Rachel in Grenoble

After six years, I finally returned to Grenoble, the city where I first discovered France and the French and all things French food as part of a now-defunct exchange program with my high school. Being in the same lovely house where I had first started to learn how to actually speak French and fall in love with this country, having now finished high school and starting soon my senior year of college, was completely surreal. The more things change, the more they stay the same?

Yup, the mountains haven't moved!

Saint-Martin-le-Vinoux (where Gaby lives, in the mountains surrounding Grenoble)

Grenoble

Nothing like a little mid-week trip to the south to help you remember that there is nature in France! We re-explored the city a bit, saw Moonrise Kingdom (probably the most adorable film I've ever seen, I was smiling the entire time), saw a piano spectacle that recreated older French songs into (very) modern piano pieces, drank wine, ate cheese, etc., etc., etc... We also did a day trip to Annecy, about an hour-ish away, where we walked next to the canals (featuring your typical angry swans) and the lake (with a waterfall!) and the teeny pastel-colored houses and ate pizzas and pretended we were in Italy (oh, in addition to buying ALL THE CLOTHES. Maybe I should buy a third suitcase... jokes that would cost probably $500 extra in fees with lovely American Airlines). It was also 75 degrees and sunny and I am officially THE tannest pale girl in France.

Annecy

Hi

This girl is WORKIN IT

Entertaining ourselves while waiting for our pizzas.

Next time, Italy for real!

Sorry this post isn't more detailed, but as it's getting late and the other half of the family arrives demain matin, I need to get moving here. Also there's some sort of strike and the RER B (basically the only cheap way to get to the airport) is completely shut down but RATP says that "normal traffic" is expected tomorrow, however this being Paris I have my doubts. So I might go on an adventure tomorrow trying to get to the airport in time, we shall see. Anyway, Grenoble (and Annecy) and that wonderful family who welcomed me back years later as if we had seen each other yesterday were wonderful and charming and perfect.

Chic overload!

So I guess all I can say is à la prochaine / until next time, which seems to be a reoccurring theme these past few weeks... too tired for reflections on all of my feelings right now (especially since I originally typed "reflexions" and "en ce moment" and couldn't figure out what was weird about that franglais sentence for a good six minutes) so we will leave the wrap-up post for another day. Most likely my next blog post will be at around 3:30am next Friday morning as I frantically try to stuff everything I own into my suitcases before my flight. Is this really happening? Am I really leaving? But I'm not ready yet! Didn't I just arrive yesterday? Waa...

x R.