Grenoble, France 2010

Summer in France

2010-10-31T03:06:00.000-07:00

Just a funny thing we were going skiing yesterday, it was 20 degrees 0730 in the morning.
unfortunately the ski lifts was not going due to too much wind. However we went to col du Lautaret we climbed a mounting (2h) and then sled down on the snow. Afterwards we went for a well deserved mountain meal in La Grave.

So when travelling in France you soon come to realise the great diversity the country possesses. It it also very convenient, the distances are note very long and you can always find a stop that will be interesting and small cosy hostel are never far. Of course there exist some exceptions such as the French Riviera during the summer, it's really a mess. But some example of the diversity are the year around snowy mountains of the alps, lavender fields of Provence, old villages, hiking the grand canyon of Verdon, vineyard hopping, surfing the Atlantic waves and watching the sun set in the Atlantic ocean to cliff dives in the Mediterranean, driving along the Mediterranean coast with the windows down just enjoying the views and listening to your favourite music and all the buzzing medieval city centres most of this are within one day of driving.

Grenoble -> Lac du Sautet -> Digne Les Bains -> Castellane & the grand canyon of Verdon -> Grasse -> Cannes -> Sainte Auygulf -> Saint-Tropez -> Bandol & the island of Bender -> Marseille -> Aix en Provence -> Grand Motte -> Montpellier -> Banuyls-sur-Mer -> Andorra la Vella -> Biarritz -> Hossegor -> Saint-Girons-Plage -> Bassin d'Archachon & the great sand dunes of Pyla -> Bordeaux -> vineyards of Haute Médoc -> Lacanau -> Lascaux -> Grenoble

A great road trip!

The best meals was bouillabaisse in Marseille & beef with a perfect wine in Bordeaux
The best beaches are on the west coast, huge white sandy beached, in the Mediterranean the beaches close to the Hyeres area is the best.

August started in Chamonix

2010-10-01T11:17:00.000-07:00

Summer is turning into fall, and the first snow came on the mountain summits last weekend. It's feels great gazing up at the white snowy peaks, then you realise that ski season is not far away even if its still around 20 degrees in Grenoble, we are actually expecting 26 degrees this weekend.
Anyway since I'm not very synchronised with current events in this blog I intend to write some words about the events that took place in my life during august. It was vacation time.

To celebrate the vacation month we started the first of august by visiting Chamonix. Chamonix is very nice, I must say that it's one of few French alpine tourist villages that has kept its charms. I say tourist villages because there exist a lot of smaller not that famous villages that are very nice that not yet have been overexploited as many popular ski resort.

While in Chamonix we visited Aiguille the Midi looking down the vallée Blanche run you really looking forward to returning with your skis on. One of the few larger French ski resorts I didn't ski on last season. Of course you also have a decent panoramic view over the Mont Blanc massif. We were actually having dinner on the altitude of 3842m altitude, I must say I had some problem with the altitude feeling dizzy and nausea I was a bit surprised since I had been skiing on altitudes around 3300m before without any problems, but I guess I reached my threshold.

Jazz A Vienne

2010-08-31T10:49:00.000-07:00

In late june & july we spent a couple of days in Vienne attending the jazz festival.
Jazz festivals are really popular in France and every village in France with some self-respect have its own festival. Vienne is one of the bigger ones competing with festival as the one in Montreux.
The nice thing with Vienne is that they have a ancient Roman amphitheatre they use as stage, since the theatre is situated on a hill you have a nice view of the sunset and the surrounding valley. We attended to concerts with: Diana Krall, Elvis Costello, Wayne Shorter and Brad Meldau.

July was good!

2010-08-31T09:42:00.000-07:00

Today was my second day at work after the vacation, and it is ok to be back. To summarise the summer in one word is amazing, there have been more activities than I ever could imagined. However it started with quite cold, unstable and rainy weather in June but improved a lot around midsummer. We have been having stable weather since then with around 30 degrees and sunny weather.

In July we managed to pull of the following activities, this is also the reason why I not have updated the blogg that frequently:

Hiking to the top of Dent de Crolles
Downhill biking in Alpes d'Huez
Skiing at the Les 2 Alpes glacier
River rafting in parc Vanoise
Hiking the mighty Mont Aigille in the Vercors Plateau
Hiking to the waterfall of Orsière and spending the night camping at an altitude of 2000m at the mountain lake of Lac Robert
Attending the Jazz festival in Vienne twice
A weekend down in the Mediterranean visiting Cassis & the islands of Porquerolles
Biking up to the 1968 Olympic ski jumping facility in St Nizier on the Vercors Plateau

Surprising is that I started to do crazy stuff as biking and running up and down mountain slopes. Perhaps the most crazy activity was the downhill biking, where you descend from mountains on narrow, icy and sometimes very snowy paths. See some picture below from that particular event.

