Classes have been great. I have one language course with the Centre Universitaire d'Études Françaises (CUEF) here at the Université Stendhal in Grenoble that is fantastic because it has challenged me to go back to principles of grammar, etc. which I haven't practiced in quite some time. We also get to choose two cours à option (option courses). The first one just ended, as each goes for two weeks, and it was about vocabulary, which has been EXTREMELY useful because vocabulary and idiomatic expressions are always the hardest part of understanding French. On Monday I'll be starting the second two-week long option course which will be about French civilization, so I will (hopefully) keep you updated on how that goes. The third class I have is a University of Michigan French literature course that has been very interesting, but very challenging. I just turned in a 9-page paper (in French) for it yesterday that took me way too long to do.
Two weekends ago the whole group from U of M (and they invited Anthony along too) went to Marseille and Aix-en-Provence. Marseille was gorgeous, and we went to the vieux port, the harbor area, where there was a fresh fish market and all kinds of stands for shopping. Marseille is known for their soap, so we bought quite a few bars of it. We also took a boat over to the Chateau d'If which is an old prison, where Alexandre Dumas actually set part of his book The Count of Monte Cristo - the part where Edmond Dantes is in jail for however many years. They also filmed one of the older versions of the film there and we saw the cell that they used for it. When we went to Aix-en-Provence we didn't have much time before we had to catch our train back to Grenoble, so we just got some flavored ice and chilled in a park for a while, then ended up back in Grenoble pretty late in the evening.
Last weekend we went to Chartreuse, which is part of the mountain range that goes around Grenoble. The bus ride was quite a trip - a huge tour bus weaving around narrow mountain passageways with large drops on either side. It was a little nauseating. We made it though, and stopped first in a very tiny little town for lunch, where there were a total of two restaurants. It was quite good though, and I got a crêpe au chocolat for dessert that was more like a chocolat à la crêpe. It was delicious. We then went to visit the museum that is the old monastery of the Chartreuse monks and saw how they live - their motto is solitude, silence, and prayer.
They live in almost complete silence, never
seeing any outsiders. They only get 48 hours a year to see family. We then walked up to the current monastery which was a 2 km (1.25mi) walk up the mountain (not a very steep part, but still). We obviously couldn't go inside because it would disturb the monks, who wear very odd white robes that look like something out of a Monty Python movie.
We then went to see the distillery where these monks make an extremely strong form of liquor called "Chartreuse" for a little extra cash to help them live this life of solitude. The normal kind is a bright green that is 55% alcohol. There is also a yellow kind that is 40% that's not quite as hard to stomach. We bought a bottle of each which are 35 cl (about 12 oz) each before we got a chance to taste it - bad idea. There was a free "dégustation" of the liquor but we stupidly didn't wait until afterwards to buy it. We did end up buying some "framboise" liquor as well (raspberry) that's actually quite tasty, so at least that worked out for us. Anthony also bought a Chartreuse hoodie. It was the closest he could get to the full monk garb, which is what he really wanted. We also got a chance to go down and look at the huge cellar, which had massive barrels of chartreuse in it. It smelled bad down there.
We've also been up to the Bastille twice now, which is an old military fortress that also used to be a monastery. It's right up on a mountain across the river from downtown Grenoble. You take the téléphérique up to it on those wires over on the left side of the picture in little plastic balls that look pretty dangerous but they're awesome. From up there you get an awesome view of Grenoble and Anthony took a ton of pictures of the landscape. On the other side of the river right at the base of the mountain is also the Italian area of Grenoble. You can seriously look down that street and see about 6 or 7 pizzerias right in a row. We went to one and had absolutely fantastic pizza baked in a wood-fired brick oven. The waiter was also very nice and easy to talk to in French and he said I spoke it very well. :-)
This past Tuesday we also went to a brewery right here in Grenoble called the Brasserie Mandrin, named after Louis Mandrin who is like a French version of Robin Hood. They had 7 flavors that we could taste (although they ran out of a few before we got a chance to). Their 7 flavors are Noix, Réglisse, Sapin, Miel, Blanche, Chanvre, and Bio (walnut, licorice, pine, honey, white, hemp, and organic). I ended up buying a 4 pack of the walnut, white, hemp, and organic, but the honey was also excellent. I also bought two glasses with the Mandrin label on them as souvenirs.
Today we attempted to go "raft et hydro speed"ing (white water rafting), but three people who had signed up for it didn't show up, so we didn't have enough people. I called Vincent, the guy who manages the trips, and he called me back and was very nice. He said we would figure something out.
Tomorrow the plan is to go to Vercors, which is a plateau most famous for the resistance group that hunkered down there during World War II. It's also supposed to have some very active wildlife along with some awesome looking caves. So it looks like it will basically be a nature walk.
I've also had plenty of exciting experiences exploring downtown Grenoble, especially all the different restaurants with Anthony and my friend Destiney. Anyway, hopefully that gets you up to date on what's going on. You may have to prod me again to make another post.
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