It's Snowing!

Snow arrived in Grenoble. The city was transformed under a light white blanket and looked rather pretty. Walking around became a challenge but everyone managed to stay upright ...just! The snow lingered for two days then the temperatures rose, it turned to slush and disappeared.

 Katy's school

 

Jardin de Ville

 

Pont Sainte Laurent

Porte de France and the Bastille

 

Musee Dauphinois

While Andy was off snow shoeing with his work colleagues, the girls and I wandered the short distance to the Musee Dauphinois. Housed within the Sainte Marie d'en Haut convent - the historic 17th century building. Originally a convent then a prison, religious boarding school, barracks and immigrant housing before it was renovated, restored and converted to the Musee Dauphinois for the 1968 Winter Olympics.

 

 

The musée is divided into four floors housing both permanent and temporary exhibitions. The first floor is dedicated to the X Winter Olympics, in 1968. Described as the Olympic Games that changed the Isere, these games allowed Grenoble to improve its infrastructure both in the city and surrounding areas as well as promote the development of winter sports in Isere helped by the famous triple gold medal performance of Frenchman Jean-Claude Killy.

 

The second floor commemorates the 160th anniversary of the diplomatic relations between France and Japan. The exhibition was in French, so we understood very little however, it explored the relationship between Japan and the West from the first meeting in 1543 to the present day. We particularly liked the darkened room filled with hanging lantern depicting various scenes.

Another floor up, we were transported to pioneering life in the alpine mountains, exploring all aspects of life with the challenges that altitude, slope, isolation and cold climate brings. Interesting.

 

Finally on the fourth floor, we entered the long term exhibition, Le Reve Blanc - The White Dream. Here we are taken through the evolution of alpine recreation. From the late 19th century, the French alpine mountains began to lose their hostility as the pleasure of skiing gained momentum. However the real rush for white gold occurred in the mid 20th century when companies like Fiat built Sestriere, the first single purpose ski resort. Post WWII economic growth, legislation changes that increased annual leave allowance and advantages in technology enabled skiing to morph from an activity for the wealthy to a recreation for the all. We perused many old photos, a full display of skis from over the years plus a very old cable car!

 

 

Snoeshowing, episode 1.

None of the 4 of us have ever been snow-shoeing before, but it is something we wanted to try here. Luckily, I got the chance to hone my skills and build up my knowledge on the Annual Drakkar Meeting Snowshoe Hike. That's right, scientific meetings here in Grenoble always start with a traditional snowshoe hike. So, Sunday morning found me heading out with 26 other ocean modellers to climb some hills.

Given the size of the crowd it was always clear we wouldn't get so far, and much of the day was spent waiting for the crowd to regroup. We headed up to Les 7 Laux (the 7 lakes ski resort) and started on a flat trail to warm ourselves up and get used to the snowshoes. Then we begin the climb to plateau, treated by magnificent view of the alps. Lunch was a typically French affair - our hosts had bought along baguettes, hunks of cheese and slices of ham/salami, with coffee cooked on camping stoves.

On the return trip we crossed a few ravines, which were a bit too steep for some of my colleagues, many of whom reverted to sliding in a seated position as the most reliable way to make it to the bottom. Snow-shoeing is easy when you're in an established track, a bit harder work (but more fun) in fresh snow. Our day finished with a long descent back to the car park, arriving back in town after dark. A lot of fun, and gives me some idea of what Ella and Katy might be capable of if we can take them next weekend...

The Girls First Overseas Orienteering Event

During the week while scouring the net as to potential activities, we came across that the local orienteering club, Orient'Alp, were holding an event nearby. Further investigations into the event details, we discovered it was on Saturday afternoon offering 4 courses and accessible by public transport. It was decided that weather permitting we would attend.

Thinking that there wouldn't be any orienteering events on in winter in Grenoble and highly aware of our baggage limitations, we didn't actually pack any orienteering clothes, shoes or kit. So packing our runners, spare plus extra warm clothes, lunch and water - we departed on foot to the Grenoble station to catch the bus. Purchasing tickets was interesting as we had initially thought we needed to buy a region bus ticket however it turned out that our stop Parc de Vouillants was within the metro area thus we could use the metro TAG system. All was good as we boarded the bus with several minutes to spare.

The bus trip took 30min to cover the 10km depositing us at the parc where the assembly area and the organisers were busing with last minute preparations. Once registered, we walked taking all our gear with us, a kilometre or so to the start and finish area. Though the heavy wooden doors, we enter the Desert J-J Rousseau. Immediately the path divides - one to the left, one to the right. We hesitated wondering which of these paths we are meant to follow to the start. A French orienteer appears behind us and reassures us that it doesn't matter, they both meet at the other end. We continue along and are impressed by this narrow gorge with its two steep limestone cliffs.

The easy course was 2.8km long and slightly more difficult so Andy shadowed Ella while I assisted behind Katy. Halfway around Katy and I admired the view over Grenoble. The course was challenging with lots of tracks as well as being quite steep but both girls did well placing in the top of the field. With the benefit of a preview of the terrain, I decided to do the shortest hard course - 3km opposed to the 5km. Andy kept to his guns and chose the longest (7.5km) course. The terrain was steep, thick with blackberry and holly bushes as well as extremely wet and slippery especially in runners! I was very glad to have chosen the shorter course which took me nearly an hour (not helped by a 10 minute mistake!) and by the time I got back the sun had disappeared behind the mountain and the temperature was rapidly dropping. The girls were rugged up happily playing. While waiting for Andy, we devoured our baguette, ham and cheese lunch. I started to wonder how long Andy would be  and whether we'd make the 4.15pm bus. 

He eventually appeared looking muddy and worn out after being out in the forest for 95mins - much longer than he has expected! We then hightailed it back through the gorge, buying a few slices of cake from the cake stall arriving at the bus stop with a few minutes to spare. Patiently waiting at the top of the laneway the girls were mucking around as we wished the bus to arrive. As the minutes ticked away, the bus was now 10+minutes late, we discussed our options if it didn't arrive. Plan B was to walk about 1km downhill to the local bus stop but time was running out to make that connection if we didn't commit to it soon. While we were dithering, a small black runaway puppy came bounding up the laneway towards us with its owner chasing behind. Obviously it had no road sense and was quickly racing toward the large busy main road but luckily we all fanned out. Ella nearly caught it but it turned racing back towards the owner who manage to grab it and clip on its lead. We all sighed relief grateful that we didn't see a squashed puppy and turned around just as our bus whizzed by!!!!!! 

Andy swore, Katy and I were in disbelief, the dog owner realised and profusely apologised while Ella broke down in tears! Our only option now was to make haste downhill and hope to arrive before the local bus left! Ella though was struggling with this change in plans, spending most of the run/walk downhill complaining about the puppy, the owner, the rocks, the path..... Andy and I thought the situation was hilarious but couldn't really laugh at the time and it was days later when Ella see the funny side to the whole incident!! Our journey home continued to be disrupted - the bus dropped us at the tram stop and we hopped on to the tram without incident with the girls enjoying their first tram ride. However as the tram pulled into the train station it stopped and everyone disembarked. We looked around wondering what the problem was only to be told by the guard that the gilets jaunts (yellow vest) protest was blocking the tram tracks in town!! Luckily our route home from the train station is short and avoids town. The girls were very intrigued about the protest asking lots of questions. An interesting day.

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!!