Grenoble

2010-08-02T11:42:00.000-07:00

I just realised that I have written a lot of stuff about places outside Grenoble and not about the main place of events. However it is true that the strength of Grenoble actually lies in its surroundings. Because Grenoble really is an outdoor and nature lovers paradise. There are three mountain ranges just next to the city and all of them have some unique properties. They all have ski facilities, however one tend to forget the summer activities. The summer activities is just as fun with mountain biking or hiking. All the mountain trails seem full with almost endless views, waterfalls and beautiful sceneries. Surprisingly there are also a lot of people doing water sports like sailing wind- and kite-surfing in the surrounding mountain lakes. No wonder that the Grenoblians can consume sometimes 3 desserts during lunch and not looking too chubby.
Well anyway back to the town itself, there are a lot uninteresting and greyish Soviet style suburbs which I never tend to visit, I rather stay close to the city centre with its broad avenues its building in Hausmann style architecture to the small narrow paths through the old town. Of course there are numerous of cafe's and bars all over the place where you can sit and take a sip of coffee or pastis.

The wine district of Châteauneuf-du-Pape

2010-07-18T02:56:00.000-07:00

After a hot day in Avignon we decided to cool ourselves down with some wine drinking in the Châteauneuf-du-Pape (The popes new castle, has probably something to do with the popes staying in Avignon centuries ago?) wine region just around 40 minutes north of Avignon. The wine district is considered as one of the best in France and is famous mostly for its red wines they do have white wine as well but its very limited.

Since it was Sunday we were initially a bit worried that a lot of the vineyards were closed for visitors and indeed the seemed deserted while we arrived. However after some driving laround we found the perfect spot on a hill, a château with pool, the Fines Roches wine cellar and finally they were serving a 4 course dinner just in front of the château (with an amazing view over the Southern Rhone valley).

Most often in France at least of what I have experienced so far you receive a treatment not very service minded, however this time it was different the castle owner visited all tables during the dinner making sure everyone enjoyed their stay and that the food was good. The food was of course excellent.

A Short visit to Avignon

2010-07-17T02:40:00.000-07:00

Avignon was a nice surprise, the town is situated in the Provence region next to the Rhone river.There are a lot of old and nice architecture tight streets which are nice to stroll around in and of course the tourist attractions such as the palais de papes & the famous pont d'Avignon (which is not that much of attraction).

Saintes Maries de la Mer en Camargue

2010-07-16T12:34:00.000-07:00

Late may (yes I know I'm almost 2 month behind), anyway we decided to go south exploring the Camargue area staying in the small and cosy coastal town Saintes Maries de la Mer.

For some reasons the town is a popular destination for gypsies and almost in every corner of the town there is a guy playing Gipsy Kings songs or at least the songs they were playing sounded very familiar to Gipsy Kings.

Some other notable events that took place while were there except watching flamingos and white horses (they were everywhere) was watching a bull fight. Well it wasn't a classical bull fight killing the bull in the end, it was more of playing session pulling a razor between the antlers.

And not to forget, the huge beaches that surrounded the village the sea temperature was well above 20 as well. Quite nice when coming from Grenoble where the weather hasn't been that good (note that this was in May, weather for the last 4 weeks has been really good with degrees above 30 every day).

Last ski day

2010-06-13T12:14:00.001-07:00

Everything was looking great before what was suppose to be the last ski day of the season, this was the 18th of April. The weather forecast was looking great with sunny wonderful weather perhaps a bit to warm. I was also looking forward to visit Val d'Isere and Tignes (the whole ski area is called Espace Killy) . However the plans were dashed, instead we experienced zero visibility, snowstorm and on top of this really bad food. However this was not going to ruin our day celebrating a great skiing season.

Hiking in Monteyard

2010-06-13T11:50:00.001-07:00

Another warm April day spent in the mountains with beautiful views and a great picnic.
We were planning to do the Lac Monteyard tour but unfortunately the boat that are suppose to take you across the lake wasn't running. Apparently the boat will not start until mid May, tha lac i also a good place to do some sailing, windsurfing and kite surfing so I guess we have many reasons to come back.

