A Healthy Dose of Nature

Julia and I

This past “weekend” (Thursday – Monday, my life is a weekend) I went northeast to Grenoble to visit my friend Julia who is an English teaching assistant there. Totally motivated from my trip to Lyon about a month ago, I bought the tickets shortly after I got back, and, as the pattern here seems to go, the trip came and went in a flash.

Magnolia tree at Julia's old host family's house

We had am amazingly adventure packed weekend. Whereas my trip to Lyon focused a lot on the city and the history, this weekend was all about the area surrounding Grenoble, as it’s situated right in a valley in the middle of the Alps. Julia is quite sporty (she’s actually running a full marathon in Paris next Saturday!!), and we did everything from gorgeous hikes in the mountains, to camping (for my first time) to rock climbing (another first). Julia studied abroad in Grenoble 2 years ago and knows the area really well. She also has made friends with this awesome couple in their mid-thirties who she babysits for who live about 30 minutes outside of Grenoble in this adorable village that’s perched up in the mountains. What an incredible place to grow up as a kid, it really made me think about moving out of a city, at least for a little while, or at least to somewhere were you can easily get out and away to do something outdoorsy.

Trying to put chains on after getting stuck. Apparently taking your shirt off helps?

Julia and I looking out onto Grenoble from our campsite  the next morning

I arrived Thursday night and we hung out in at one of her friend’s apartments. Friday she had to work in the afternoon so after having a lovely lunch at her old host family’s house, I went for a hike up to the Bastille that overlooks the city. Friday we had pizza and beer by the river with some of her friends, but, I have to say, the Grenoble river scene is nothing like the Toulouse one. They don’t really have a bank, just some stairs, and, it’s just missing that rosy Toulouse charm. Anyway, Saturday we went for a great hike up Charmant Som. After some unforeseen delay of getting her friend’s car stuck in the snow (yes, snow), we raced back down to town to pack for our night of camping – we were trying to catch the sunset from our campsite. On the way back up we stopped for provisions for a BBQ, and just caught the very tail end of the sunset over the city. The campsite was incredible – a tiny plateau at the true tip of a mountain. It was unreal, the only bummer was that as soon as the sun went down a very strong wind started that did not die down till the next morning. We had a cookout with 9 people, but only Julia, myself and her friend Olivier ended up braving the elements for un nuit a la belle étoile. I encased myself in 2 sleeping bags and wasn’t cold at all, but I could literally feel the wind picking up my mattress pad. The sunrise in the morning over the Alps was definitely worth it though, you could even see Mont Blanc off in the distance.

Bundled up like a sausage in 2 sleeping bags

Just starting out

Sunday we woke up and drive down into the town where her friends live and ate a picnic breakfast in a park. We then picked up a harness from her friends and headed off to what we heard was a good rockface for beginners, like me! We ended up climbing for 5 hours, and for the first 3 we had the place to ourself, it was wonderful. Rockclimbing was amazing, it’s something I’ve wanted to try for a long time and now feel a bit spoiled that my frist time was in the French Alps J My shining achievement was a climb about 40 meters up. For me, the hardest part was after I had reached the top, getting my head around the idea that you are then supposed to just let go of this rockface you’ve been clinging to for dear life for the past 20 minutes to repel down. The first time it took me a solid 8 minutes to finally let go and belay down in what I’m sure was the most awkward fashion ever, as I never fully relaxed the way you are supposed to.

And finally Sunday night, after about 40 hours of being outdoors, Ju and I had epic showers and a movie night and painted our nails.

That's me up there!

I got back to Toulouse and it has be absolutely gorgeous: mid 70’s and sunny and none of that annoying Mistrail wind either. We’ve had all the windows and doors to the house open all week, our laundry has been drying in half a day on the line (a nice change from the 3-4 days it took inside mid-winter, the rooms would get so humid!), the markets have made the change to spring vegetables and there’s asparagus and strawberries abound.

Me thinking: "Woah."

Me after my big climb

Last night Ana and I went to the grocery store in my neighborhood to get some bread, cheese, jam, and beer to eat by the river and all the baguettes were gone and there were only a handful of cases of beer left. After we locked up our bikes and walked down to the river bank we understood why: it seemed that everyone in Toulouse had the same low-cost idea for dinner we did. It was 10pm and it seemed like noon. It was like a giant block party with music and everything. I love this city.

A bientôt,

Linz