Grenoble is hot!

Well, as I mentioned in my previous post, I went to Grenoble for the weekend. I had been there once before, and you can read about my previous visit here.

Let's just say that the order of my visit was ironic...I first met Fabien, who just started his internship in Grenoble a month ago, and so he didn't know the town very well either. Then I met my batchmate Salwati, who's there since September (this school year). Next I went to see Pei Xin who's in her second year there...and lastly I met Thierry who's been there all his life! So it was like each person I met knew more than the person before.

So here you go, chronologically like I like it :P

Appointment #1: Fabien

He met me at the train station, and we simply went walking around town.

the market

This building reminded me of the marketplace in Angoulême ^_^

This was quite early in the morning, and even though the sun was out and it wasn't cold, it wasn't that hot yet...

This was the top of the fountain that we couldn't get in the other photo.

a picture of the Isère river

The weather was better this time round, and the leaves are green instead of orange. (you can see the photos from my last trip using the link at the beginning of the post)

I like this statue, which I didn't see the last time I went to Grenoble (I don't believe I crossed the river to the road on the other side)

Then we climbed up the steps on the right of this statue. They supposedly lead up to Bastille, but we didn't climb up very high... From where we reached, I took this photo of the theatre which was across the river.


Then I suddenly noticed that the windows were actually painted on, so I tried to zoom in for a better view (the quality's not that good since it's a digital zoom...do you think you can see it better?)


Fabien and I went to the other side of the train station to look for the Asian neighbourhood (he had heard that it was there, but he hadn't been there yet) To go there we had to cross below the train tracks, and here was a bar preventing vehicles of more than 1.9 metres in height from passing. Fabien could pass...but he said that theoretically there was 1cm to spare! lol


We saw this church on a square where there seemed to be a flea market. I saw it from the "main road" (where the tram passes) and we passed through a smaller lane to get to the square. I liked the church...more than most churches I usually see! There's something about the style that's a bit different, I guess. Not the same old, same old design...


Unfortunately the sun wasn't on our side (literally!) so the photo is quite dark. Here's another photo that I took closer to it...but then we can't see much.


Then I saw this pencil, and I wondered what it was for...


And further away we saw another one, close to a kindergarten, so I think it might have something to do with the kindergarten! The walls were beautifully painted...I just had to take a few photos of it!

See? It was already getting warmer :P (actually we started feeling hot and took off our jackets while climbing up the steps near Bastille...)

We saw these chairs near the Victor Hugo tram station (at first I was going to meet Salwati there, then we changed the place)


I don't understand why they are facing opposite directions...there were several pairs of chairs that way, and only one pair with both facing the same direction (as far as I could see) At first Fabien thought that we could turn them around, but we found that we couldn't.

Appointment #2: Salwati

We had lunch together...then we walked a bit and went to a bookshop because Salwati was looking for a book. We took a photo in this little park.


Appointment #3: Pei Xin

I went to Pei Xin's place by tram...it was easy and very convenient (besides, Fabien said that the public transport is better than Lyon's...I wouldn't be able to judge it from the short time I've spent there, but it seems to be true from the map)

We went to Grand Place, a commercial centre near her place where there was a Carrefour, and she bought stuff for preparing dinner. Here are some pictures of the food to make you drool :P

the wrapped wantan (we wrapped them together...it was the only thing she would let me do!)

the "star" dish...Pei Xin's special...very yummy!

and the other dishes (the cooked wantan amongst them)

Just a digression to say that I love Picasa. Earlier I used Picasa 2 and the collages were kinda difficult to do...because you had to keep on clicking and wait until you get a layout you like (and that's maybe never) But now this is Picasa 3 and we can personalise our collages, by making each photo bigger or smaller and by rotating them. I also did a collage of all the people I met in Grenoble, but since I'm already putting the individual photos here, I won't put that...maybe in another post?
(The downside, though, is that it slows down my computer...)

Appointment #4: the other Grenoblois

Pei Xin had invited the other Malaysians in Grenoble over for dinner, so that I could meet them. Here's the table set for dinner.

we ate buffet-style...like Malaysians do when there's not enough place at the table

And here we are, taking the inevitable group photo.

from left: Ping Tarng, Xiao Yuan, Max, me, my host and that night's chef Pei Xin, and Alvin (yet another!)

