Way Up High

So I managed to make it up to Chamrousse near Grenoble for a day. But not just any day... It's not quite visible in this photo because I'm on piste, but about 40cm of snow had fallen the day before. A 40cm snowfall followed by a blue bird day is a pretty rare experience so I feel fairly lucky to have caught it on my first try in Grenoble. I'm now giving pretty serious consideration to finding my way back to the alps for a week some time during winter.

I must admit I was pretty exhausted by the end of the day, but in general I didn't find it too tricky getting back on a board. It defiantly took me back to my days of gallivanting around the mountains of Western Canada during the 06/07 season. In fact it was such an epic day of powder it even got me thinking of what was possible one of my best days of snowboarding. Here's a link to a video from that day (couldn't figure out how to embed it, so you'll have to be my FB friend to watch) and below a photo of me and the excellent people I spent it with.... Wish you guys could of been with me this time around too!

Light Rail vs The Metro

So here in Grenoble there are these trams which will take you practically anywhere within the city you want to go (often with a transfer somewhere). A lot of people compare it to the metro, and it certainly seems to have attempted a replication of that style of connectivity. However I've actually found it to be better. The atmosphere on board one of these things is much nicer than that of the Metro (I'm talking from experiences in Paris and London... Can't really remember Barcelona's). 

People actually talk on these things. There none of the no eye contact, leering silently into the distance and doing your best not to move that seems to be a mandatory policy on metro systems. I think this can be attributed partially to the fact that Grenoble is a smaller city than those mentioned. But the fact that they are outside defiantly has an influence on this as well. As you move throughout the city you actually see people getting on with their lives outside, rather than a bunch of graffiti on a concrete wall. This certainly lifts the mood for me and I feel as though it does the same for the Grenoblois.

I also think that people waste a lot less time on the trams. In the underground there is a tendency for people to jump on for 1 or 2 stops which they probably could have walked without any bother. On the trams you actually get an idea of the space in between stations. Consequently you will walk in situations where on the metro you would probably just jump underground and start counting little blue circles.

I've certainly never been adamantly opposed to the light rail movement in Wellington. But I've never been a huge proponent either (as someone who bikes everywhere). But having seen this system running here in Grenoble I must say the Celia has my backing on this one. I can't even begin to fathom it's implementation (they aren't the skinniest things in the world), but I think that's actually the purpose of studies she's backing. 

Of coarse we've had a lot of fun at the expense of the Metro so far. I should mention that this is all relative and that I love the Metro and the freedom of movement within a big city that it provides. I'm certainly not saying they should wire a bunch of light rail through Paris's grid and board up the metro entrances. The metro is fantastic... And one of my favourite New Wave songs is named after it:

Grenoble

This is where I'm currently living... It doesn't always look like this though. As many of you may have heard the weather over here has been less than kind. Its been freezing cold and very snowy for the past week. However today the sky cleared up and the sun came out. As such I was able to take the money shot you see above. I even took a ride up in the Bastille in the Gondala you can see above the river.

I'm enjoying my stay here and certainly finding my French improving day by day (both due to lessons and the constant need to parler). Its interesting living in a city of a similar size to Wellington while in France. However Grenoble is very different from Wellington. For starters, as much as it's surrounded by the Alps it is actually the flattest city in France. Within the central city there is only about 5 meters of elevation change from one side to the other or something ridiculous like that. Also the city has been fairly free to sprawl so its density outside of the old town is more similar to a Le Corbusier project than the tightly packed environment in Welly. Huge apartment blocks are surrounded by large tracts of open space, most of which is fairly desolate.

By contrast the campus area of the Ville has really excellent public space. The above photo is taken from almost the exact same spot, one just before the snow arrived and one right after. This park is right at the centre of campus and seems to be very well used (some people actually built a small snow jump on one of the slopes over there). These mountain like extrusions held up by rough stone retaining walls (excellent texture) make a simple but very effective connection between the campus and the surrounding landscape.

