20-22 July - To Grenoble

We left Die at 9am on Friday morning. We’d decided to give the lavender distillery another go. It opened at 9am, with the first tour scheduled half an hour later. The overwhelming aroma of lavender greeted us as soon as we got out of the car, and after stumbling around the complex a little, found the outlet shop for their lavender products. Soon found out we were the only ones present for the 9:30am tour. A lovely young lass, presumably a daughter of the family business, showed up to give us a cheerful run-down (in English) of the different varieties of lavender and how the extraction process works. It’s an exceedingly simple process – just toss the harvested stalks into a cylinder, add steam, the oils and water combine, then are condensed after being piped into a holding vat. The oil separates and floats to the top and is syphoned off. Simple!

Lavender field beside the distillery.

Hefting the harvested lavender into the silo, prior to steaming it.

Back on our way at 10am, and this time I drove over the Col de Rousset (John did yesterday's trip). The valley on the other side was very different to the one we left, turning from cropped fields to rolling pasture, Animals (it’s been so rare to see any so far) and pretty farmhouses nestled below the treeline. This valley is noted as being particularly pretty, and this is why we chose this route. En route we drove through an amazing gorge, complete with overhanging cliffs, narrow roads, minimal roadedge barriers and some rural traffic.

Seriously challenging gorge

Late morning was scheduled for a coffee stop in one particular village, noted for its 400+ year-old lime tree in the village square. We duly had our coffee there as recommended in our guide book. 

Coffee stop beneath the lime tree planted in 1597

For once we had only a short driving day, so had the leisure of not feeling rushed. The last village in the valley, Villards-de-Lans, was pretty, complete with a backdrop of ski-fields and a tobogganing area right on its doorstep. What an amazing landscape. Irrespective of it being the peak summer season, there were very few tourists about, confirmed by a chat with the waitress who served us a simple but tasty lunch in one of the restaurants. Town was indeed very quiet.

John found a cheese that's just the right size

Ski field in the distance, tobogganing track next to Villards-de-Lans

Back on the road, we anticipated the short 30-minute drive remaining into Grenoble would see us happily parked up in our reserved carpark space near the centre of the city by 2pm. However, we hadn’t accounted for the Tour de France. We knew the cycle race was crossing from the east of Grenoble to its west during the morning, but, even after lunchtime, there was a deviation away from the main road, which necessitated taking a small winding route into Grenoble itself, and then the numerous deviations and roadblocks within town meant we took perhaps an extra 40 minutes circling the street system to get to our parking garage. It was a relief to finally make it. 

We don't know why they do it, but the French have a habit of making directions and traffic flow unnecessarily complex. They love a good roundabout, and scatter them at kilometre intervals along many of the departmental routes. A prime example of their desire for complexity was a Decathlon (sports store) carpark in Die. It had perhaps 10 cars parked of 200 spaces, so was not by any means likely to be full, ever. It was away from anywhere else, and had a single access road in. To get into the carpark required a left turn, a right, a right, a right, a left, a left and a left before we could get to a parking space. Getting out was just as convoluted, except it apparently needed a roundabout as well! Anywhere else would have had the road go straight into and out of the carpark, and leave people to sort themselves out from there. Aaaarrrgh!

John had taken the precaution to pre-book a car space for the week we are here  in Grenoble, otherwise it would have cost an arm and several legs to pay day-by-day. The car parking area is also only 5 minutes’ walk from our apartment, and so easy to transfer our bags. By now it was 4pm. We’d organised to meet our host at the apartment’s doorstep at 5pm, so wandered around the Old Quarter a bit. However, it was seriously hot and we just wanted to get ourselves sorted so called our host. She turned up on a cycle 5 minutes later, let us in to a lovely apartment, located above a restaurant and just a few minutes’ walk from the Old Quarter. We went back to collect our bags from the car, flopped down for a bit, then out for a wander again, buying a bread on the way to have with salad for dinner.

