Student Journals: AIFS in Grenoble, France

Amanda Robson
Augustana College
University of Grenoble, France

February

Amanda Robson Let’s start with a quick introduction; my name is Amanda, I’m 21 years old, I’m from the Midwest, and I’m studying in Grenoble, France, for the spring semester with AIFS. About twice a month, you’ll see my notes on my study-abroad experience. I hope you will find them helpful if you are interested in this particular program.

Grenoble is an absolutely beautiful city. Though surrounded by three mountain ranges (the Chartreuse, the Belledonne, and the Vercors), Grenoble is one of the flattest cities in Europe. It grew up between two rivers, the Drac and the Isère, and grew to fill in the y-shaped valley surrounded by mountains.

I live in the centre-ville, the old part of town that still has cobbled streets, open-air markets, and cafés about every other corner (trading off with boulangeries). It’s been fun to accustom myself to the life of the city here. When I leave to take the tram to campus, the centre-ville is just waking up. Shopkeepers are organizing for the day, and the open-air market in the square outside my building isn’t quite set up yet. The later it gets, the more crowded the streets become. You always know when lunch is because everyone and their dog (literally) are out getting something to eat, including the young students. After class and especially around five o’clock in the evening, the streets are very busy with the Grenoblois out running errands to prepare the evening meal. On Sundays pretty much everything in Grenoble shuts down. It is truly still a day of rest and a chance to escape the city and visit the country where some people keep country houses. It is a comfortable pattern of life that I have fallen into easily.

My words could never do justice to the natural beauty of this region or the charm of life in Grenoble but I hope with this short description I have managed to paint a good background to build upon.

Next Time: Host Families, Randonée en Raquettes, and our Trip to Burgundy

À Bientôt!

February

Hello again to everyone from Grenoble. I know you’re eager to read my scintillating notes so I won’t keep you waiting!

My subject of this issue is host families here in Grenoble. The first thing to remember is there is no standard host family; they are as unique as families are in the United States. They come in all shapes, sizes, and ages, and each family has its own little traditions and habits. Any perceptions you may have developed must be left at home. Rest assured that Miranda, our program director, takes the placement of her students in host families very seriously; she is very good at finding a family that fits your personality.

We met our host families on Saturday, January 14th. They are incredibly nice and helpful and the food at my house is amazing. It is somewhat unusual in France that the “man of the house” does the cooking but that is the case chez moi. According to family consensus, my host father is the chef.

It takes some time to acquaint yourself with the habits and expectations of your own host family; I have learned to fit my schedule around theirs but it is guaranteed that they have made just as many compromises and changes to their schedule to accommodate me. Sometimes it can be difficult to adjust to living in a “home” with a “family” to whom you are accountable in some respects but the benefits far outweigh any inconveniences. Our host families not only provide us with breakfast and supper, a place to sleep and wash ourselves and our clothes, but living with a host family gives us the unique opportunity to have a window into the private home life of the French, and one that I would never trade for anything else.

Events to note: Burgundy
Our trip to Burgundy was the first we took as an AIFS group in France. We got up and met Miranda at la gare routière (the bus station) at 7:30 in the morning. Since we are a small group, we had plenty of space to spread out and sleep on the chartered bus ride that morning (and we didn’t miss much scenery because the sun wasn’t really up yet). We made two stops that day, one at le Château de Pierreclos and the other at Pérouges.

Pierreclos is an old manor situated on a vineyard that has been under renovations for a few years now. It was built over several centuries, dating all the way back to the 12th century and featuring a lot of Roman architecture. We saw the renovated parts of the castle and then the proprietress showed us her wine cellar and we tasted the wines that she produces herself from the surrounding vineyard. In Burgundy, the wine is mostly white wine, which was what we tasted.

Pérouges was very interesting. It’s a small fortified village that has been “preserved,” if you will, in its medieval state. The architecture is typical of the era, including the overhanging second story (to lessen property taxes), and cobble stone streets. The church was especially notable because it formed part of the defensive wall of the city. From the inside looking towards the alter, the left wall was about two meters thick and the windows were narrow slits to allow for the defense of the city. The right wall, on the other hand, was on the interior of the city and looked much more like a typical church with big stained glass windows and a few niches with alters in them. Finally, Pérouges is protected by a historical society that maintains strict rules on the outside appearance of the city. The 80 people who still live there are forbidden from changing the outside of their dwellings and all cables and wires must be laid underground and remain hidden from view. It was a great visit.

