Weekend of Stairs

Originally posted on September 17, 2003

       I don’t have classes on Fridays so I had a nice leisurely morning (for the French scholars out there: j’ai fait la grasse matinée).  I read Le Monde, I drank two bowls of tea, I did my homework for Monday, and did some laundry.  French washing machines are a little more confusing than they should be, and they are very small.  People wear a lot of black here, and dark colors.  Perhaps it's because they don’t do a whole lot of laundry.  Usually you wear the same set of clothes three days in a row.  You just mix and match a little. 

So we started the weekend last night at the London Pub which is considered the foreigner's hang out here in Grenoble.  The DJ played pretty good music but was absolutely incapable of mixing it well into the next song and he always cut the song off.  Also, since everyone here smokes, my eyes were burning about halfway into the evening making it uncomfortable, to say the least.  Aside from those two drawbacks, we all enjoyed ourselves.  Pretty much the music they play here is what you hear in America save one or two French pop stars.  And “new” music here has been out in America for about 5 months.  Same with movies.

Anyway, today after my leisurely morning I went to go see a French movie.  No subtitles, just good old fashioned listening.  It was called “Bienvenue au Gîte”.  It was about a husband and wife who team up to take over a remote country side inn with humorous and poignant consequences.  I liked it.  

After the movie we went out to eat.  Normally I’ll always eat at home because those meals are paid for. Marie-T. normally comes rushing in and throws something together after work.  I think she was a little relieved when I called her to tell her I was going out. We ate at the Shaman Café.  It was, from start to finish, a flawless evening.  This place is well decorated with a temple-like atmosphere.  Deep reds and golds, low chairs, dim lights.  We ordered a bottle of Pinot Noir which was fantastic and complemented all our dinners well.  I was thoroughly pleased with my salad of mesclun greens and honey vinaigrette seasoned with cumin, curry, sesame, fire roasted and marinated peppers and tomatoes, and babaghanoush. After dinner, it was getting a little chilly out so we went to another café for some tea.  After that it was back to London Pub so someone could meet up with a boy they had met. Wasted no time getting plugged in with the locals!  Christy and I bailed just after we got to the pub because we wanted to save our energy for the next day’s endeavor: the Bastille. For those of you who have received the postcards (I doubt any of you have yet) the Bastille is the structure on top of one of the mountains that overlooks the city.  You can hike up or take a little bubble which transports you from the bank of the river up to the very top of the mountain in about 20 minutes (they call it the “téléphérique”, or "les boules" here).  We decided we wanted to hike.

On my way to the rendez-vous with the other hikers, I was dressed in normal athletic clothes, wearing shorts. We were meeting at 10am so it wasn't that early but there was no one on the streets as I walked towards the meeting point.  There was a teenager on the street and I remember him passing me pretty closely and saying "tu es trop moche".  I know enough French to know that's not nice.  I couldn't figure out why I had merited such an insult and why he felt compelled to tell me that.  Moving on from that, I met up with the girls and we started up the side of the mountain.  It took us about an hour to get to the top.  Lots of  switchbacks and stairs.  We reached the top and had amazing panoramas of the city on all sides.  I could finally see how Grenoble is completely surrounded by mountains and how we really are in a valley.  It was such a beautiful day and there was absolutely no other way I could have spent it and been more satisfied.


The next day I rose early and met up with the group going to Chamonix and Mont Blanc.  The excursion was organized by the CUEF (Centre Universitaire des Etudes Françaises) which is the school of the university that handles foreign students.  They have excursions twice a week. 

We left at 7:30am and drove for about an hour.  Then we got to the little town of Albertville which held the Olympics in 1940.  It has retained its medieval façades and become quite the tourist attraction.  You can see the entire valley of Grenoble from its walls.  We stayed about an hour in Albertville then departed for Chamonix.  We got there around 11am and got our tickets to ride the “Aiguille du Midi” cable car up to the summit of the mountain.  It’s a 12,602 foot ride and it’s a little scary when you see the incline you go up.  There is a 20º Celsius difference in temperature  from the bottom to the top.  So where it was a very pleasant 25º C degrees on the ground, it was just a little above 0º C at the top.  The view was unparalleled.   I’ll have to let the pictures speak for themselves.  It was such a clear day we could see for miles and miles.  People were climbing around and hiking to the top of the mountain.  It was incredible to watch.  I was even a little nervous climbing the stairs because when you down through the wrought iron lattice all you could see was the sharp incline and the jagged rocks below, translation: certain death should a fall occur or the stairs give way.   Fortunately, that didn’t happen, and even if it had, I think I would have died happy in such a beautiful place.

A cute anecdote: a German guy proposed to his girlfriend while we were up there.  As rarified as the atmosphere was, I'm surprised she didn’t pass out.  It was very sweet and that guy is a genius for picking that spot to propose.   So after we had taken our share of pictures and lingered on our breathtaking (literally) surroundings a  little more, we headed back down the mountain.  We walked around the quaint ski town of Chamonix for a while and then piled back on the bus for the ride back to Grenoble.  What a way to finish the weekend.