Grenoble

On Tuesday I took a little trip to Grenoble for an interview with Schneider Electric. It was a four-hour train ride to the city, with a brief train change in Lyon. Got into the town and the weather just plain wasn't very nice. Thankfully it wasn't raining, but it wasn't sunny or warm. I walked around a bit (in heels, dumb idea) to see if I could find the tourist office and get a map. Also, originally I was planning on staying in the town overnight, just to get the feel of the town, so I looked for a hostel I had found on the internet. I didn't find either, so I walked back to the train station to catch a cab (15euro!) to the company. I had the interview, which was so-so, and then one of the ladies drove me back to the tram station because it was so far from the company (not a plus). I wandered through the Grenoble mall (very nice actually and a lot like malls at home) and found the bathroom (that I had to pay 20 cents for) to change out of my suit into jeans and pumas. Then took the 21-minute tram ride back into center city.

When I arrived back at the train station I decided that I just wanted to go home, so I changed my ticket to the last train out of Grenoble back to Clermont at 6:44pm. Then I set off to explore some sights. I didn't go in anywhere because I didn't have a ton of time, but I did walk through some lovely little places, grabbing a mint chocolate chip ice cream cone on my way. I saw the Rhone that runs through Grenoble and the wonderful sights that would have been spectacular if the sun were shining. As it was, it was a pretty neat town with lots of interesting architecture and young peoople. One very glaring thing that I noticed about Grenoble, and I don't mean this to be un-PC in any way, but there were A LOT of people in wheelchairs. Once I noticed that I realized that there were also a lot of people who are bravely dealing with other challenges to their physical appearances. I wonder why I noticed this and what it means for the town. The only thing I could feasibly come up with was that the town is in the middle of 3 major French ski resorts, as it is at the base of the Alps, so maybe some of these people have been injured during extreme adventure accidents? Not sure because they didn't seem like the extreme sports types, but who knows.

After walking around a bit and enjoying the sights, I made it back to the train station in time for my train, but found out it was cancelled and there was no way to get back to Clermont that night. I got a hotel (with a bit of help...read the next post) and checked in before wandering about town for the Fete de la Musique (later post as well) and then enjoyed a night of the music festival, watching a band at both the garden and on my way home in front of a bar and I watched part of the Spain World Cup game at a outdoor cafe where I swear 13 year-olds were drinking beers. The "legal" age in France is 18. If these kids were 18, I'm 35. Made it back to my hotel and slept blissfully for 9 hours. Woke up to bright sunshine and admired the views on my way out of town.