Annecy in April

2010-06-13T11:07:00.000-07:00

My mother was visiting in mid April, we were blessed with mostly good weather with around or just below 20 degrees which is excellent for doing some sightseeing.
We went to Chateau Vizille and strolled around in the park before we made a quick stop in Chamrousse ski area drinking some Vin chaud, in the evening we went out in Grenoble eating some local dishes such as Fondue Savoyarde. The evening was rounded of with a taste of Chartreuse liquer

The next day we went to Annecy doing serious sightseeing, we spent the day walking around the old town exploring the small alleys and market booths scattered. We also went on a boat trip around the lake. We also ate a nice lunch in the sun next to one of the canals that run through the old town.

Lausanne & Montreux

2010-05-09T12:04:00.000-07:00

After having a couple of weeks with extra ordinary weather with temperatures over 25 degrees, getting used to having barbecues and other activities in the sun, the temperature suddenly dropped. Unfortunately this happened just before the weekend, a weekend I was going to spend at a friends place in Lausanne, Switzerland. However the stay turned out to be successful in spite of this, doing some late night drinking and sightseeing. In Lausanne we visited the Olympic museum strolling around the city centre and the lake side esplanade.

Sunday morning we took the ferry bound for Montreaux. Montreux is situated at the opposite side of lac lemon to Genéve and has an amazing boardwalk bordered with palm trees and gardens. At the end of the walk you have the great chateaux Chillon. Interesting to know is perhaps that many classical writers has had Chateaux Chillon as refuge some of them are Lord Byron, Alexandre Dumas and Rousseau just mentioning a few.

Verbier

2010-05-09T10:27:00.000-07:00

Since I been quite inattentive lately with this blogg there do not exist straight time line anymore. Meaning that I jump quite a lot forth and back in time, this time I will write a couple of words about what I did during Easter.

As the title of this post suggest, I spent Easter in Verbier Switzerland. This trip were going to be the perfect closure to an incredible ski season. Even though I went to Val d'Isere in late April after the Verbier trip I would still like to remember Verbier as the last ski days because of the excellent weather, snow conditions and some nice after-ski. The last ski day in Val d'Isere I experienced a snowstorm and some nice zero visibility conditions but that's another story.

Myself and Fredrik was asked by Johanna if we would like to join her and some of her friends on a Easter vacation skiing, and as always when opportunities to have fun appears we always take the advantage of it.

Surprisingly the capacity of the ski area was really poor and you had to wait quite often just to enter the lifts. The problem was that there were to few chair lifts and too many large teleferics. For example in Val Thorens they have many very fast 8 seat chair lifts, in Verbier there were only a few. Anyway the skiing highlight was the tour de ski tracks going outside the prepared ski area. These tracks took you almost a hour and a half to complete depending on the choice of track, and you were quite exhausted afterwards, but it was only here that I felt that I really improved my skiing skills.

The evenings were spent doing some serious after-ski or going to restaurants eating for example Suisse raclette. At Easter Eve we did a Easter meal of our own consisting of Gammel Dansk, wine, delicious pieces of cheese and some other finger food.

Apparently this is also were the Swedes go nowadays, haven't heard or seen so many Swedes in the whole season as in Verbier, we also had some royal company in form of Victoria and Daniel during our stay.

To conclude the trip I would say it was a perfect end to the ski season with great company, warm and nice weather, good slopes and some descent partying.

Lyon

2010-04-25T14:29:00.000-07:00

On Sunday we were going all in on Lyon.
I was the reise leiter and Johanna was the tourist, of course a given success.
The trip had also another purpose then sightseeing , Fredrik was arriving to Lyon with train from Paris and he was arriving too late so no trains or buses were going to Grenoble at this hour.

Anyway Lyon is approximately one hour drive from Grenoble and going on a Sunday as we did is not bad. Traffic is less and the city centre is not that crowded the drawback is of course that many of the stores are not open.

The Lyon plan was to start out going with the metró and funiculaire up to Fourvière from here you have a nice view of the whole city, here you can also visit a Roman amphitheatre. After strolling around for some while the plan was to walk down to Vieux Lyon, so this was about it I hadn't planned anything else, everything was improvised from this moment and on. On our way down to Vieux Lyon we were walking right into this cozy bouchon, and we ate the most delicious lunch. Actually this meal is the best I had since I arrived to France. I did however a mistake for desert choosing figs drenched in wine which was not that good Johanna choose more wisely ordering a superbe chocolate cake.

