Day Trip to Vizille

Day Trippin! Today, I took a short excursion to Vizille, a commune south of Grenoble.

I was feeling like getting out of Grenoble and exploring something new for the day.  Being in France, there is so much history to learn everywhere you go.  Well, I didn't really know where to go, and I hadn't gotten any great suggestions, so Google was my friend.  After Googling "chateau near Grenoble," I found this perfect opportunity.  It was a castle, museum, park, and animal reserve all wrapped into one!

My friend Katie decided to join me for this excursion.  We met at the bus station around 1pm to hop on the express Grenoble - Vizille bus.  A quick 40 minute ride dropped us off at an empty bus stop in a place we didn't know.  We got a bearing of our surroundings and decided to walk towards what looked like the center of the village, and quickly figured out we were heading the right direction.  A map showed us heading towards a big castle and park.  We continued along, spying a castle tower along the way and soon arrived at the castle gates.  We went right through and were welcome by a beautiful site of green, grassy lawns stretching out towards the far mountain.  People were strolling around the grounds, a couple boys were kicking a soccer ball back and forth, and swans and ducks were waiting for bread being thrown by an older couple.

We decided to first explore the free museum located inside the castle.  It was a museum all about the French Revolution.  There was a lot that I didn't understand or remember from my history lessons, but it was very cool.  We saw sabres, wall-sized paintings depicting battles, deaths, and liberty, busts, extracts from films depicting the arrival of Napoleon in Grenoble and more.  

This funny painting shows a joker.  He's enjoying himself.

Parts of the museum also showed the history of the building itself.  It was owned by a rich family by the name of Perier, but was also famously the home of several French presidents, the latest being Charles de Gaulle.  I can understand why a president would enjoy this castle and grounds; it was a very peaceful and beautiful place.  

After a couple hours in the well-maintained and interesting museum, we ventured out of the castle for some fresh air.  I really came to understand why a friend had told us to bring a picnic.  It would be the perfect place on a sunny day.  The grounds were really large and varied.  There were perfect pyramid topiaries, large expanses of closely cut grass, and various trees lining the paths.  Our path took us back to an area where animals were kept.  Unfortunately, we were running out of time before everything closed, so we didn't have enough time to explore all the way, but we did see some interesting deer (if that's the right word) with large antlers.  Also on a separate path back towards the entrance, we glimpsed some carved wood modern statues.  

This is a place to which I'm sure I'll return.  I can't wait for the perfect sunny day with blue skies to return with a picnic of wine, cheese, and bread to lounge in the sun with my friends.

A last picture from Vizille (not the castle or grounds but the small city itself).  I came across this painted on the sidewalk... It's a play on words to say "walkway NOT poopway" or simply, "This is a place to walk, not to leave your dog poop."  It's a really problem in some places in France where people let their dogs poop all of the sidewalk and streets since there's not as much grass in cities, but here it was quite clean!

Lille: A Short Escape

I love traveling.  I know -- that's quite obvious.  Sometimes I enjoy traveling for long periods of time and other times a little getaway is all I need.  

Well last week, I decided to take a little, one-night getaway to explore a new city.  I went to Lille.  Lille is in the very north of France, near Belgium.  It has a bit of Flemish influence, which can be seen in Vieux Lille, the oldest part of town.  

Upon arrival after my train delay, my boyfriend and I checked into our AirBnb apartment (very convenient to the train station) and went out to explore.  Rather than set specific destinations our first day, we decided to simply walk.  I think that exploring a place on foot without an idea of what a place is supposed to be is great.   We walked ourselves in circles a few times - the city is NOT in a grid pattern.  We discovered a cathedral.  We found a grassy area surrounded by various architectural styles.  We sat for tea.  We headed towards the citadel, only to turn around at the entrance since it was closed and actually used by the military.  We strolled through a park as the sun set.  Really, we just enjoyed being together. 

After a while, we decided it was time to eat.  We ended up at an Italian inspired restaurant and I chose a delicious spinach and ricotta ravioli with a creamy veggie and pumpkin sauce.  It was great!

Deciding the night wasn't quite over, we headed to the movies before finally calling it a night.

The next morning, we started by going to the art museum (Palais des Beaux Arts).  It was huge (actually the second largest art museum in France outside of Paris).  Our tickets came with audio guides so we played the part and walked around the museum with our headphones, learning about some interesting pieces.  My favorites were the statues and the Impressionist paintings.  

By afternoon, the rain had arrived. My little umbrella couldn't hold up to it, so we ended up jumping from one place to the next for lunch, tea, and shopping.  I also tried a delicious little treat (too bad I forgot to take a picture) that was a fluffy poof with whipped cream and hardened meringue inside covered by chocolate outside.  I would definitely have that again!

We spent our last hour at a large shopping mall where we were protected from the rain.  We got into a little mischief at the Lego store and I made a mini-me.  It may not have been a very "Lille" afternoon, but at least we enjoyed ourselves!  It was a perfect little vacation.

Skiing: Les Deux Alpes

Grenoble is a place that keeps growing on me.  I feel really at home and comfortable here.  That being said, I also feel that I've passed another milestone to being a part of Grenoble... I bought skis! A friend and I made an outing to check out skis at a second-hand shop, and we both walked out with our very own skis.  All together, my skis, boots and poles cost around 78 euros.  Not too bad, eh?  Well they're not the fanciest skis, but they work!

I tested them out for the first time last weekend when we went to a nearby ski resort called les Deux Alpes.  We arrived in the parking lot on our student bus (we both got student ski cards despite not being students this year haha!) and were quite confused... there wasn't a single patch of snow in sight!  With a slight feeling of hesitation, we decided to see what we had gotten ourselves into for the day and we took the gondola up the side of the mountain.  Our gondola took us to the base of a village, which we walked up through to find ourselves at the ski resort.  The snow ended up being ok, not fantastic, but it was a great day out nonetheless.  The ski resort is on a sort of plateau at the top of the mountain and we found some nice views the further up we went. 

We also met a group of friends for lunch and again for drinks at the apres-ski party, complete with live DJ on top of the mountain.  All in all, it was a wonderful day with great people and absolutely incredible views.  See for yourself.