounds of a lovely old religious school in Meylan, one of the older villages that have been incorporated into the suburbs of Grenoble.

We went early and helped hide the eggs - possibly the most fun in the day. It was challenging - the garden was large but also fairly formal in that French kind of way - lots of open lawn with regularly spaced trees. So really you could only hide eggs at the base of every single tree - putting them in the middle of the no-man's land of grass would have been truly unfair. But once the kids caught on to the fact that they were at the base of trees it would just be a race from one tree to the next - not really a hunt at all. We tried to be clever, finding other hiding spots when possible. There were a number of good holes in the old stone wall, although any kids squeamish about skittering lizards would have failed to collect those eggs, since the lizards were dashing about everywhere in the hot sun.

While colouring with the kids I learned that Easter Eggs are not delivered by a bunny in France - they are brought by flying bells returning from a trip to Rome for the Pope's blessing! After being silenced in homage to Christ's death, the bells ring out to celebrate his resurrection on Sunday, and the children then start their egg hunt.


In the evening I went for drinks with friends - it's practically like I'm back home in Toronto. In fact I'm more social than I would be in Toronto - it's easy when the bar is just a five-minute walk from our apartment. Dominique and her husband were meeting up with a group of people, some of whom I'd already met through Open House. The highlight of the evening was a bachelor party, in which the incipient groom had to dress in women's lingerie and make-up and request a Euro per kiss from all the ladies at our table. I had to reward him with a Euro - he was working hard for it!

 

A purple cart for purple lilacs

 

Toddlers were given a head start in the Easter Egg hunt

 

Intently checking every tree...

 

A victim of the sunshine :(

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!

 

April 07, 2011: Grenoble - Banking in English, Laundry

Today we went to open a French bank account. We'd been hoping to avoid the hassle (you have to call about a week ahead to set up an hour-long appointment) and expense (basic account almost 100 Euros a year), but after some back-and-forth the university insists that only a French account will do if Mark wishes to be paid. Luckily I'd been in Grenoble long enough to find out from my new friends which bank (Rhone-Alpes) and branch have English-speaking bankers. So, in about 10 days Mark will finally have an account into which money can be deposited, which we will then hurry to spend before leaving so that we can close the account. Crazy.

On the walk back you could really start to see how the city is greening up - trees that were bare branched last week have leafed out , and the grass is turning vivid green. The tulips and daffodils are almost done for already - it seems like they just bloomed, but it's been almost a month now.

Early laundry day this week - I need to make sure we have enough clothing to carry us through our trip to Lyon next week!

 

A view down the tram tracks - I love seeing a roadway covered in green!

 

These topiary trees are a shape you usually see on short bushes, but these straight-sided beasts are so tall they must be created using a crane?

April 06, 2011: Tain l'Hermitage - Bus Trip, Voiron, Car Trip, Chocolate, Wine

A new location today because we went on a road trip! I started the day by taking the Trans Isère bus to our meeting point in Voiron. This was my first time taking Trans Isère, so it was useful to get that figured out - these buses go further afield than the local TAG system, and we might want to use them to get to some hiking locations in the future.

From Voiron three carloads of people from the Sweet Home Grenoble group headed out, about an hour away, to Tain l'Hermitage. Our first stop was for a wine tasting at Cave de Tain, one of many wineries in the region. I don't think any of us were bowled over by what we tried (as some of the Australians in the group pointed out, the French taste is for fairly subtle, balanced flavours), but I bought a bottle nonetheless, so that Mark could feel like he'd had some participation in the day.

Then we had out in the sun at the riverside Nice Cafe. I had the salad La Corsica, which was an enormous plate with quadrants of different ingredients on a bed of lettuce: jambon cru, tomato, sun-dried tomato, a tiny (quail?) hard-boiled egg, couscous with raisins, corn, carrots, and feta cheese. It was delicious and filling. Luckily I had almost two hours to munch away at it. I also had kir for the first time, a popular apéritif, made with cassis liqueur and white wine. All in all it felt like a very summery lunch.

After lunch we walked down the riverside to the famous Valrhona chocolate store. There was chocolate madness in the store - free samples of all the different kinds of chocolates, a multitude of options for purchase, enticing Easter displays and lots of freebies with purchase. The town itself seemed fairly sleepy, but it was hopping inside the store.

And that was it: wine, lunch, chocolate. A perfect day.

 

The winery

 

Wisteria starting to bloom. Look closely - there's a cat asleep on top of the pillar.

 

Lunch - photo courtesy of Linda, our fearless organizer.

 

A strangely stark garage - no cars, just two pairs of tires lined up symmetrically at the entrance.

 

Cherry blossoms by the river.

 

A footbridge and distant vineyards on the slopes.

 

Mmm. Valrhona Chocolate. 

April 05, 2011: Grenoble - Open House English Coffee Chat, Travel Plans

This morning a visit with friends at Open House's English Coffee Chat. There was a debate on how many kinds of skiing there are, and what they're called. Between the French and English languages, and English-speaking folk from all around the globe, there was no consensus. 1. downhill skiing 2. cross-country skiing 3. mountain/mountaineering/back-country skiing?

And then back home to the computer to continue to plan our travels, comparing websites, reviews, top ten lists and prices. It's bizarre to remember my trip to Europe only 11 years ago, planned with the aid of just one travel book of Europe.

April 04, 2011: Grenoble - Travel Plans, English Tutoring

A fairly low-key day today. I spent most of it on the internet, researching restaurants in Lyon (we'll be there next week, and it's the culinary capital of France) and planning how to see as much of France as possible in 12 days when my mother visits in May (the line-up: Lyon, Grenoble, Annecy, Marseille, Avignon, Paris).

And then at the end of the day I returned to Anne's home for some more English tutoring practice with her daughter - we played yet another complex card game which involved yet more English explanation of the rules!