We spent the afternoon strolling around the Presqu'ile and Vieux Lyon these parts can be considered as the heart of the city and is great for walking with small and old alleys in the old town to the more open and wider avenues with typical Hausman architecture in the Presqu'ile area.

In the evening we strolled down to place Bellecour in Presqu'ile to find a bouchon where we could eat. We decided to go for a fish restaurant and of course they couldn't match the expectations we had, we were hoping that all restaurants in Lyon was as good as the place were we had our lunch. By the time we hade finished our three coarse dinner the hour was quite late and the sun had been down form some time. During the nights in Lyon the light up all of the important buildings, I would say that this is the best time for a walk in Lyon.
Before picking up Fredrik at the central station we concluded the day by having a drink in a bar close the place des Terraux.
So to conclude we had another great day in France, Lyon is a nice city and is of course even better with lovely company, as I had today. Thanks to you Johanna for your picture contributions.

Last weekend in March

2010-04-25T12:58:00.000-07:00

So since I haven't been writing for some while I want to go back a few weeks writing what happened in late march.

So the last weekend in March I started by spending the Friday evening out on town being shopping and drinking support to Johanna, visiting the Choranche caves and spending the Sunday in Lyon.

Ok so perhaps I was not a very good shopping support and Johanna already has a quite good taste so didn't have to do that much, so I was focusing more on the drinking part in which I of course managed excellent as usual. By coincidence we found this place where they had a theme only for this night, splitting the place into two section one with angels and the other one with demons. They had actually done a great job with the interior and all of the waiters was also dressed according to the theme. Anyway the evening was great in spite waking up with some headache the day after. Lessons learnt from the evening was the French words pilot and rond meaning really drunk.

Saturday activities included a trip to the caves in Choranche, these caves are situated up on the Vercors plateau. The nature was stunning with waterfalls and stunning views. The caves itself was perhaps not that exciting. The cave tour included also a tacky show showing a movie on cave ceilings. The movie was about dinosaurs and volcanoes I was not very impressed.

I spent the evening with Johanna and Mikael drinking wine and eating cheese as so many evenings before and you really never get bored when spending time with these guys. I also opened the Puech Haut wine I've been saving since the wine tasting session, and it met the expectations.

Biking and some wine drinking

2010-04-25T11:25:00.000-07:00

I've been quite lazy recently not updating the blog as much as I would like to. So I will make some effort updating it on everything that been happening in April.

The past couple of weeks the weather has been approving a lot, for example we've been having sunny weather and over 20 degrees for the last weeks, very comfortable. This also means a transition from the skiing activities to something else. I say something else because I don't know for sure what I want to do. However there are plenty of alternatives such as mountainbiking, sailing, kitesurfing, windsurfing and hiking just mentioning a few. You could also ski for a couple of weeks more but it's not very good, it's to warm transforming the snow into strange porridge.

Anyway I actually bought myself a mountainbike this weekend, and there was no reason to wait so we went out biking directly after our purchase. I say we, because Fredrik also bought a mountainbike I also feel sorry for Mikael because when were heading back to City Suites he found out that his bicycle probably have been stolen.
We went to a nearby park in Grenoble with the name Parc ile d'Amour (island of love), here we found a trail leading to a nice lake, I was actually hoping for something like this, bringing my bathing kit. This was my first swim this year the temperature in the was around 18 degrees, it was great after doing some biking.

We finished the day by attending a vine buffet at the La Bastille in Grenoble, and as most people know, a drink as much as you can evening isn't very good for your health, this was also the case for this session waking up with a terrible headache. Anyway the evening was great with nice company, decent finger food and of course as much as white wine, red wine and champagne as could handle. I also let the night people of Grenoble know of my French language skills talking way too much in relationship to my actual knowledge, don't think anyone understood a word I was saying.

In spite the hangover and headache (Fredrik was feeling even worse then I did but I somehow managed to activate him) I manag'ed to get myself out from the bed. I've been doing some research finding the lakes that exist in the near vicinity of Grenoble, this day I wanted to go to lac d'Aiguebelette and since Fredrik was still drunk he was up for everything as long as he could sleep in the car. We biked for just a couple of kilometres reaching a quite crowded beach both of us was tired and we fell a sleep in a instance sleeping next to the shore, before we left I went for a swim in the lake. On our way around the lake we found several nice restaurant lying perfect with scenic terraces facing the lake. We stopped by eating ice cream in the sun relaxing and enjoying the scenic view.