The neighbourhood we are in is full of antiques shops, and we are looking forward to having a poke around a number of them. The first one we dipped into on Saturday morning held a wooden screen that very much took John’s fancy. However, it was extremely, heavy, large, expensive and awkward to think about trying to transport. Other than that he would definitely have considered buying it. The entire historic centre here is filled with people in the late morning, many having coffee, some shopping, but it goes very quiet from noon (except the eating establishments) until about 5pm. After that everything cranks up again, and even on Saturday the shops are open until about 7pm. John made a major discovery while looking up Tripadvisor for places to eat, finding a Kiwi-owned café was just a few hundred metres away, called Kai-Iwi. Naturally we included it on our walk around about in the early evening and I enjoyed a divine Flat White, my first in months. The café was set up by a guy from Waikanae, who, we imagine, married a French woman. We’ll be back to find out more, and possibly have a few more coffees... 

We cooked up a simple spaghetti and tomato dish for dinner, but enjoyed hearing all the voices and laughter from those dining in the restaurant below or wandering along the streets. 

Sunday we had planned to be a walk day. We’d searched out a few that looked as though they’d give us great views over Grenoble from the mountain slopes above, and set off on the short drive to the first of these at 8:30am. The winding road took us part-way up a decent hillside, which was good news because it meant there was less height for us to have to gain on foot. However in the end the walk turned out to be a bit too easy and uneventful. Much of the walk was along a gravel 4WD track, followed by a nice trickle through forest and a bit of pasture-land near the ridge, but it wasn’t too exciting. Unfortunately, even though we’d headed off with brilliant blue skies, and the forecast for the day, and next four days, was for clear sunny skies, by the time we got to the ridgetop clouds were skudding around and the view over Grenoble and surrounding mountains was seriously diminished. A shame, but perhaps that happens a lot. We are up in an alpine area after all, and the weather is presumably pretty changeable. We had a violent thunderstorm the first afternoon/evening we were here – it was great.

View of Grenoble and surrounding mountains from our walk

The tightly clustered Old Quarter

We tried to find a fort and chateau marked on our map on the short drive back to the centre of town but missed out on both counts. Just couldn’t track down their locations in the myriad of little hillside streets. By noon we had parked the car back in its slot, and decided it was high time for a coffee, prior to having lunch back at our place. As always, it is so nice to feel you can order one small coffee and be able to sit happily at a table, without having to jump up and vacate it, either because you’ve finished your drink or think you should free up the space. France, and no doubt many other countries do this so well. Back in NZ I know you feel you can’t just sit back for ages and watch the world go by, or read a magazine or whatever while the tables are full. Here there is no pressure to move on whatsoever. We have made this observation many times. It’s an interesting thought that NZ, and Aussie, are considered to be very laid back, but we don’t feel we can allow ourselves to chill out at a table for as long as we like. Either a waiter will clear your dishes away, and therefore imply ‘you’re finished here’, or you feel the pressure to move on yourself. 

We also love the way that the traffic in the very heart of the city is so calm. Pedestrians, trams, cycles, cars, and delivery vehicles all go about their business in a seemingly leisurely way. There is no rush, no urgency and it's all quite quiet. The numerous cyclists (typically not wearing helmets) wend their way around the streets at a gentle pace in any direction on any street or tramway, everyone lets everyone else in or waits patiently behind until any congestion is cleared, nobody toots. It combines to give a remarkably gentle and pleasant pace of life.

  

We’re enjoying being in Grenoble, and viewing a little of French city life. It’s certainly different to Céret or even the larger places further south. People are more smartly dressed, tend to be in pretty good shape, and are taller and stronger than down south. I guess that’s because we are not so far away from Germany, Holland and similar countries. There is a great mix of ethnicities. 

Road cycling is major pastime in France, and we have passed countless numbers, often old grey-haired men, grinding their way up the innumerable hills and passes we have driven over. The Tour-de-France spirit is alive and well.

While making these observations, one thing that constantly sticks out is the proliferation of smoking. We just can’t get used to seeing so many people smoking, or someone lighting up who you just wouldn’t think of as a smoker back in NZ. So many young girls and boys are smokers, often with pot too. It’s a sad state of affairs, and often detracts from the enjoyment when we’re sitting enjoying a coffee and then become enveloped in smoke when one or more light up at the next table. It sometimes means we have to beat a hasty retreat.