Joyeux Anniversaire Ross!
It was such a novelty for Rossco to celebrate his birthday on French soil today! He went off to work at the Grenoble office and was taken out to lunch and treated to the best piece of lemon meringue pie he’d ever eaten. Most people in his office spoke English so he didn’t have anywhere near the communication problems he had when he’d visited the Chilean office.
Meanwhile, Toby and I set about seeing as much of this city as we could. Grenoble has a population of 400,000 so it’s not tiny but it still has a real village feel about it. Both the streets and the footpaths are paved in the same slate tiles, giving the place a really quaint feel. In fact, it’s hard at times to distinguish between the road and the footpath. On more than one occasion, we’ve nearly been run over when a car has appeared to drive right up on the footpath! There are little grey posts marking out where the road and footpath separate but if you’re not used to them it’s easy to miss them! Grenoble has a very laid back feel, with pushbikes the preferred form of transport for most. No one seems to have road rage and it’s common to see a car stop out of the blue for a pedestrian. Even the tram – which seems to wind around the streets at not much more than walking pace – is friendly, giving way to pedestrians frequently. You don’t see that every day!
Our French gastronomical journey continued with breakfast at our favourite little boulangerie where I got a baguette (with just the right amount of crunch) and Tobes feasted on a delicious chocolate croissant. They talk about the “Heathrow Injection” but I’m sure we’ve been given the Grenoble Injection! Everywhere you look there are buttery, creamy, cheesy, chocolatey, crumbly, mouth-watering delights that are so hard to resist! The ratio of chocolate shops to population here is way above the average. In the town centre there must be at least 15 chocolate shops, all with windows displaying an enticing array of chocolatey goodies to make you salivate as you walk past.
While we’re on the topic of food, it’s our custom to try at least one burger from a McDonalds restaurant wherever we are in the world. Just so we can compare it to what we get back home. Maccas are advertising a burger here with “double shiny bacon” which does sound delectable. There’s nothing better than shiny bacon, and double shine can only be good thing, right? We attempted to order it in French and we thought we’d almost succeeded until we opened the bag and discovered we’d been given something entirely different! They were a bit greasier than their Aussie counterparts but the corn bread buns were good. So far, Australia is still in front.
We’d been hoping to hit the slopes – about an hour’s bus trip from here – for an attempt at skiing or snowboarding today. There are two amazing ski fields both equal distance from Grenoble and they actually held the Winter Olympics here in 1968. It’s a popular destination for skiers and snowboarders and they’ve been flocking here in droves for years. There are antique skis on the walls in all the restaurants and the skiing heritage is strong in the town. Although Toby saw snow out the window of the bus, he is still yet to feel it in his hands. It is the very start of their ski season in France though and they only open the resorts and lifts on the weekends. Unfortunately we’re not going to be here for the weekend so we’ll have to give it a miss.
Instead, we visited the Musèe de Grenoble, thinking we were going to the Museum of Grenoble but discovering it was actually an art gallery. It was a great gallery, with enormous paintings in huge gilded frames and a perfect balance of modern art and sculptures and traditional art. There was a high proportion of nudity in the gallery, which Toby found hilarious! One whole room was filled with statues of naked women and Toby walked through as quickly as he could, with his eyes averted, muttering “awkward” under his breath. They even had an original Monet!
We were on a quest to find an apt French present for Ross’ birthday and we found some cool orange jeans that fitted the bill perfectly. The sizes are very different here though, and while I got what I thought was his size, I discovered when I got them home and out of the bag that they were a few sizes too small. I’d have to take them back and change them. This could be a challenge! Having Wi-Fi at the hotel meant that I could hop onto Google Translate and figure out what I wanted to say. Typing in “could I please change these pants for a larger size?” I got the French translation sorted and wrote it down on a piece of paper. I then tried to think of any other possible questions I might need to answer, like “a bit bigger?” or “a bit smaller?” and translated them too. I had a little pad of paper with heaps of French sentences on it and I arrived at the shop feeling very well equipped, if not a bit smug, indeed. This was very short-lived let me tell you! I pulled the pants (“pantalons”) out of the bag and read my little spiel in French. My pronunciation left a lot to be desired – an understatement – but amazingly he did understand what I’d said. It went downhill from there though. He started firing questions at me and I was searching my little piece of paper to find the answers he was looking for. Stupidly, I’d written all the French out but had forgotten to write which sentence was which and had long forgotten what their English translations had been. I started randomly reading them out to him and the look on his face was priceless. “What the….?” We eventually understood each other and thankfully they had the size we needed. Phew!
