When the Cows Come Home

Originally posted 10-15-2003

Another successful week completed in Grenoble. I had a number of goals, the majority of which I accomplished. First, I had to figure out how to do research on campus and French libraries. The system is very different not only because it’s in French but because of how they have things organized and how you can access it. Students in the states who are reading this: never take your constant internet connection for granted. It’s so much harder to do research when you don’t have huge collection of online journals at your fingertips, when you can’t spend two hours reading articles. I’ve been reduced to the Dewey Decimal system and pouring over books like it’s my job. Not to mention that the main library on campus is closed for renovations indefinitely (sound familiar W&M?) and you have to be a student of the main university and not just the CUEF to have unlimited access to internet on campus. We CUEF students have a little room in the corner of one of the buildings with 16 outdated computers which they expect to accommodate the 700 foreign students who vie for its usage every day. Oh, and we’re only allotted a half hour per week. I have 20 hours of internet access at a café about a 20 minute walk from my house. I have about 4 left and I’ve only been here about a month and a half. The internet situation is the biggest challenge I’ve encountered here I think(*). In the immortal words of Joni Mitchell “you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone.”

Université de Grenoble campus

Another goal for the week was to cook dinner Sunday for my host mom. I made salmon in white wine sauce and cheese soufflé. The soufflé didn’t turn out as I had planned but Marie T. and her daughter of 25 both ate it and did not die. But I encountered something else that’s very difficult about France: EVERYTHING is closed on Sundays, except museums. I needed some extra ingredients for what I wanted to make and everything was closed so I had to improvise like crazy. Plus Marie T. doesn’t keep too much around the house as she’s not around very much and hardly ever makes dinners that require more than opening a package and heating. We did manage to create a very delicious tarte tatin though. I wasn’t too comfortable with what I put in front of them because I hadn't planned enough in advance, but they ate it. I guess that’s all I can ask for.

The third and final goal was to make the most of my weekend. I heard about an excursion to nearby Annecy for this huge festival they have every year to celebrate the return of the livestock from their grazing in the mountains, nice and fat and just in time for the winter harvest I’d imagine. AIFS said they would cover the cost of going so I was in.

Cows are coming home!

Saturday morning we were on the bus by 8am. We stopped first at Chambery, a charming city with classic French architecture and an old-world feel to it. There’s a huge fountain comprised of four elephants facing the four points of the compass in the heart of the city, and an old medieval fortress. We only stayed long enough to see those sites and then departed for Aix-les-Bains.

Elephant Fountain at Chambery

We were given 45 minutes to get some tea and sit on the edge of the lake that the city is situated on. The clouds that had been threatening to ruin out excursion were burning away quickly and we found ourselves in the fresh mid-morning of a beautiful fall day. We walked out onto the harbor and watched the fishing boats on the lake. Pretty soon the harbor would empty and people would be out in force on their small sailboats enjoying the weather. After drinking some tea and watching someone fall into the lake, we got back on the bus and headed to Annecy for the “Fête des Alpages”.

Lac D'Annecy

This annual festival is mainly a way for the Haute-Savoie region of France to show off its produce and cuisine. There were thousands of people there already and it was only 12:30pm. We took a little tour and learned some of the history of the town. We tasted apple juice that was made right in front of us in an old-fashioned apple press. People in traditional costumes were making their products from scratch over open flames, using old fashioned methods and tools. Later on in the day I tried the “bourru” which is essentially hard cider. I tasted artisan bread, cakes, honey, jam, and fresh beignets (fried sweet dough or potato and garlic purée) as well.

Apple press at Fête des Alpages

The best things I ate all day were the chestnuts. There was a guy roasting them over an open flame in a cast iron pot. I had no idea what they were but I bought some because they smelled so good. They were still steaming and soft from the fire. Now I know why Bing Crosby made such a big deal about them. There was a parade around 3pm in which people in traditional Savoyard dress showed us country dances and their livestock, including a large number of cows wearing gigantic bells and sheep. People crowded the streets to see the parade. Annecy is a very small town with narrow streets, making it hard to move, and the cows weren’t really in a line, they were just walking in groups so sometimes you’d be right on the streets and you had to get out of the way of this gargantuan cowbell and the beast it was attached to. So after I had tasted everything there was to taste, seen all the crafts and walked around the lake wishing I was sailing, I got back on the bus and headed back to Grenoble. It was nice to just take a day trip and to not have to be on a schedule and traveling.

