Quick stop in Grenoble

A few days to spare and a good friend doing her year abroad in Grenoble were the perfect excuses to drop by on my way back to London from Barcelona. After landing in Lyon instead of the monotonous train journey to Grenoble I had been expecting, the hour and a half flew past as we rushed towards the Alps, surrounded by increasingly high snow-capped mountains.


Although my primary aim was not tourism, I did have a little wander around this sleepy town, catching good views of the Bastille, an ancient set of fortifications started in the Middle Ages and taking a stroll part of the way around Grenoble´s defensive walls. I did notice a few peculiarities in the architecture: Firstly the presence of carved stone on the outside of the ground floor flats in all buildings in the old city, which was to prevent weakness in buildings after the regular floods that Grenoble suffered. I also noticed the presence of decorative metal above most windows. These are called lambrequins and were originally put into place by the “Grenoblois” to hide the Venetian blinds then used. The perfect end to my afternoon was a panaché (shandy) on the terrace of the Café de la Table Ronde, the second oldest café in France.


Daisy was a great host, introducing me to all her friends, and we had a few great nights out as well as enjoying a traditional “steak - frites” the next morning to revive us. Being so close to the slopes we couldn’t resist fitting a couple of days of skiing in and despite the 4 am starts, I thoroughly enjoyed discovering Les Deux Alpes ski resort and finishing off with a few beers at Pano Bar, a bar with blasting music and a great atmosphere in tband in the middle of the slopes!