Louis IX - Lyon in the Rain

Europe is stuck in rut weather wise, but when the sun comes it makes for some dramatic pictures. 

Grenoble, France

Despite the wet weather during my visit, Grenoble is a beautiful city. Is is located in the foothills of the French Alps and is completely surrounded by mountains. I took the risk of taking a day trip here from Lyon at the weekend, knowing the forecast was not good. I could have been really unlucky and not have seen anything. Luckily for me the clouds were not too low and they gave the surrounding mountains an appreciable atmosphere. During my visit the city was hosting a samba band festival, so my whole day was accompanied by the sound of drums, which you could hear as far as the Basilica. This definitely lifted my spirits in the rain.

With only a few hours in Grenoble, i visited the Tourist Information about what best to see. The Tourist Information were really helpful here, unlike in other cities. They gave me a good map with two self guided walking tours on it, which i used as best i could after i prioritised the trip up to the Basilica on the cable car. 

The cable car ride with its unusual little baubles, was fun. Everybody gets a seat facing the window, so everybody gets a good view. The windows were quite scratched up and wet, so i was hard to take a photo from the inside without it showing up. But the views were stunning. Once up on the Basilica, there are several viewpoints. My favorite was the Geologist Terrace, being a former geologist i still get nostalgic at names like these. The Basilica is basically a ruin, with lots of touristy paraphernalia, but i was surprised to find that on a weekend in May, most of it was shut up. I had heard that there were three restaurants up there so i was hoping to get some lunch, but again they were shut. Looking at their menus they are really high end and there was no way i could afford their prices. The snack shop was also shut. 

So with everything shut up at the top i walked around to the caves, which are free to get into. They served as part of the defence of the Basilica and make for a good visit. I only paid for a single for the cable car, so i walked down the hill, which takes about 30 mins and is an easy path. I was starving by this point, so let just say is was a beautiful walk, but i wish i had eaten.

Back in town, i started scavenging for somewhere to eat. 5pm in France and nowhere serves food. Eventually i found a sandwich seller, who was willing to microwave a pizza for 3 Euro. Not the sit down meal i was hoping for, but enough to get me through a few more stops on that tourist map. Grenoble has a number of interesting building and squares, and possibly the most boring cathedral front in France. At first i could not quite believe that what was in front of me was marked on the map as the Cathedral Notre Dame. I could have walked passed (hang on, i did earlier). Inside it was a very plain, mosersrty style building, except much larger in size. Its light ary wall made it quite peaceful.

I really wish i had more time to explore, but this city has plenty to offer sightseers for a day or two. There is a really inviting covered market called Halles Sainte-Claire next to the tourist office, which was shut, but looked worth a visit. I love that kind of ironwork, maybe its my Shropshire heritage. Who knows.

1 Day in Annecy and a New Camera

Annecy has been on my wish list ever since i realised i was coming to France. However, i always seem to have had a reason to put of the visit. So after my camera was stolen last week, i rushed out to buy a new one. I already knew which camera i wanted to buy, as i have been looking at buying a new one for sometime. The only thing keeping me from buying it before, was my tight budget. I bought the Canon EOS 600d. I wanted this camera, for the possibly insane reason it has a flip screen and you can buy a remote control, which will make taking photos for my other blog that much easier. I also used to own an SLR, long before the days of digital and i have missed the control and quality that that camera gave me. On my budget this was the best camera that fitted the bill. Now i had a new camera, Annecy, Annecy, Annecy.  

Annecy is beautiful, and rammed with tourists. But this is one of those places that the tourists don't really put you off, infact i thought they added to the charm and gave the town a slight buzz. As soon as i arrived i headed to the famous canal with the row of colourful houses, i just wanted to get that typical Annecy photo done with first so i could concentrate on enjoying the rest of the town. This canal did not disappoint, its bluish waters running between rows of colourful houses and the palais d'isle in the middle was perfect. Though the water came out sludgy green in my photos, i assure you it was crystal clear.

Annecy lies at the outlet of a large freshwater lake. The waters are so crystal clear and blue it is amazing, you can see through meters of water to the bottom of the lake in the harbour area. The lake is bordered in Annecy by a recreational park. Here you can hire, boats, kayaks  bikes and rollerblades, or like me just sun yourself and eat your baguette.

I spent most of the day wandering the narrow streets of the old town, which are a jumble of colorful houses, shops and restaurant. If you wander to the north side of the old town, here the streets get wider and you find your more commercial shopping district, it's still very pretty though.