Colorful canal streets in Annecy

Traditional Savoyard

Sunday I decided would be my day to explore Grenoble’s many museums. None of them open before 2pm so I had a nice leisurely morning and then I kicked off my day at the Musée de la Résistance. It’s entirely devoted to the World War II French Resistance of which Grenoble was the headquarters. It had a heartbreaking photo exhibit of P.O.W.’s and concentration camp victims. It also had a lot of interesting information about the clandestine operations led throughout the region. The mountains played a key role, proving useful in hiding supplies and people when the Nazis descended upon the region. I was the only person in the whole museum, and I got a little freaked out a couple times because of the sound bytes that were playing and those haunting images. I was glad to get back out into the sun.

 After that museum I went to go see an exhibit on Hector Berlioz, the composer who was born in the Isère region of France. In a way, Grenoble has claimed him for her own, though he was born in a small village on the other side of the mountains. There is a yearly festival in Grenoble in his honor and of course, this museum exhibit. The exhibit showcased many original manuscripts and writings. The best part, though, was the museum location. There is a large square with a big fountain near where I live called Place Verdun and all the buildings (including the one which housed the exhibit) surrounding it exemplify the grandeur of Napoleonic architecture. This building, formerly the town library, had a huge main hall, four stories high with vaulted, frescoed ceilings and original parquet floors. The original bookcases that line the walls no longer hold books, but the aged, musty odor of the former tenants remains. Berlioz’s symphonies filled the great hall and made what would have otherwise been a rather mundane exhibit seem full and colorful. 

After the Berlioz exhibit, I was only a block away from the Natural history museum, so I thought, why stop here? I found that no matter the language, natural history museums are always fun. I spent a lot of time in the geology section looking at the semi-precious stones they mine from Mont Blanc and the Rhône region. They had lots of games and interactive stuff for kids (I was all over those). After I had finished playing all the true or false games, and looking through all the microscopes and matching the footprints to the animal which makes them, I strolled over to the temporary exhibit on the human body. It began with excerpts from Da Vinci’s studies on the heart and the circulatory system. Then it moved through the evolution of surgery, prostheses, radiology, and sensory enhancement. It was surprisingly interesting. They had a video of an artist whose work consists of self-portraits with different ethnic themes. She is no regular-looking person though. She wears black lipstick, shaves her natural eyebrows and paints new ones on in gold glitter. Her glasses are thick, perfectly round and black with yellow earpieces. She wears all black, but the real kicker is her hair: half snow-white and half jet-black divided at the center of her forehead, she forms it into a perfect ocean wave on top of her head, slightly off-center. She calls herself Orlan. Anyway, she ended my visit of the Natural History Museum.

I walked home through the Jardin des Plantes (Garden of Plants: creative name if ever there was one) which is Grenoble’s biggest botanical garden and also the backyard of the natural history museum. It was a perfect fall day with flora flourishing. Sometimes I wonder why I bother to leave Grenoble. There are still lots more places to explore.

Nevertheless, I’m headed to Marseille this weekend with a fellow study abroader from W&M. We’ll be staying on the famous Canebière, affectionately known as the “Can o’ Beer” by the American sailors that used to frequent it. It is home to Bouillabaisse, the Marseillaise (French national anthem), the famous Chateau d’If from Dumas’ Count of Monte Cristo, and lots of shady nightlife. I can’t wait. Until then, I’ll be taking more aerobics classes, and doing more research. Keep those letters and postcards (special thanks to Mark and Lauren) coming! Marie T. showed me all the photos of her visit to Washington, D.C. and it made me miss home. W&M, enjoy fall in Williamsburg, and Homecoming (my 21st birthday!!). Everyone, I miss you and can’t wait to see you on the 20th of December.

* It is so interesting to read back about my technological woes even just 10 years ago.  Now I have a constant internet connection on my smartphone and sometimes I think it might be better if I could limit the amount of time I spend online.  I wonder how much I would have missed in France if I had been allotted, say, 50 hours of internet time in the cafe instead of just 20 for the semester.  Would this blog be thinner?  This is a great reminder for me to stay connected with the actual world, and not just the virtual one.