Grenoble : Le Maison Turistique!
Grenoble : Le Maison Turistique!
Wednesday 9th April..and our first real day in Grenoble. Steve and I awoke to an overcast and dreary beginning to our day. Being completely new to the town, we decided to utilise this day to absorb what the town had to offer. We also wanted to get up to the alps for a bit of a ski the following day and wanted to find out how to get there and by which bus route.
At the Hotel Ibis, breakfast was not included in our nightly rate. So, this morning we had to go and find our own breakfast. We took ourselves to Grenoble Gare to pick up our booked train tickets for our journey to Paris, and then to Brugge and from Brussels to Amsterdam. If there is one thing the french get right is making things easy. Their rail system to so fast and efficient as well as being easy to book and use with automated machines at train stations as well as being able to book online and retrieve tickets later. They have two major companies the TGV (Trains a Grande Vitesse) which covers most of France and Thalys which has trains to Brussels, Amsterdam, and even to Cologne. Actually, just about everything the French do is to perfection... from trains to quality restaurant food.
Somehow being in France this time feels a bit different. Just in a few hours, we had found myself completely overwhelmed by their language and felt like complete foreigners and out of control of our everyday living. We grabbed a small breakfast at the train station and leisurely walked around town to soak in their way of everyday life and take in the amazing snow capped mountains in the distance. Along the way, we came across a Petit Casino (a small supermarket) and decided to stock up on a few small things in order to keep our daily living costs down. Depending on where we have a breakfast included or a kitchenette where we will be able to prepare small meals, will help with the everyday creature comforts. Our Ibis Hotel hadn't provided breakfast, or even a kettle to boil water in to make a cup of tea or coffee. We bought some bread and fruit (apples, bananas) and a couple of spreads (peanut butter, jam) so we could make some sandwiches and take some fruit with us during the day.
After that, we headed back to our hotel room and made a round of sandwiches for the both of us and packed some fruit and headed back out again. One of the main tourist sights is Fort Bastille.. they have a little ball type lift that runs from ground level along a cable up to the top of the mountain where the Fort is located. The weather was a bit overcast and cloudy and the view from the top would have been ordinary and therefore Steve and I decided to just walk up a little part of the hill to Musee Dauphinois to see if we could find something interesting in there.
The museum was free - BONUS and it turned out to be fairly interesting. The had a rich history on the life of people who live and depend on the mountain resources to survive day to day. They graze cattle and milk them to make butter and cheese etc. The bottom floor was completely in French so Steve and I whizzed through it. It was the second floor where they had plaques written in English describing lives of the mountain people. The top floor - also having English plaques had a history of skiing...and how the shape and use of a ski has progressed through the ages. Pretty interesting actually! Speaking of skiing, I had mentioned previously that Steve and I came to Grenoble to check out the possibility of skiing on one of the mountains... After finishing at the museum we took ourselves down to the Gare Routiere (Bus Station) to enquire about costs and departures of buses up to the slopes.... Thoroughly satisfied, we decided to embark on the ski trip the following day....
We went for a bit more of a walk around town and came across a bigger supermarket because we still wanted to find something for dinner. We brought a few extra things and a nice premade salad for the both of us to enjoy for our evening meal.. We also brought ourselves a small UHT milk and some of those mini kellogg's packets with sweet sugary goodness in it.. ;o) for a couple of breakfasts over the next couple of days. Our IBIS hotel hadn't provided us with breakfast included in the cost of the overnight stay...
On that note, Steve and I headed back to our hotel room to enjoy our supermarket dinner and rest and relax for the rest of the evening..and think about tackling the French Alps in the morning!
At the Hotel Ibis, breakfast was not included in our nightly rate. So, this morning we had to go and find our own breakfast. We took ourselves to Grenoble Gare to pick up our booked train tickets for our journey to Paris, and then to Brugge and from Brussels to Amsterdam. If there is one thing the french get right is making things easy. Their rail system to so fast and efficient as well as being easy to book and use with automated machines at train stations as well as being able to book online and retrieve tickets later. They have two major companies the TGV (Trains a Grande Vitesse) which covers most of France and Thalys which has trains to Brussels, Amsterdam, and even to Cologne. Actually, just about everything the French do is to perfection... from trains to quality restaurant food.
Somehow being in France this time feels a bit different. Just in a few hours, we had found myself completely overwhelmed by their language and felt like complete foreigners and out of control of our everyday living. We grabbed a small breakfast at the train station and leisurely walked around town to soak in their way of everyday life and take in the amazing snow capped mountains in the distance. Along the way, we came across a Petit Casino (a small supermarket) and decided to stock up on a few small things in order to keep our daily living costs down. Depending on where we have a breakfast included or a kitchenette where we will be able to prepare small meals, will help with the everyday creature comforts. Our Ibis Hotel hadn't provided breakfast, or even a kettle to boil water in to make a cup of tea or coffee. We bought some bread and fruit (apples, bananas) and a couple of spreads (peanut butter, jam) so we could make some sandwiches and take some fruit with us during the day.
After that, we headed back to our hotel room and made a round of sandwiches for the both of us and packed some fruit and headed back out again. One of the main tourist sights is Fort Bastille.. they have a little ball type lift that runs from ground level along a cable up to the top of the mountain where the Fort is located. The weather was a bit overcast and cloudy and the view from the top would have been ordinary and therefore Steve and I decided to just walk up a little part of the hill to Musee Dauphinois to see if we could find something interesting in there.
The museum was free - BONUS and it turned out to be fairly interesting. The had a rich history on the life of people who live and depend on the mountain resources to survive day to day. They graze cattle and milk them to make butter and cheese etc. The bottom floor was completely in French so Steve and I whizzed through it. It was the second floor where they had plaques written in English describing lives of the mountain people. The top floor - also having English plaques had a history of skiing...and how the shape and use of a ski has progressed through the ages. Pretty interesting actually! Speaking of skiing, I had mentioned previously that Steve and I came to Grenoble to check out the possibility of skiing on one of the mountains... After finishing at the museum we took ourselves down to the Gare Routiere (Bus Station) to enquire about costs and departures of buses up to the slopes.... Thoroughly satisfied, we decided to embark on the ski trip the following day....
We went for a bit more of a walk around town and came across a bigger supermarket because we still wanted to find something for dinner. We brought a few extra things and a nice premade salad for the both of us to enjoy for our evening meal.. We also brought ourselves a small UHT milk and some of those mini kellogg's packets with sweet sugary goodness in it.. ;o) for a couple of breakfasts over the next couple of days. Our IBIS hotel hadn't provided us with breakfast included in the cost of the overnight stay...
On that note, Steve and I headed back to our hotel room to enjoy our supermarket dinner and rest and relax for the rest of the evening..and think about tackling the French Alps in the morning!
*Zzzzz*
For photos of Grenoble : http://picasaweb.google.com/hillsj/Grenoble