Sunday

2010-03-30T13:44:00.000-07:00

Sunday started early not because of skiing but because I was going to drop of the boys in Geneva for their flight back home. Thanks for a great great week guys, feel free to revisit any time!

Back in Grenoble I met up with Johanna for a sunday walkabout eating a nice lunch down-town and then walking the Isére esplanade. This esplanade is situatede just next to the river that runs through the city, and is only open on Sundays, all other days it's for driving only. The sun actually gave us some moments of light during our walk, on this otherwise quite grey day.

The Birthday Party

2010-03-30T13:10:00.000-07:00

The drive back from Saint Sorlin d'Arves was quite tiresome ending up in queues on the highway. Saturday is the exchange day where people come and go on all of the resorts, of course I knew this before but didn't care that much. Anyway the drive back to Grenoble took approximately 3 h twice the time anticipated. While back in Grenoble we were quite tired but in spite of this we decided to hit the town. We strolled around for some time checking out the shopping and food. This was actually the first time I got to walk around the city during opening hours, it's obvious that I will spend a lot more time downtown now when the skiing season sadly draws to a close. On our way back from town we met three madcap Swedish girls hanging out on a café, and as it turned out we hadn't seen or heard the last from them this day.

While back at the apartment we needed a nap and what could be better sleeping to a Saturday premier league game.

After the nap we needed to get ready for the evening activity, we had been invited to a French colleague of mine to a birthday party. The evening turned out to a really nice evening with wine and some really great home cooked finger food. By almost coincidence two of the three ladies we met earlier this day was also at this party, anyway they were all over the place giving some of the guests a hard time. The French guests were quite tied up because there was this rugby game on the TV between France and Italy, France won. Big thanks to Yann for a great evening!

Les Sybelles

2010-03-29T11:03:00.000-07:00

During week 11 I had some friends coming over from Sweden we were going to do some serious skiing. We actually did the booking before I knew I was going to move to Grenoble, the ski area we were going to is called Les Sybelles and the major villages are Toussuire, Corbier and Saint Sorlin d'Arves. They were quite happy about me moving here since I could pick them up at Geneva airport avoiding the long and tiresome bus trip.

Grenoble
First day we spent in Grenoble doing some sightseeing visiting some of the cafés down-town, taking the cable car up to the La Bastille drinking some Chartreuse. In the evening we had a Raclette session in my apartment gormandising on Raclette cheese and some interesting saussicons bought for this occasion only. After the dinner we headed out on the town exploring the city night life. Also big thanks to Fredrik who lent his apartment to me for the weekend, giving us plenty of room. I do sincerely apologise for the car parts and the vomit found in his apartment afterwards.

Saturday in Oz
We woke up on Saturday with beautiful sunny weather I also had a plan. Since our accommodation in Saint Sorlin d'Arves wasn't going to be ready until the afternoon I suggested that we could go to a nearby station driving the mountain pass Col de la Croix de Fer (pass of the iron cross) to Les Sybelles after skiing in Alpes d'Huez during the day. This was a good plan since google maps said it was only a 30 min drive over the mountain. Well this turned out to be really bad idea since the pass was closed and will not open until late May, the consequence of this was that we were forced to go back to Grenoble, this detour around the mountain range took us almost 2,5 hours. The day in Oz and Alpe d'Huez was however great, with some of the best skiing during the trip it was however only myself and Peter that was skiing, Andy and Jesper was feeling hangover or whatever and stayed in Oz testing the local pizzerias.

Les Sybelles
We were staying in a small calm village called Saint Sorlin d'Arves there is not much there besides some old churches a cheese cooperative perhaps it is most famous for its regularly features in the Tour de France route. Well we were staying in a quite crappy room containing some nice mold, spider webs and two guys from Gothenborg. We however quite fast found our place in this misery in a place called Beau Soleil with fresh interior and a cozy bar we were happy. We spent every evening in Saint Sorlin d'Arves hanging in this place. Another favourite in Saint Sorlin d'Arves was the l'Avalance café which was a quite nice bar featuring some really good live music.

The slopes in Les Sybelles are not very challenging and the altitude is not high but the system in whole is of decent size and if you relax and not stress the skiing, the area is more than ok for a whole week.

