Grenoble

Hello everyone!

 At the end of January I went to a workshop in Grenoble, a city in southeastern France at the foot of the Alps. You know…it was just getting too hot here in the south. I spent part of the week there with my colleagues, then stayed for the weekend for some extra tourism.

Grenoble, the "Capital of the Alps", used to be home of a well-known glove industry, hosted the 1968 Winter Olympic Games, and is now a powerhouse for the European science community. To me the city boiled down to a few words…mountains, food, science, and snow.

One of my colleagues is from Grenoble and her parents invited us over for dinner after the first day of the workshop. My colleague told me ahead of time not to worry if I felt like I was in some kind of strange dream…turns out her Mom likes to make paper mâché sculptures from recycled materials. There's another French word you probably didn't realize you used…paper "mâché" translates to "chewed" paper.

I like to call this one: Nespresso Alien.

Me and "Giselda the Giraffe"

We had a great dinner of locally-produced goods, including sausage, cheese, and  "vin de noix", a red wine made with green walnuts. I don't know if any of my friends out there have extra walnuts that need a home, but I assure you that this would be putting them to good use! One of my favorite France bloggers has some cool pictures showing the process of making a "Liqueur de noix".

The workshop and the brainstorming sessions went well, except for the time I tried to guide us to the restaurant for dinner. Case in point that having a smartphone doesn't automatically make you smart. I volunteered to lead the way to our raclette and fondue dinner at La Ferme à Dédé. After a 15 min walk, we arrived on time, only it turns out there are two "Ferme à Dédé"…and I chose the wrong one. So, we headed towards the correct restaurant, right next door to where we had just come from. I lost a little bit of credibility, but at least we got in a workout before our cheese heavy meal. 

During the weekend we had the time to walk around the old town and take the télépherique (cable car) up to La Bastille, a military fortification built into the mountain. From up there we had amazing views of the "flattest town in France". At least until the snowstorm rolled in.  

"Les Bulles" or bubbles take you to the top of La Bastille.  

View of the European Synchrotron! Hint (find the ring looking thing).

And the snow rolled in…look closely and can still see the "bubbles".

After leaving the Bastille, we walked around Grenoble's old town, validating that there is in fact a mountain behind every corner. Some of the highlights included a pub called The Shakesbeer and a hotel where Napoleon slept 2 nights in March of 1815. 

L'Isère River, one of two that runs through Grenoble.

We finished off the night at the restaurant "Le Mal Assis," a recommendation from one of the locals we met in a bar. It's a small, husband and wife-run restaurant (~6 tables) so we were happy to get a last minute reservation. However, when we showed up the husband realized he had given away our table. While he figured out a solution he sent us to the back bar where his wife served us some champagne on the house. After about 5 minutes we had our table and the rest of the service and the food were great. Toward the end of the meal, the husband even picked up our entire table and moved it to one closer to the fireplace when I started to get cold, and when we left he helped me put on my jacket. Proof that good service can be found in France. By the way, "Mal Assis" means "poorly seated", so it's pretty funny that we were "mal assis" at "Mal Assis".

The last day of the visit we stopped at the château in the nearby village of Vizille and spent most of the time walking around the ~320 acre castle grounds. The château is also home to a museum of the French Revolution so I tried to brush up on my French history, but to no avail. 

Château de Vizille.

Snowy gardens outside the château.

Walking around the park surrounding the château.

On the way back to Aix we ran into part of the Monte Carlo Historic Rally and watched some of the cars come back from their route through icy hills and valleys. I would like to say that I was able to thaw out when I got back to Aix, but we had a massive cold front come through (by Provence standards) and we're just starting to recover (high 50s now). Thanks for reading :)

A+,
Danielle