What a View!
We were spoilt for choice regarding what to do today after Eric, Maisy’s host dad, had armed us with suggestions for must-see places last night. Taking Eric’s advice onboard and seeking some inspiration from a random Irishman on Youtube, Ross set about constructing an agenda for our day. We set-up the GPS and off we went. Eric was doing a lot of work, sending us further places to see and even customising a map for us, while we were on the road, which was so nice of him! The suggestions were coming in thick and fast. We knew we’d be struggling to fit everything in so we stuck to the original plan with some wiggle room if we had time. There would always be tomorrow to see the things we’d missed today.
Our first stop was Vercors Moutain and the cute little towns surrounding it. For a week day, there weren’t many people around and most of the shops seemed closed. We figured it might be seasonal, considering how many ski and snowboard enthusiasts would be packing out the place in winter. There was one little souvenir shop that had its door open and an elderly lady was perched atop a rock out the front, enjoying the sun. She went to hop off her rock as she asked us if we’d like to browse inside but we hated to have to drag her away from her sunny perch so said “non, merci” and left her be.
Finding an incredible lookout, we stood and marvelled at the view, taking photos and soaking up the beauty, before making our way to the Mémorial de la Resistance du Vercors, a memorial and cemetery on the site of the WWII Battle of Vercors, dedicated to the soldiers that bravely fought to retain freedom for their families and generations to come. Seeing the rows of gravestones of those courageous young men, who all died on the same day, most of them in their early 20s, was just so moving and brought us to tears.
The winding mountain roads took us next. to some caves that the Youtube Irishman had really talked up. There was a babbling book with gentle rapids and a nice waterfall but another hefty uphill climb, which will keep Siri happy as she keeps telling me that I’ve recently been taking on “more stairs than usual”, encouraging me to keep up the good work. I’m glad someone is noticing. The rainforesty walk took us up to the mouth of a small cave but it seemed a much higher and steeper climb would be rewarded with more spectacular caves at the top. We made the executive decision that we’d give it a miss, climb down and just be satisfied with the cave we’d already seen. Sorry Siri.
Ross’ list of places to see also included Lake Paladru, a pretty powdery blue lake with a gorgeous restaurant overlooking it. Sadly, the restaurant was closing its kitchen at 2 so we missed out by a whisker. Our tummies were audibly rumbling (almost as loudly as the chainsaw in the forest yesterday) so we sought some sustenance somewhere close. As luck would have it, there was an archaeological museum just around the corner. Wondering why there’d be a modern looking museum out here in the French countryside, we went in the hope they’d have a cafe of some kind. No cafe, but the friendly lady behind the desk told us there was a great little cafe a few doors down that was due to open at 3:30pm - a very strange time to be opening for lunch…or dinner? We decided to take a squiz inside the museum while we waited and are so glad we did! The MALP (Lake Paladru Museum of Archaeology, all shuffled around because it’s French) was built right on the shores of Lake Paladru because the lake itself was the archaeological site! This lake had been secretly hiding artefacts from three different civilisations under it’s pale blue surface - starting with a neolithic village, followed by a Roman town and then a medieval neighbourhood on top of that. They had over 600 artefacts, including hammers, axes, cutlery, pots, bowls, fishing tools, belt buckles, hair accessories, earrings and even wooden horse saddles (not recommended for long rides), all dug up directly from the lake floor. It must have been so exciting for the archaeologists to have found so many incredible slices of history down there. Just incredible.
The cafe around the corner was very cool, with a fresh food market out the front and all sorts of gourmet goodies inside on the shelves. We had our favourite - ham and cheese baguettes - while we watched two hard-working women diligently unpack second-hand clothes and bric-a-brac from a huge truck (if it was a boot sale, this was the boot to beat all boots ). They had everything including the kitchen sink.
As a side note, we’ve noticed that Grenoble has a serious graffiti problem. There’s graffiti (not the cool street art, Banksy kind, but the vandalism kind) absolutely everywhere. It’s quite sad to see all the beautiful heritage buildings scrawled with ugly tags.
Late this afternoon, while it was still light, Ross and i went for a joy ride in one of Grenoble’s famous round “bubbles”, the iconic cable car cabins that are a fixture on the Grenoble skyline, taking passengers from Grenoble city all the way up to the Fort de la Bastille, for a magnificent view of the entire city and the ring of mountains it sits beneath. The bubbles go right over our hotel and tonight and we gave the punters a royal wave as we enjoyed some “smelly” cheese and crackers on our balcony, We also tried some of the monks’ Chartreuse that we’d picked up in tiny little bottles yesterday at the monastery. We wondered whether, Masterchef-style, we could pick out any of the 130 plants in the secret recipe. Well, the answer is no and wow, that stuff could put hairs on your chest! I couldn’t take a single sip without coughing and spluttering. It is like imbibing fire - actually!