But the the single best thing with trip was the weather. Every day was sunny and warm, some days while eating lunch in the slopes we were probably having over 20 degrees. Of course the quality of the slopes deteriorate because of this, and the last day we were skiing in milkshake. Instead we enjoyed the terrace bars up on the mountain ridges drinking beer in the sun.

Now I'm looking forward to the next ski excursion to Verbier Switzerland, in the beginning of April.

A day in Oz and evening chez le Per' Gras

2010-03-08T11:11:00.001-08:00

Ski de fond

2010-03-08T10:45:00.000-08:00

Believe it or not but the weather has not been that great recently, meaning that you do not want to pay 40 euros for a one day ski pass at one of the bigger stations. So this Sunday we decided that we should try some cross country skiing (the first time in my life). We decided to drive to the Vercors plateau which is quite close to Grenoble only about 40 min drive. We were going to a place called Villard de Lans which is known for its cross country skiing opportunities. Funny is that in this small town the guy in the ski rental had some Swedish language skills it turns out the guy once lived in Sweden working for Rossignol.
As we were all beginners we wanted to try everything so we started with Nordic skiing changing to skating in the afternoon. It turned out to be more difficult than I could possible imagine I fell several times, especially difficult was it to go down, you have no control at all just sliding, I was skiing like Bambi on ice, to the great amusement of Johanna and Mikael. A good thing to know is that you shouldn't eat Tartiflette in the middle of two cross country sessions. The Tartiflette totally blew me away stealing my energy for the second race. It was fun to try and I will probably do it again however not on the expense of a sunny day when it's good conditions for alpine skiing.

In the afternoon we decided to go for a walk down-town Grenoble, it was spring in the air and around 15 degrees. It felt amazing being able to ski in the morning, and in the afternoon sitting outdoors in a café, sipping on a coffee in t-shirt.

Le Village

2010-03-08T09:25:00.000-08:00

At last I received an excellent meal in Grenoble! Though my previous restaurant experiences in this city not been bad in any way, I just haven't had that wow sensation until this Wednesday. We were an unusual big crowd this day, some colleagues visiting were also joining this day. We were going to this place called Le Village on Rue de Strasbourg just opposite to the apartment hotel were half the of the expatriate gang lives. The restaurant is really small housing approximately only around 30 guests with discrete and modern decoration. Wine and food excellent and the waiters professional. Le Village is also by the way featured in Guide Rouge Michelin 2009.
The following was on my menu this evening, I started with fish for starter and filé Mignon for main dish, the third dish was a wonderful fromage framboise and I finished of with desert Crème glacée au café, all in all very excellent.

Ski nocturne

2010-02-28T13:46:00.000-08:00

Ski nocturne is French and means night skiing. We had been talking about this for some time and found a couple night skiing places quite close to Grenoble. This Tuesday Johanna and myself were making a run for it, going to Le Collet d'Allevard. You can actually buy a combo ticket for a decent price that includes a ski pass followed with Fondue Savoyard or Raclette however this evening we were going for the skiing only. All was not well this evening some drawbacks experienced was because of the recent warmth in the area. We were skiing in about 5 degrees above zero making the slopes quite hard and icy. I also managed to get rid of my ski goggles, this happened when I fell off pist in a thick layer of snow, of course it was impossible to find them in the dark, the goggles was also white not the best of colours when you want to find something in snow. I also received some help from Johanna going off-pist with her new skis looking, but it felt as if the goggles was completely swallowed by the darkness this evening.

All in all it was a great evening in spite of the lost goggles, the weather was clear and some decent skiing focusing on some serious ski style studies. The night view was also great with Chambery city lights down in the valley combined with a clear sky and moonshine.

Spring is here!

2010-02-28T12:57:00.000-08:00

This sunday we visited Les Menuires for some nice skiing and as so many days before
conditions were excellent. We had the sun, the snow, vine chaud, tartiflette but this time we also had a bit of warmth with a couple of degrees above zero. The best way to go to Les Menuires which is a valley in the Les Trois Vallées is to drive to Orelle and ski through Val Thorens. However when returning to Orelle you must make sure you don't miss out on the last ski lift to Orelle otherwise you must take a taxi to Orelle which will not be cheap or stay the night in Val Thorens.
When we were leaving Orelle in the afternoon we had 12 degrees and the birds were chirping, spring is certainly here.

Vine Chaud!