Next time: Winter Sports I’ve tried so far (including la Randonée en Raquettes), and trips to Italy!

March

It’s amazing how fast time flies, especially when you don’t want it to. It’s already mid-March, meaning that it’s time for another issue of my notes. You know you’ve been waiting for this all month.

This issue’s topic: vacation and trips. Specifically, my trips to Italy (Venice and Rome) as well as the AIFS group trip to Paris. One of the best things about studying in Europe is perhaps how easy it is to travel. Be it by train, plane, or even bus, it is easy and relatively inexpensive to travel all around Europe. So, now for the details:

Venice
The trip to Venice was from February 16 through February 20. It was organized by the CUEF and there were something like 38 students on that trip. We left Thursday night at 10:00pm from the bus station in Grenoble. We took a coach bus (un car, en français) and traveled all night to Venice. The ride was fairly comfortable both ways because on French coach buses (or probably European coach buses) the seats can fold out into bunks so you can sleep. The hotel was a three star hotel, if I remember correctly, and it was very nice. We stayed on the island of Lido, which has beach front along one side and in the summer is a bustling resort area.

From Lido, you take a boat called a vaporetto to get to the main island or to the other islands such as Murano and Burano. There is a lot to see in Venice and it is definitely tourist-friendly. It seemed like everyone knew English well, or, if not, they knew French!

We arrived just before the festival of Carnaval started so Friday and Saturday were relatively calm. I saw the museum that is now in the mayor’s palace in Venice. That place was huge and absolutely oozing with evidence of Venice’s wealth as a rich port city. I also saw Ponte Rialto (a bridge in the shopping district and covered with shops itself) and walked all the way up the Jewish quarter of Venice, which was one of the first to be a genuine “ghetto” that was separated and then eventually locked at night to keep the Jewish people together and away from everyone else. On Saturday, I went with a group of friends to the islands of Murano and Burano. Murano is famous for glass-blowing; you can watch the masters make vases and little figurines from blown glass right before your eyes. Burano is famous for lace and fishing; the buildings of Burano were brightly painted and there was lace everywhere. The islands were calmer than the main island and quite charming. Sunday was the start of Carnaval so there were shows and displays going on all day. A famous Italian singer kicked off Carnaval officially by descending from the top of a tower of Piazza San Marco to a platform across the square. It was interesting and fun to see the amazing costumes people wore, but Piazza San Marco was packed full of people. It was hard to see sometimes and nearly impossible to move. Still, what an experience!

Rome
The weekend following the CUEF trip to Venice was our winter vacation here in Grenoble which meant no school for a week! I made plans to visit Rome. For those who are interested, there is a cheap airline that flies from Grenoble airport to various places in Italy called Blu-Express. The flight was fast and uneventful. From the airport I had to take a train into the center of Rome where I took their subway to find my hotel. It took me awhile to find it, but my hotel was clean and about five minutes from Vatican City. Plus, the entire staff spoke English and they were very kind. As I traveled by myself, I didn’t go out much after dark but you can’t see anything after dark, anyway. I saw too much to describe in detail, but my favorite days were when I visited the Vatican museums and when I visited Coliseum and “Ancient Rome.” History is just so much more powerful when you’re standing inside the stadium where Gladiators fought to the death during the ancient Roman Empire.

Paris
The “City of Lights” as it is called. Accompanied by Miranda, our trusty program director, we took the TGV to Paris. We stayed in a nice hotel near Place de la Bastille and it was an amazing trip.

After checking into our hotel and leaving our luggage, Miranda led us on a tour of the Marais quarter. We had tea together and then we were on our own until that night when we went to a play called “Frou Frou les Bains” which is a cute little comedy that most of us enjoyed thoroughly.

Day two. We visited Opèra Garnier which is the setting for the Phantom of the Opera. Our tour continued to place Vendôme and the Ritz hotel. We had lunch as a group at a restaurant called Pasta Papa where we were served enormous portions of pasta that almost no one could finish off themselves. That afternoon, the director of AIFS Paris adopted our group and gave us a tour of the Conciergerie (the former palace of French kings and Queens which was later turned into a prison where ultimately Marie-Antoinette spent her last days as a prisoner before being guillotined) and La Ste Chappelle which is famous for its stained glass windows. That afternoon and evening we had free; we each did our own thing. I saw the crypt of Notre Dame Cathedral where you can see the original foundations (or perhaps the Roman foundations) of the city and stopped into Notre Dame itself. A friend who had already been to Paris with her school introduced me to some famous ice cream and sherbet only available in Paris and that night we ate out together at a restaurant that serves mussels, almost exclusively. It was really good. Finally, entrance to the Louvre was free that night after 6:00 so we took advantage of that to wander through some of the exhibits. I made the obligatory pilgrimage to see the Mona Lisa. Looks just like every copy or print you’ve ever seen.

