grenoble, france

After our extended stay in Nice we stopped in Grenoble for two nights. Nobody from the hostel had heard of Grenoble, which was exciting because that meant it wouldn't be super touristy. And I only know of Grenoble because my French teacher from high school lived and studied there for a year and she told us all about it and showed us lots of pictures. It was really cool to go to a place that she had told us about and be able to use my French! My favorite thing about Grenoble is that you can see the mountains from anywhere in the city. I could even see them from my bed at the hostel! Even though it was really cloudy the day we were there, they were gorgeous! I wish I was a skier because this is the place to ski. Towards the end of the day we saw tons of people walking around a little sunburnt and in snow gear with skis in hand, probably coming right from the slopes heading home. I have a friend that I went to high school with who is studying in Grenoble so we facebooked back and forth and were able to meet up! We walked around a little bit and then went to her favorite cafe for some coffee. It was really cool being able to see the city and hear about it from someone who is currently living there. After walking around for a bit more we ate lunch in a nice restaurant along with some lovely conversation. It was so cool and a lot of fun to meet up with someone who I haven't talked to in years in France! After we said our goodbyes Fran and I went up these cable car things, which Grenoble is apparently famous for along with these three white buildings, to the top of a mountain. The view was breathtaking. We couldn't even see the tops of the mountains because of the clouds but I was still in awe. I can't believe that people live here and just wake up everyday going on with their lives while surrounded by beautiful mountains. We wondered around at the top and saw some cool street performers. Well, maybe we should call them mountain performers because they weren't on the street they were on a mountain. Anyways we went to bed early that night because we had a 5:32 am train to catch the next morning!