Suckers in the sun

Serre Chevalier

2010-02-21T13:39:00.000-08:00

This blog is more and more turning into something like a ski resort overview. Since the only thing I do on the weekends is to go ski I guess this is kind of natural, and it sure is great fun to be outside all day in sunny weather, skiing, eating and relaxing in a deckchair sipping on a wine chaud.
Anyway this Saturday we were heading for Serre Chevalier in Ecrins mountain range in the region Provence-Alpes-Côtes d'Azur almost on the border to Italy. Serre Chevalier advertise themselves being the most sunny place in the whole alps with more than 300 days of sun a year and indeed the sun was shining also this day.
The whole ski area consists of over 16 villages and is said to be one of the biggest in the world. We have actually been trying to make our way to Serre Chevalier before, but have been forced to turn back due to that the roads were closed. The main reason for this is that it has been snowing a lot this year in the French alps, you could actually see signs of this on the way over there. The road was actually paved out from the snow, on some places several metre high walls of snow surrounded the road. An also interesting experience on the road to Serre Chevalier was this strange alp goat with the biggest antlers I ever seen just standing there right next to the road.
It's only 100 kilometres from Grenoble to Serre Chevalier so one can guess the quality of the roads when I say it took us almost 2,5 hours driving there, then of course time is included for the snow chain mounting and unmounting. While at Serre Chevalier slopes was good with a lot of fresh snow there was also a lot of off piste opportunities, perhaps most of all resorts we have been to so far, I also ate a most fantastic mousse au chocolat.
It was kind of creepy, but during the last hour the weather turned in an instance becoming windy, cloudy and cold, the visibility disappeared this while we were going on this tight mountain ridge making it impossible to see the edge. Skiing was pretty tiring this day on the way back to Grenoble I slept like a baby.

Val Thorens revisited

2010-02-16T10:17:00.000-08:00

I probably shouldn't have been out on the slopes this due to the debacle yesterday, my thumb was aching and had swollen heavily over the night, the head however felt ok except a not that aesthetic al abrasion on my right cheek. I decided fast that it was ok to go skiing, you don't ski with your thumb. The weather was also going to be great this day, so I really had no option this day.
As previously state you really never get disappointed in Val Thorens, conditions was superbe. The highlight of the day was when we took the Cime Caron cabin to the top (3200 m), on our way down we were all alone out on slopes wide as a football field.

Many thanks to Johanna and Fredrik for their pictures below.

A Courchevel kiss

2010-02-14T12:07:00.000-08:00

This Saturday we were heading for Courchevel which is a part of the great ski area Les Trois Vallées. Courchevel also has a reputation for being a hangout for the rich and famous, an unconfirmed rumour was saying that both the Beckhams and George Clooney were skiing in Courchevel this weekend. As (almost) always the weather was looking good for the weekend with sun and around 7 degrees below zero.

However I didn't get a good start of the day, cutting myself on the skis while mounting them onto the ski rack. This was definitely not going to be my day. Around the third leg, when going down a fairly easy slope. I fell with head first in high pace down the slope twisting and turning probably ~30m, as a consequence I suffered from a light concussion with dizziness and memory blackouts as a result,a nice red mark over my right chin and my thumb did also get a thorn and is quite swollen I actually can't move it at this point.
The interesting was that I directly put myself in a upward position after the fall, a friend came down with my skies and I continued skiing for a while. Then the blackouts appeared, I didn't know where I was, didn't even know that I just fallen. My friends apparently noticed that I didn't feel very well and they took me down to the closest restaurant. I stayed at the restaurant during most of the day under the surveillance from Fredrik and Johanna, I don't think they minded that much (at least I hope) It was quite nice to lie in a deck chair in the sun drinking hot chocolate and vine chaud. Anyway my most appreciated thanks goes to Johanna, Fredrik and Mikael for their support this day. Many thanks Johanna for your contributions (last 2 pictures).

Mont Blanc in the distance

Mikael, Fredrik and Johanna

Another sunny day in the alpes

My skis with a nice scenic background

First month

2010-02-14T11:28:00.000-08:00

So the first month has now passed and I must say that so far everything is above my initial expectations. At work my french colleagues are starting to open up, we are now discussing all kind of thing and most technical and practical problems has also been solved. The weekends have been amazing with daily ski excursions with fantastic weather.

We did also have a first month celebration with some delicious dishes ranging from indian to french food, of cours (heavy) wine drinking is compulsory. The celebrations took place on monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. One interesting thing also happened on the Wednesday evening out, Fredrik has been nagging about this Belgian bar for a whole month explaining how good his visit to it was. Apparently he must have been very drunk during his visit since it took him a whole month for him to find it. Anyway the bar was worth a visit and the Belgian beer tasted great.

