Ferme le lundi

                It turns out that Monday isn’t the best day to go downtown to go shopping. Unfortunately, I didn’t know that when I decided that going shopping downtown would be today’s “tour” for Todd (who’s here from the U.S. Visiting).

                We got to Grenoble and my first hint of trouble was when the parking garage had plenty of spaces. I thought, well, I’ve never made it down here so early in the morning.. that must be why… but store after store we walked past was closed.

                Finally as we were about to give up, we spotted our tourism salvation: le petit train. It’s a little “train” (think parking lot tram at Disneyland) that drives around Grenoble as a recording tells you all about the interesting things you are pausing in front of. So we hopped on, paid our 6 euros each and even got a hand-held audio guide in English. The French audio guide plays through the entire tram… and it’s so loud that it drowns out the English one. That’s even with the thing turned up real loud and pressed against your ear. I finally decided that it wasn’t worth going deaf and settled for a mix of French and English. Most spots I at least got the idea of what was being said. What I realized the most is that I need to find some sort of book in English about Grenoble so I can learn more about it… it seems fascinating.

                For lunch, we went to a place on pizza row. (One bank of the Isere River is lined with pizza restaurants. Legend is that they were opened by the Italians who’d moved here to work in the renowned Grenoble glove making factories, put out of work by cheap glove making in China.) It was right under the bubbles, so I could watch them move up and down their little cable as I enjoyed my pizza and wine. Wine at lunch is really a pretty good idea! It made us forget all about the closed shops.

One Response to “Ferme le lundi”

  1. Branson says:

    Hey Mandy.. what flavor Pop Tarts can we send you? Send me an email and let me know. Our old home computer crashed and I don’t have your address anymore. Branson

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