It is so hard trying to communicate! Toby wanted us to ask everyone we needed to speak to, whether they spoke English and it was mostly a resounding “NO!” Asking directions in the street, we even got a couple of “talk to the hand” palm offs! It seemed to get them offside and apart from a handful of helpful shop assistants, on the whole, people weren’t bending over backwards to help us understand them. At one stage, trying to find the Art Gallery, we were standing in front of a street map, with a huge paper map turning in our hands, obviously looking totally bewildered and lost and not one person stopped to give us a hand. Tobes has encouraged me to see it more as a challenge and to keep immersing ourselves in the deep end, giving the French speaking a go whenever we can. He’s really good! I’m really bad! I keep getting “yes”, “hello” and “thank you” mixed up so someone will hand me something in a shop and I’ll say “hello” or they’ll say hi to me and I’ll say “thank you”! It’s so confusing! We bought some delicious French cheese in the marketplace (Toby said it smelt like dirty old socks) and the lady went to so much trouble explaining how the cheese was made and cutting me a special piece. I wanted to thank her so much for her trouble but instead I kept saying “yes”! I think she thought I was a weirdo. I’ve always prided myself on my charades skills but it seems here, they are severely lacking! For instance, when we bought Ross some candles for his birthday cake we needed some matches to light them so I was playing charades with the young shop keeper, striking my imaginary matches over and over but getting absolutely nowhere. At one stage, it looked like a light bulb went off in her head and she grabbed a packet of sparklers. No. In the end it was the rubbing my hands together and warming them over an imaginary flame that got us over the line. Talk about exhausting!
Toby was stoked to find some Mint Cordial, which his French teacher had told him about and which he says is delicious. We also bought some authentic and delicious macarons and piled them up to make a “cake” for Ross. He blew out the candles nice and quickly so we didn’t trigger the smoke alarm and then we set off, on foot (luckily wearing our new “heat retaining thermal socks”) to a French restaurant that had been recommended by Ross’ work colleague, Dominique. It was a hidden gem, behind a tall hedge and it was only local knowledge that could have brought us here. The tables were set so beautifully and we were given amazing service. The food was absolutely to die for! “Scrumptious” cannot even come close. It was out of this world! The strawberry dessert I had consisted of the lightest, most delicious mousse I’ve ever tasted, a scoop of strawberry and pistachio ice cream (yum!) and a still warm, strawberry tart, with rough short-crust pastry and sweet, sticky strawberry filling. It was amazing!!! Toby had the “crunchy chocolate cake” – with chocolate mousse, the texture of cheesecake and also a pastry texture. To quote him: “no words can describe how good it was!”
Ross’ colleague had said he just had to try a specific kind of Chartreuse (a French liqueur) that was a specialty at this restaurant but upon asking the waiter for a sample, we had no idea what this would entail. The waiter seemed delighted to have been asked and returned to the table (on several return trips) with 4 gigantic bottles which he plonked right in front of Ross, along with his own row of small wine glasses! He then proceeded, with his very sexy French accent, to explain the content of each of the bottles in exact detail. He eagerly watched on as Ross brought each glass to his lips and anticipated his reaction. By the look on Ross’ face, they were pretty potent – one of them having 59% alcohol content! You wouldn’t want to light a match! Ross said he could feel it burning all the way down his throat! I had the teeniest of sips and started coughing and spluttering – my lips on fire! Ross didn’t want to disappoint or insult the waiter, who was clearly so proud of this signature drink so he dutifully sipped on. It was very funny and certainly made for a memorable birthday. It was a good thing we didn’t have to drive home!