I'll finish with something light hearted. I am living in a rather poor area of Grenoble and though everyone actually seems nice, I've been told by many people that a lone Kiwi such as myself should be careful. The next photo clearly illustrates why!

Blois

I've taken a quick two day taste of Blois, where I will be studying with l'école nationale supérieure de la nature et du paysage later on in the trip.

I must say that I'm sort of gutted to be away for a whole month before I get to really entrench myself in the town. Some of my future classmates where actually nice enough to come and meet me at the Gare (train station). They showed me around the town and also took me out for a few drinks at their local HQ. They laboured through my French even though their English is ten times better and even tried to teach me how to dance properly.

While they had class I sorted out a few things with the exchange coordinator, checked out their lesson and took a look around Blois. It really is exactly what I was looking for in coming to France, its seems like a sort of mix between a big village and a small city. The photo above was taken from one of the three bridges across the Loire river from the older town to the newer one.

The flat in which I'll be living is in the old town and is only about 4 minutes walk from the école. There is a slight climb up the hill between the house and the école that many of the frogs to perceive as a mountain... I get the feeling that the girl heading to Wellington will be in for a bit of a surprise when she first climbs Durham Cres.

The Flat itself is fantastic. It has a great view of one of the older churches in Blois, with the river in the background, and is almost right above the best boulangerie in the town too. Best of all, it has its own library! The bibliotheque at the école is also very good, but the collection of books in the lounge (pictured above) makes for an excellent supplement.

I'm really looking forward to returning and getting settled into the French lifestyle as best as I can.

Paris, Continued

For those of you who don't know: I didn't get the best impression of Paris the first time I visited. All I can remember is being horribly jet-lagged and bloody cold to boot. We were only there for a day so all we did was the arbitrary trip to the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower.

However this week I've managed to both avoid much of the standard touristy activity and rid myself of any negative feelings towards Paris and the Parisians. They are, contrary to popular belief, a wonderful and generous bunch of people. The number of people who willingly sat through my horribly garbled French without complaint was excellent. The best experience was visiting Chartier, a classic joint where, to quote one review, 'The food is ordinary. The service is brisk and not always friendly -- and you will be asked to leave when you are through.' 


However this is not a bad thing! The place is efficient and best of all very sociable. You are seated wherever there is space, which meant for me a seat across from an ex-cabbie who knew Paris like the back of his hand but didn't know any English. This was fantastic!  I managed to labour through two hours of conversation with him in French (and in laypersons sign language). True to the French tradition we drank a bottle of wine and when we ordered a coffee at the end he also got a small apératif which he mixed with our coffees, leaving me to wander off feeling rather light-headed. 

This is another interesting restaurant I found just behind the jardin du luximberg. It's called 'Kiwi Corner' and although I didn't get to go in (like many restaurants in Paris it was closed on Mondays) it certainly looks like an interesting one. I hope to give it a proper visit some time next year.

I also visited several parks this week. Parc de la Villette is still a topic of some debate within the Landscape Architectural community. Some people say that this is because it was designed by an Architect, not a Landscape Architect. I found that in person the park did have certain merits. It was very difficult to just breeze through, you were almost forced to experience the majority of the parks design elements. However this also seems to have lead to less use by people who don't have time for a full scale tour. It was, in fact, almost completely unoccupied. Just a few teenagers in the more private corners of the follies doing what they could with the weekend. However there where a few cyclists too, and here you can see them mucking about between my favourite part of the whole park...  The giant pieces of bicycle (which are part of an art instillation as opposed to a part of Tschumi's design).

Also visited, though I didn't take pictures, was parc Clichy Batignolles by my future studio coordinator at ENSNP. This was an excellent combination of leisure, 'WSUD' and planting. It walking through this space seemed like much less of a chore than Villette. It made use of rail-tracks, highlighting the sites SNFC history. I do have some issues with the skatepark, but I think these come down to the way its been built rather than the design intent itself.

At the moment I don't have access to a scanner, but when I do I'll add some pictures of drawings taken at Clinchy to this post.