Day three. Miranda led us on a walking tour of Montmartre which ended at Sacre Coeur. We had all afternoon and evening to ourselves. Another friend and I decided to see the monuments since we had never been to Paris before. We visited l’hôtel des Invalides, where you can see Napoleon’s tomb, la tour Eiffel, l’arche de Triumphe, and we walked part-way down the Champs Elysées. Unfortunately, it was extremely cold and windy so we had to take refuge in our hotel rather early that night.

Day four. Miranda led us on a tour of the Latin Quarter which included the Luxembourg Gardens and the Sorbonne and ended at Notre Dame. We had a few hours to eat and see what we could afterwards until we had to meet at the hotel for our return trip.

In those four days, I saw an enormous amount of Paris, but obviously Paris can’t be seen and experienced in four days. I am looking forward to going again because there is so much more I want to see and do.

There you have it, les voyages et les vacances.

Next Time: It’s a Secret . . .

May

April is over, and with it, our spring vacation. Grenoble had its second week of vacation from April 22nd to May 1st. For my vacation, I chose to join the CUEF on a tour of the châteaux of the Loire Valley and then I met my mother in Paris. It was an action-packed vacation; I feel like I still need a few days to rest before classes tomorrow!

For the Loire Valley trip, I met the group at 8:30am at Place Verdun where we got on the bus. I traveled with a friend from the AIFS group and we met another girl from Canada but originally from ex-Yugoslavia on the trip that we roomed with. That first day, we were on the bus for the majority of the day. Mourad, the trip chaperone, had different movies and things playing for us and we made periodic stops throughout the day. By late afternoon, we made it to Chambord, the first of the châteax on our itinerary.

Chambord is a beautiful, very impressive castle. It was a hunting lodge for François I, but with 440 rooms, 365 chimneys and 83 staircases (including the famous double-helix staircase by Leonardo da Vinci), it is the grandest and most extravagant of the Loire châteaux. We didn’t go inside, Mourad felt the castle wasn’t worth the entrance fee as it is completely empty, but we did get to walk around the castle and appreciate the vastness of the castle, its moat, and the towers and turrets which seem to create an image of a city above the main walls of the castle. Following our visit of Chambord we continued to Tours where we checked into the hotel and had a late supper.

The second day was a day of castles. We saw Chenonceau, le château d’Angers, Ussé, which inspired the original fairy tale “Sleeping Beauty,” and the gardens at Villandry. Each castle has its own unique story and character; my favorite castle was Chenonceau because it is so well kept, inside and out, and because of the history involved. It is called the castle of the ladies, having been the residence both of Diane de Poitiers (the mistress of Henri II) and later Catherine de Medici (the wife of the same Henri II). It was also important in both the first and second world wars; during the first it was used as a hospital ward and during the second it marked the border between occupied and Vichy France. That night we ate at a restaurant in the vieille ville of Tours.

The third day we spent at “Futuroscope” an amusement park near Poitiers. It was full of futuristic buildings and housed different rides and attractions. The best part was that night when there was a huge show on the main lake of the park which involved water, laser lights, fire, and fireworks.

The fourth day the group packed up and checked out of the hotel in Tours. From there we went to Blois, my next favorite castle. Blois is interesting because of the different architectural styles that make up the castle, from the medieval salle des guards to the newest addition which was built in the classic style but never quite finished. Blois is also interesting from a historical perspective but that is all I will say; those who are interested can research the history for themselves. At Blois, I left the group to catch a train to Paris where I met my mom. They continued on to Cheverny before heading back to Grenoble.

The trip was a great experience; there are many French people (including my host brother) who have never taken the time to search out the treasures in their own country, and the Loire Valley is certainly awash in them. I would definitely recommend the Loire Valley to anyone traveling in France, and especially for those romantics out there who have ever dreamed of being a princess or a knight in a castle.

À Bientôt !

Grenoble School of Management