Inner-city walk

Thank goodness there wasn't as much elevation change today! We decided to do a smaller walk today, covering some of what we perceived to be Grenoble's better smaller attractions.

Day 2 of Grenoble is also up on Flickr:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/81692166@N05/sets/72157645873026376/

The day started with a walk through some of the markets. There was a big market just across from our apartment, on the other side of the park. In Grenoble they basically function as a supermarket - there are different stalls selling meat, fish, fruit and veg, and even pasta, wine, nuts and jams:

Markets of Grenoble

After browsing a couple, we walked to Parc Paul Mistral, which was supposed to be a nice-looking park. We were disappointed when we arrived - it was basically a place where the locals go. It was pretty dreary, and there were lots of kids' activities that were 'closed for meteorological reasons'. It was barely raining. There was a tall tower called the Perret, which has been closed for 40 years. It was also quite boring to look at. We did see a squirrel though, and so did this dog:

Dog chasing a squirrel

There were a couple of nice flowerbeds though, and some on the way to the next place, so it wasn't a total waste:

Parc Paul Mistral

We then went for a wander in the general direction of Jardin de Ville, which is a smaller garden almost on the river in old-town Grenoble, with more pretty flowers and less open space:

Jardin de Ville

Dad and I split up soon after, because I wanted to go back to the apartment rather than just wait around. Plus I knew there was a patch of heavy rain forecasted. Soon after I got back it started raining - dad showed up just a little bit soaking about an hour later.

That's the extent of what we did in Grenoble, tomorrow we will be off to the Swiss Alps. Until then!

Inner-city hike

Well, of sorts. One of the main reasons I wanted to go to Grenoble was to go up the Bastille - it's Grenoble's equivalent of Toulon, a hill that gives you really nice views of the city. At the top of Grenoble's edition, however, there's also a historical fort:

Check out Grenoble on Flickr:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/81692166@N05/sets/72157645873026376/

The Bastille and fort from below

After some catching up on our free internet connection at the apartment (free internet again - woohoo!), we headed out to the Bastille. There's a very picturesque-looking cable car that runs from the inner city to the fort at the top of the hill. We decided, however, to walk up instead of catching the cable car. There was a nice-looking garden and a couple of other routes up, so we could take a different route up and back.

We started walking through the garden, only to find out that we couldn't get access that way. We did, however, pass through some nice gardens on the way:

Gardens on the way up (or not)

We then tried the second of three possible routes, only to discover that it was actually an entry to the University of Grenoble, and blocked to public access. That left route number 3, which also went through the university. We decided to keep going, however, as it was the old, grungy part of the university with every window broken and graffiti everywhere. It looked like no-one had studied there for years.

After an hour or so of trekking we made it to the top of the hill. The views really were worth the trip alone, and I even managed to get a couple of typical Grenoble photos with the cable car as the foreground with the city and the mountains in the background:

The views from the Bastille

We were running a bit late, and we wanted to stop at a supermarket on the way back, so we headed back down the 'quick' way. Lots of stairs! We did to a quick detour via a cave system that has been on the top of the mountain since the year dot, but then it was basically a direct line straight down the mountain.

We ended up at the supermarket and got some supplies before heading back home. For those that are wondering where my food diary has gone, it seemed like it wasn't adding much to the blog, and we haven't really done a lot of eating out, so it's mostly boring cook-at-home food.

Tomorrow we might go for a little bit of a trip into the old part of Grenoble. Who knows? Until then.