This was the first time I met Xiao Yuan and Alvin...they're my juniors who just arrived in Grenoble in September.

We had the craziest night ever... I think it started with Pei Xin taking out her keyboard (she had bought one recently) and then playing tong hua (by Michael Wong, or Guang Liang if you want his Chinese name) Then someone (I've forgotten who) played the video on Youtube, and Alvin started miming to the song (while holding a Malaysian flag - you know, the small ones we wave around during merdeka? - as a mike) Ping Tarng started taking a video with his phone...and at one moment he passed a poster of Guang Liang (Pei Xin happens to be a fan) to Alvin, upon which Alvin placed the singer's face in front of his own and continued miming...and Ping Tarng started screaming "Guang Liang! Guang Liang!" behind the camera like a crazed fan (that is the most deafening part of the video, by the way) We were already laughing like mad at that time, and what's more, Ping Tarng suddenly passed the camera to Max and started miming playing the keyboard. It's hard to imagine it (Ping Tarng threatened to kill us if we shared the video, and I don't wanna die yet!) but I assure you that we were rolling over in laughter!

What's more, after that they searched two Jay Chou's songs on Youtube and started miming again...though this time it was mainly pulling a hood over their heads Jay Chou-style (THREE of them had hoods!) It was like a Jay Chou look-alike competition! lol

Then we watched the videos on the computer and again burst into laughter...we really went wacko that night...

Here's the song tong hua:



And you know, because of that, today at work I kept hearing that song in my head...and felt like laughing when I thought of their antics! Hahaha I think that in future this song will make me think of that crazy night in Grenoble!

The next morning Pei Xin and I didn't do much...and after lunch we went for a walk in the park at her place.

photo in the park

It was really sunny so we went out just wearing t-shirts, but the wind was so strong! The sun was warm enough to keep us from freezing, but it would have been better to wear an extra layer (which I did later :P )

a long slide in the park (you have to climb up those steps if you want to slide down!)

Then I saw this weird thing in a children's playground.


Turned out that it was a game somewhat like snakes and ladders or ludo. There was even a dice to roll!


It's an environment-friendly game...here's an example of the squares:


It says "You took a shower and turned off the tap when you were soaping yourself. You divided your water consumption by three. Bravo! Go to 12."

Appointment #5: Thierry

My last "appointment" was with Thierry. (since he's so busy) By the way this is the guy (the guy for those of you to whom I've already talked about this, and a guy for the rest) who's doing humanitarian stuff for Togo...and he's looking for people to go there in the summer. (which is why he's so busy) So...let him know (or more like let me know, and I'll let him know) if you're interested to know more ;)

This is a square that he took me to...he said that it was nice, and yes it is...but I'm not sure what this building is :P


Somewhere on the left of this building is the theatre I saw from the steps going up to Bastille. (the back of it, that is) Which means that the river is somewhere behind this building. (this is more for me than for you, so that I won't forget! :P )

He told me loads of stuff about Grenoble...some of which I have forgotten and most of which I shall probably forget (désolée! (that's sorry in French; just take off the last e if you're a guy)) But I do remember him saying that it was thanks to Grenoble that the second world war was won :P

He was highly uncooperative photo-wise though...he didn't want to use the timer of my camera, and since I couldn't force him to stand still long enough, we settled for taking photos holding the camera at arm's length.

This photo was taken somewhere near the train station; you can see that somewhat weird piece of art behind us, and the train station is somewhere further back and to the left. And from the little geography lesson that he gave me, that is the Vercors in the background, and if we pass by the left of it, we will be going towards Lyon!

Okay, maybe I shouldn't say "highly" uncooperative..."quite" uncooperative would be enough...at least he condescended to use his (longer :P) arm to take the photos! (all but one, actually)

I liked Grenoble better this time. I don't know why, maybe it was the weather, or maybe it was that I had more time and saw more of it. And maybe, also, it was because I was there to see first people, and then the town as a plus. At any rate, I like it. Pretty much like I like Rouen ^_^