The backdoor to Val Thorens

2010-02-09T12:40:00.000-08:00

This sunday we were heading for Val Thorens, I had received an interesting tip at the office regarding a backdoor to Val Thorens. You simply just follow the highway to Orelle, then there is this cable car that will take you all the way up to Val Thorens (2300m). It is actually only a hour drive from Grenoble to Orelle, of course then there is the half a hour cabin ride up the mountain. But it's really cool that one of the worlds biggest ski areas are just a hour away. I was really looking forward to this day, since I had been monitoring the weather for the last couple days. The weather was suppose to be fantastic with light winds, no clouds and just a couple of degrees below zero. This day was the best ski day on the trip so far, Val Thorens is the shit with nice big slopes, good off pist opportunities and great weather, not a single cloud in range for the whole day. I also managed to get a nice tan this day. I will for sure be back here soon.

Oz-en-Oisans

2010-02-09T11:46:00.000-08:00

The saturday excursion went this time to Oz-en-Oisans. A small quite cozy village, that is a part of the Alpe D'Huez ski area. The ski team this saturday consisted with a guest from Sweden, Fredriks girlfriend Sara, Fredrik of course (no hang over this weekend) and myself.
The morning was not good because the drive up the Oisans took some time again it was snowing in the Oisan mountains range. We were actually stopped by the police forcing us to put on the snowchains, and this time the snow chains fitted perfect and was really tight.
To bad that a headless bus driver 5 minute in front of us didn't bother putting on his snowchains. The consequence of this was that the bus got stuck blocking the road for almost a hour. During the wait Fredrik actually manage to help a confused frenchman with his snowchains. He was really impressed saying that we in Sweden probably always use snowchains, yeah right. The skiing was not very good this morning you couldn't really see any contoures in the snow and it was quite foggy and the snow fell heavy, it was actually like skiing blindfolded. This was also not optimal for Sara cause she was learning to snowboard which led to long waits in the slopes. However as usual here in the French alps (as far as I know) the weather cleared in afternoon an it turned out to be a really beautiful day. We also took the opportunity for som after ski drinking a couple of beers. Btw I have a new favourite, "vin chaud" which is hot wine with a slice of lemon.

An evening of wine

2010-02-06T13:46:00.000-08:00

If you go to France what do you do? The simple answer to the question is to participate on a wine tasting session. The whole team of swedish grenoblians was out drinking wine this evening, everyone was really looking forward to the session and was perhaps the main talk for the last few days. Funny to say the evening started in a classical moderate Swedish modesty to completely change in the end, perhaps not that unexpected.

The session was interesting starting with a presentation over different French vineyards and their history. Then the focus was changed to more local vineyards in the Rhone valley and Savoie. First wines tasted was 2 white wines and then we went on to the red ones. The session started with somewhat lighter wines continuing with stronger (in taste). All in all we tasted 6 different wines.
The session also included some food e.g. Cayatte, Tartiflette finishing with some tremendous French cheese.

I left the session carrying a 2005 Puech-Haut?

A cold day in the alps

2010-02-05T11:41:00.000-08:00

Sunday

up at 7'o'clock
breakfast in the restaurant
drive to ski resort
ski all day
drive home
eat
sleep

This is starting to become a nice routine. I do not have that much to say more than
that Frederik couldn't join us this day, he was still feeling hang-over from the friday
excursion. This sunday started with great weather but very very cold, when arriving at Chamrousse signs of warnings was posted. Great thanks to Johanna for her amazing pictures, see below.

The Return to Oisans

2010-02-05T09:20:00.000-08:00

Another early saturday morning, this time with little or almost no sleep and a slight headache.
I was however determined to beseige my slight fatigue. Note also that some of my other swedish colleagues here in Grenoble already was on their way to Les Deux Alpes this morning, in their mind we were already there. A quick text message to the other bozos if they were still up for it.
In spite the late last night I was feeling suprisingly well. However one of the members in the friday party team (Fredrik) explained that he felt somewhat strange with a soar throat, he also stated that he might have been eaten something bad yesterday (Yeah right who haven't heard that one before, truth is that he had such a hangover that he barely knew his own name) .

Anyway Johanna and myself was on the road again slightly after 10'o'clock. The roads this day was perfect all the snow that fell the day before had effectively been removed. