Unusual Ways of Grenoble

It's been nearly a month since we arrived in Grenoble. We've been figuring out life here and there continues to be always new surprises! Here are some of the more interesting or unusual aspects of life that we've seen while walking around during our time....

Communal rubbish bins are located on the street - ours is about 100m away. One deposits ordinary garbage into the black ones; recycled materials (paper, plastics) into the yellow ones and for glass there is a separate smaller one. Occasionally the rubbish overflows. We were wondering how these bins get emptied, only to walk out and notice the garbage truck doing just that! The unit is lifted by crane then positioned about the truck before the flaps located on the bottom of the container are electronically opened emptying the contents. The empty rubbish unit is manoeuvred back into its original place.

Milk, more importantly fresh milk is not really drunk in France. It took us two laps of the supermarket to find fresh milk - yep that's them on the bottom shelf in the fridge section. In this photo there are 3 brands of full cream milk (red tops) and same with skim milk (blue tops). Now compare this to the whole aisle of long life milk!!

Thus it's no wonder that I've had an extremely difficult time locating a drinkable coffee - Andy on the other hand has been fine drinking espresso or long blacks. I've completely given up on my regular choice a mocha and have turned to cappuccino (with sugar). Thank goodness we found Kai-iwi cafe - owned by a French and New Zealand couple. Inside this cosy place fresh milk is used for coffees, food and cakes are delicious, the furniture is made from pallets and they speak english. It reminds us very much of Little Oink! Plus eagle eyed Ella spotted Tim Tams and milo for sale so of course we purchased one of each. The only downside is that the cafe is closed on Monday and Tuesdays!


Talking about opening hours...we've found them very confusing. On first glance, most streets look derelict with graffiti tags covering walls and doors. Roller doors or grills often hide businesses making the area look even more neglected.  This street level view contradicts the ornate facade of the upper levels which contain apartments.

Opening times also contribute to this outlook. There is definitely no 9 - 5pm time schedule. Most businesses are closed on Sunday. The larger supermarkets are open but only until lunchtime. During the week times vary wildly. Our local bakery is closed on Monday. The museums are all closed on Tuesdays. The wool shop Ella has be a regular customer at, is not open on Monday mornings and all other days closes between 12 - 2pm! The local butcher was open on New Year's Day while most other businesses were closed! Many of the pizza restaurants on our street that overlook the Isere river seemed permanently closed until one sunny weekend where they all came alive! Perhaps winter and weather determine opening times? Anyway we are adjusting to this new time schedule but it can be frustrating at times!

We have noticed many bollards like this one the obviously limit access to certain areas or streets. These structures descend when instructed to do so by an authorised person and once the car passes over will rise again. Ella thinks they are great for standing on!

Grenoble is made more for walking and cycling rather than cars. Crosswalks are an interesting experience. We have found out that standing on the side of the road at a crosswalk doesn't cause the cars to stop allowing you to walk across. Rather one has to take the courage to walk out in front of the oncoming car and hope that it stops in time (which so far they have done). It's quite disconcerting and I certainly wouldn't trust someone seeing the girls, so we always walk out first.

As for cycleways there are lots. Drivers here are much more tolerant of cyclists, which is good seeing though the majority of cyclist don't wear a helmet. Funnily enough the road across our local bridge and on the other side of the river are both one-way for cars; however there is a dedicated cycle lane on the road for cyclist riding against the traffic! It's a bit of a trap for foreigners crossing the road who are concentrating on looking the correct way only to nearly take out the cyclist!











Crosswalks, cars and cyclists are not the only things we have to negotiate while walking around Grenoble. A not so glamours aspect of Grenoble is dog poo. It seems that the French don't like to pick up their doggies so one must be on guard while walking along. However during our exploration of this city we have come across numerous 'espace chien' small fenced areas.  We wonder if this is an effort to address the dog poo issue? Further investigations, I discover there are over 150 of these 'espace chien' dotted all over the city of Grenoble and that one can be fined €68 for abandonment of dog poo outside of these areas!

Talking about toilets, we noticed on one expedition a semicircular stone structure which had a black metal screen wrapped around it. Considering what this was, our curiosity was answered when Andy saw a guy disappear behind the black screen... a urinal!! Introduced in 1834 these vespasienne were an attempt to reduce urination onto buildings. Apparently only a dozen or so still exist from the hundreds although some are flower pots now!











And of course the historic Porte Saint Laurent, one of the five gates to the Bastille, is handy for hanging up old lampshades!!