Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Noble Grenoble

GRENOBLE!!! Most 'noble' of French cities...hehe..at least by spelling anyway. We got back the evening of the 2nd, after having all (I'm not sure, I might have been working on my hat) fallen asleep on the train. The next day, we took a bus out to Sassenage, a petit village just outside the city, where there is a pretty park with several trails, caves, and a stream going up the mountain. We hiked around for a while, ended up about halfway up the slope with a good view of the valley and the mountains across it. We saw French horses that hee-hawed at us in an incomprehensible country dialect.
We came back into town and took the walking tour of centre ville, stood on a bridge going over the river Isere, and stopped in a 'patisserie' and got some 'foret noire', a kind of fluffy cake with raspberries and chocolate that somehow is one of the best things I have ever tasted. That night we went out to dinner at the Epicurien, with my friend Sarah from lab, to give everyone a taste of real, high-class french cuisine.
The morning of the 4th, we went to lab! Everyone got a tour of the synchrotron, and the neutron guide halls, of course studded with red radiation warning signs, making everyone a little nervous. ;) Some very intelligent questions were asked; whether they were actually interested or were just asking questions to make me FEEL like they were interested is another question! We went to lunch with people from lab, so my old friends met my new friends (one is silver and the other gold...) which was cool. After lunch, David and I took the 'eggs', a funicular up the hill right next to the city to get a bird's eye view of things, while Katy and George took a nap. It IS rather breathtaking from up there...basically the view of the mountains never ceases to be amazing.
Then we caught the train to Geneva!

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