Christina-en France!: Mom's and Aunt Mary Come to Grenoble!

Bonjour à tous !

My Mom and Aunt Mary have arrived in Grenoble! Waahoooo! More peanut butter! Haha, and of course I’m happy they brought themselves as well.

Quick tangent before I write about their 3-night stay in Grenoble. There’s a carnival downtown right now. I tried my first nutella crepe there, yummy. They had fireworks the other night, a nice surprise! Our res definitely had the best view.

Carnival

Fireworks as seen from res

Also: some quick facts. The French have wussy fire trucks, and have a strange way to take out the public garbage.

All those annoying little marks that I lost for forgetting accents on French tests? I’ve learned their importance. Without them, a “thé” shop (tea shop) becomes a "THE" shop.

Back to Mom, she’s been quite adventurous during her stay here! Dad and Cara, you’ll be real proud of her. I’ll explain in a bit.

They didn’t arrive to the nicest weather. It’s been 20s and sunny for the past couple weeks, but when they got here, it the clouds were sinking onto the mountains.

It cleared up though. They’re staying in a beautiful hotel in the middle of the centreville, “Hotel de L’Europe”. Definitely not travelling like students.

Hotel de l'Europe: The white building behind the back left corner of the park
Right in the middle of everything!

Hotel staircase,
I thought it was kind of cool

Right in front of the beautiful square

After meeting them at the Grenoble bus station, they had a little rest and then we explored the town. They’ve been doing some of shopping while I’m in class. We also went for tea at the square by their hotel.

Place Victor Hugo

Tea at the square by their hotel

We ate at a Pizzeria the first night. The next night, I treated them to a much less glamorous meal chez moi (at my res kitchen…)

Okay, here’s Mom’s Brave Moment #1: Battling her fear of heights on the téléferiques (bubbles).

Inside the Bubble

The top!

Fort de la Bastille

I was so proud of her! She even looked around on the way down. We made it up to the Fort de la Bastille, where Mom’s Brave Moment #2 took place: Battling her claustrophobia through the military caves.