The Chateau just above the old town, houses a museum dedicated to local history, arts and crafts and also a good helping of modern art. It cost me €5.20 to enter. I admittedly was a little disappointed at the displays, especial the modern art stuff, i just don't get it. Here are some of my more favourite ones.

If there is one thing i will take from away from annecy its seeing everybody eat ice creams. At one point i was struggling to see anybody who was not eating one. How is the possible, it like they were eating one and the going back for more, again and again. Then again the ques at the kiosks were 20-30 people deep (the people who were not eating them). The photo below is totally out of focus, but this is just the beginning of this queue it was almost twice this length! So i had to join in and get one for my self. Yum, chocolate, chestnut and cream.

and finally for my mum some pretty flowers. 

Useful links:

Tourist office: http://en.lac-annecy.com/

Towns website:  http://www.annecy.fr/

French Course - Day 5 - Nice France

This was the last of my blog entries about my french course that i took, last year. I really wish i had kept up writing as now i find it so interesting to look back on. You store a collection of memories on a blog like no other. Between now and when i stopped blogging i have so many memories that i wished i had written about at the time, the details of which are now fading into the blur which is my past.

7th of August 2012

Well last night before going to bed I remembered I had not done my homework, actually I could not even remember what we were set, and so I did all the questions. I was not going to get caught out for a second day.

Today went a little better; I am starting to get to grips with verbs, enough for me to be able to get the right conjugation in front of the class. After a good night sleep, my brain is starting to function again. Yippee. About half the class are so far ahead of me, the other half are about at my level. It’s the last day for about half the class, so next week we will be down to 5, and luckily most of the really good people are off, so the lessons should be much more focused at my level. 

In the afternoon i went back to the park for more studying, but today i remembered to bring my camera. I have managed nearly a week in Nice, and only have only taken a handful of pictures, hence some of the poor quality photos. So back up to the châteaux for some more great views of Nice. I visited the Cimetière Colline du Château, which was amazing, there was no photography allowed in the cemetery, so i went next door and took photos in the cimetiere israelite (where i could not see an anti-photo sign). The cemetery is full of amazing statues and tombs, that you just don't find in the UK. The cemetery's are so beautiful and well kept and yet i saw know body else, which makes me wonder why? Its defiantly worth a visit if you want to get away from the hustle of the rest of the French Riviera.

It’s so hot today, I have just nearly about melted at the park. My walk back to the tram has taken me about two hours; I just kept stopping for ice-cream and cold drinks. So it getting late now and it seems like I have done nothing with my day. Apart form studying I am just seem to chat and chill with people in my dorm.

Links: http://www.alpha-b.fr/fr/home

French Course - Day 4 - Nice France

As exhausting as to day has been, and it has been exhausting. I've done french classes then helped a friend move, someone who has never heard of packing lightly (anybody else out there carrying around a bag of coat hangers?). I remember this day being worse, i really suffered in the heat and it took me all day to get over it.

6th August 2012

Wow, I started today by me at 33 admitting that I had come to school without my homework. I felt slightly stupid as I did spend considerable amount of time studying French yesterday, just not what I was supposed to.

Class was again very overwhelming, and I really struggled with all the verbal exercise’s I was given. My brain just wouldn’t process French fast enough. Actually today my brain had completely switched off trying to understand anything. I was looking at the teacher, but I could not understand a thing! I just watched as her lips moves; i usually understand at least a few words. I blame all the study in the park yesterday.

The air conditioning has broken in our class room and we all sat there absolutely sweltering. By the time class was finished it was all I could do to stagger back to the hostel. Now I am spending the rest of the day absorbed by the Olympics, sipping diet coke. C’MON Team GB!!””!!

Links: http://www.alpha-b.fr/fr/home

French Course - Day 3 - Nice France

Today i had a french test, did i pass? Hope so, as i am planning on spending the next month in Lyon studying more french, and don't fancy a repeat. But here is day 3 of my french course last year, when i wasn't worrying about passes or fails. 

5th August 2012

Ok I slept bit better tonight, it was still very noisy and the light kept on going on and off, but some of the noisier girls had left. hooray.

The class this morning went pretty much the same way as yesterday, except that I felt even more overwhelmed by French and some of the student seem to be following so much better than me. I left with a huge mental list of things that I needed to get to grips with before the next day:

• The verbs faire, amier, devoir, etc…..
• What are verbs?
• Loads of stuff to look up in our grammar book. Others seemed to have memorised it contents, I have barely opened it.

