Summary
Leftover dinner for breakfast then loaded up the car and drove to Grenoble, our last stop in France before pivoting back to Italy. Are we tired of France? Nope, not even close! Grenoble is situated on two rivers and considered the French “Gateway to the Alps”. There are beautiful views of the snow capped mountains from all over town. The best view is at the top of the Bastille hill, a cable car (Bubble) ride away over the Isére river. Light snack of grilled veg and roasted Saint-Marcellin cheese – a revelation – at the top. Long walk through the old part of the city then a (personal) ride on the ubiquitous Tourist Train. Excellent dinner at an Indian restaurant where the owner regaled us with his dismay on how hard Trump is making it for the rest of the world.
Details
Time for another relocation day. The main reason we have our rental car is to get from Annecy, where we are now, to our next stop: Grenoble. It’s a middling distance where the train is a possibility or a bus but with either of those there’s getting from and to our hotels, a lot of waiting around, getting on and off, dealing with our luggage. We figured we’ll want a car in both cities anyway, so why not get a car.
While we bathed and packed we ate “breakfast”. It’s our leftovers from last night’s dinner. We do have a refrigerator but not a microwave, so it’s safe but not totally satisfying. It’s fine. We also spent our time revisiting the site for the spa at Aix-les-Bains. Do they have a three hour spot for us to use all their pools and saunas? Nope. They did yesterday, but they’re now full. You snooze you lose.
At the front desk, as we’re checking out, I glance around to see if Karen’s lost scarf is somehow here and trying to make its way back to Karen. No such luck.
The trip to Grenoble is a pretty easy one hour drive. We see some mountains around with some snow, but nothing spectacular. What we do see are a ton of trees. Fruit trees? Nut trees? We can’t tell, so Karen consults the internet. Yes, they’re both. The region is the biggest grower of nuts in the country and also grows lots of fruit. If we’re smart we’ll be sure to get to one of the many farmer’s markets they have in town.
We do find our hotel. It has close to 200 rooms, so it’s a big place. That in turn means there are signs along the way telling you where to turn. We temporarily park somewhere we shouldn’t, leave the flashers on, and head inside. We check in and learn where we should leave our car (below the hotel).
The place is a hoot. It’s called Rocky Pop and they apparently have multiples of these hotels. The place is super funky hotel with “Rocky Pop” branding all over the place, promoting their bar, restaurant, laundry, kid’s play room, etc. One of the slogans in the bar is “Stop trying to make everyone happy, you’re not tequila!”
Our room is like a one bedroom apartment. There’s a small living room with an area for a (missing) dining table, there’s a kitchen, bedroom and two room bathroom. Nice.
Established in our room, we head out to the telepherique. The route GPS takes us on is a tad depressing. There are a lot of empty storefronts. The business that are open don’t look terribly healthy. A family member previously asked if we’re any parts of France like this. This is the first we’ve seen on this trip (so far). Maybe we’re just in the wrong parts of town.
We buy tickets for the telepherique. We have to pay full fare as the senior discount starts at 75, yikes. The people conveyance part are five balls (called Bubbles), each holding up to six people. The five balls travel in a group. For balance, always at the opposite end of the wire, are five more people balls.
As each ball set comes into the station it slows and the door of each ball opens in turn. The balls never stop but are going slow enough for you to climb aboard and get seated. As each ball ”leaves the station”, the door closes. Just getting on is an adventure.
It’s a six minute ride up, up, up. We can see people on the hiking trail, the cheaper way to get to the top. We go up over the Isère river and our view gets better and better as we go up.
The view from the top is great. We’re 420 meters above the city. In the distance are the snow covered Alps, more enshrouded in clouds than we’d like, but you can tell the view would be impressive if they were totally cloud naked.
At the bar/restaurant up top we get beer, water, grilled vegetables and melted Saint-Marcellin cheese and delicious baguette. Yum. We ride back down and do more walking. Karen shops for a replacement scarf to keep her poor neck warm for the remainder of the trip.
We wait till 4pm so we can take “le petit train touristique”. Normally it’d be in French with any non French speaker holding their own player giving the narration in their own language. It’s just the two of us on the tour do they just play English over the PA.
The weather is great so everyone in town is out walking or biking. Having a frumpy mini train hauling two American’s through the town doesn’t mesh well with the walking and biking (and trams and business vehicles and etc., etc.) so we got lots of looks. I consider giving them the royal wave. Many look at us with compassion as if they’re thinking “oh my goodness they must be so embarrassed”.
For dinner we find a good looking Indian restaurant and request a reservation. The place is great though over decorated and the music is ever-present, but the people are nice. As with the petite train tour, we’re the only ones here. The owner/chef explains that it’s school holidays and everyone’s gone up to the mountain or down to the beach.
We try to use our French as much as possible. The chef and staff, since we’re the only ones there, have lots of free time. They ramble on to us in high speed French forever. Our French isn’t anywhere nearly good enough to follow all of it, but we smile and respond when we can.
Dinner is fabulous and quite the price performer. We have enough left to take home for lunch tomorrow. We take a lovely long walk home in the fading light. There are people everywhere, out walking or drinking or eating. The city seems much more alive than it did earlier and a bit less sad. I guess it’s where and when you go.
Photos
