Grenoble (Days 1 and 2)

On Saturday morning, Joe and I headed to Gare de Lyon to catch a train to Grenoble. Which is here:




I was invited to a conference/workshop there along with the other fellowship people who are currently in France. There are 2 others in Paris that have been here the whole time I've been here and we didn't even know it! The conference was hosted here on Monday and Tuesday. We arrived earlier to do some sightseeing! Saturday was very rainy so we didn't get to do much.

Grenoble is at the foot of the French alps so there are mountains all around it. Grenoble is actually a very flat city and then at the edges there are suddenly mountains. On Sunday, there were a lot of clouds but you can see the snowcapped peaks in the distance above the clouds in this picture.

 We rode the cable car up to the Bastille, an old fortress partway up a mountain on the north side of the city.





The view from here was incredible!

Yay.

 From the Bastille, we hiked further up to the summit of Mont Jalla where there are some ruins and a military memorial.

After a confusing hike back down to the city, we had lunch. Here is my awesome delicious schwarma veau next to Joe's perfectly adequate panini de saumon.

We walked through the city, there were a lot of different fountains.

We visited Parc Mistral and another park just north of it where we saw these adorable guys napping.

Fantastic view from the hotel, here are the mountains at sunset.

There seems to be a French version of MXC! Which was awesome but not as awesome as MXC. Yes, those are four people dressed like penguins trying to balance on an inner tube.

Back in Paris

Today the cantine was serving fajitas.... I had to try it. Let's just say, they were still serving it the next day. 

Joe and I went to eat at a nearby place. I sampled their boeuf bourguignon.

Love me some Orangina!

Venice Day 3

Today we visited St. Mark's Basilica. There are so many different colors of marble on the outside!

No pictures of the interior, you can't take pictures in there. They also make people wearing shorts and sleeveless shirts cover themselves up in brown sheets of paper which I thought was both thoughtful and hilarious. I'm glad I was prepared.


The left guy actually swung and hit the bell.

St. Mark's square

More cichetti!

Cool clouds on the train ride back.

Venice Day 2

After a delicious breakfast of pastries, coffee, and tea, we headed out for the day. We passed by a boat coming out of a boat garage!

Lunch near the Grand Canal with Joe and Ned! Great view!

We got cichetti (like tapas) and yummy drinks (rossini, blue lagoon, spritz)

My lasagna was good!

Vaporetto (water bus) ride to Murano!

Murano is a small island north of Venice known for its glass making. We were able to see a small demo of a guy making a small figurine out of glass. Murano looks like a smaller version of Venice, with a bigger canal running through it and smaller canals around with bridges everywhere.

The Venetian flag is pretty sweet, both in terms of its shape and the lion with wings.

We had more cichetti for dinner along with other good foods.

We also split a tiramisu three ways.

At night we took a boat ride out to Lido, a long thin island south of Venice. We didn't even get off the boat, we just rode right back to Venice.

Venice Day 1

On Friday, my better half joined me and we took the night train to Venice! In the morning, we had a nice view of the Italian countryside.

There were gondolas about of course. The gondoliers stand on a small platform on the left with their oar on the right, the gondola is shaped with a curve to the right to accommodate this.

Quiet little canal near the bed and breakfast we stayed at.

Masks were everywhere! As I learned from reading Dan Brown's new book (it was basically my tour book for Venice...) the beaked masks are plague doctor masks.

St. Mark's Basilica with the Doge's Palace on the right

St. Mark's Campanile

View from the top of the Campanile














Bridge of Sighs, connecting two parts of the Doge's Palace (prison on the right to I'm assuming something nice on the left).





Rialto Bridge

Venice was like a maze with high walls and narrow streets.

We sampled Ned's choice at dinner, spaghetti al nero di seppia (spaghetti in squid ink)!

Boat ride

We took a little cruise on the Seine on Bateaux Parisien on Alina's last day in Paris!

Exploring Paris

Today our first stop was Musee Caranavalet which highlights Parisian history. Conveniently located in my arrondissement!

I loved the windows here!

 



I like seeing how familiar places looked long ago.

Also, I saw this painting! Of Juliette Greco apparently.

I immediately thought of this lady from Anastasia:

But apparently the lady in Anastasia is actually someone named Josephine Baker:




Afterwards, I finally got to try a croque madame! The eggs kind of make it hard to see the rest of the cheesy sandwich underneath.

Passed the Bastille...

...on the way to the Promenade plantee .It used to be a raised railway and then was converted into a garden that stretches 4.7km.

We walked most of the way and stopped at the Jardin de Reuilly. There was a water station that had spigots for both regular water and sparkling water! My labmates tell me this is not that unusual. The park was packed!

We enjoyed a nice break on this hill until we started getting splashed by nearby water balloons...

Then we visited Montmarte and Sacre Coeur and also got some macarons!