So I headed up to the chateaux park on the hill to find a shady spot to study in. Parks are my favorite place to study. When I was studying for my final exams at uni, I went to Barcelona for a week so I could study in Park Gould. I just don’t find locking myself away in a dark room, when it raining outside very inspiring. 

I got back to the hostel and made a bit of a stupid decision to go running (du jogging). I dumped all my stuff at the hostel and just took a small bottle of water and my travel pass. I decided to go down by the sea and I thought it would be cooler and it was. I managed a good 20-30 mins of running in before I got back on to the tram. The tram then had “difficulties technical”, and I was stuck on it for over an hour, already sweating and dehydrated from my run, the heat on the tram was unbearable. By the time I got back it was all I could do to eat and cool down watching the Olympics. Hooray we are actually starting to win some medals now.

Links: http://www.alpha-b.fr/fr/home

French Course Day 2 - Nice France

In August i started my first travel blog, it did not last long, i gave up after two weeks. But i did keep pretty good account of the french course and it is still pretty relevant, so i have decided to re-post the first 5 days of the course. 

4th August 2012

It turns out that backpackers and students don’t mix so well. I am now regretting my decision to stay in a hostel as the girls in my dorm did not go to bed, until 2am and thought our room was just an extension of the bar. I really thought about going to the kitchen in the morning and borrowing some sauce pans to bang, when I woke up at 7am just to get my own back. But I made do with deliberately walking into one of their beds on my way to the toilet, lame.

Ok a bit nervous about going straight into another class, I really hope that this is the right decision for me. There is a mixture of abilities in my new class, some people are about the same level as me and there are one or two who are like French dictionaries. My new class has a very lively teacher, Pricilla. She is so animated it is ridiculous, but this is good because she never breaks into English but I suspect she know how to speak it, each word that I don’t know gets an animated explanation in French. The class is much more intense than the one I was in yesterday. The words DIRE and VEUX are mentioned a lot and I am expected to know what they mean, I don’t. So I spend the whole lesson pretending so I can look it up at home. I manage to get out of the class without the hole in my knowledge being noticed. It turns out that dire is a verb meaning to say and veux from the verb vouloir, meaning, to have and to want.

After class I am exhausted, my head has hit French overload and I head back to the hostel, to catch up on some of the sleep I missed the night before. I then went swimming at Nice beach, and spend the rest of the evening revising what we did in class.

Croix-Rousse - Lyon City Tour

Last week i went to Croix Rousse, Lyon as i heard it was a great place to explore, as it had a really rich history based around the silk industry. I found some beautiful views of the city, but failed to really appreciate the area and find the so called traboules (secret passage ways) that make this area so special. So this week i decided to take a tour. I signed up for the Lyon City Card, and spent Saturday making the most of my 21 euro investment.

Lyon tourist office provides many tours, and most are free with the Lyon City Card otherwise this tour would have cost 12 euros. The tour started in Place de la Croix-Rousse out side the metro station. On a Saturday morning Place de la Croux-Rousse is a great place to visit, there was a market, and lots of cafes spilling on to the square. The square is dominated in the middle by the Statue of Jacquard, who invented an easier loom system which enabled the silk workers to produce more at lower cost.

Our tour guild, took us down the main street, explaining how the building around here were purpose built for the silk workers.  The ceilings were build extra high (4m), to house the looms with extra large windows facing the south, to give light to work by. In the 19th Century silk workers worked at home rather than worked in factories. Each apartment (room) would have housed a whole family, 7-15 people, making this one of the most densely populated districts of Europe.

We took a shorts cut through a narrow passages. 

Admired the town planning, that required two levels of housing, so the silk workers had maximum light.

We then descended the hill heading towards Lyon. 

While descending the hill, we passed through, the traboules which make this area so special. The entrances are very nondescript, and this is why i had so much trouble, first time around. 

Through these nondescript doors, we got to walk the path of many silk-workers delivering their goods to the traders in central Lyon. There are open staircases and passage ways and even very forward thinking  (at the time) communal toilets, that were build, into the apartments.

We then descended into Lyon, to learn a bit more about silk industry history, and to a visit to silk printing workshop. Of course i was in heaven. Anything fabric and colour related and they have got my attention. We visited L'Atelier de Soierie, a silk printing company just off the Place des Terreaux. There they use two main techniques to colour the fabric: hand screen printing and hand painting. They are the last silk workshop left in Lyon. My camera died at this point, so these are all mobile pics.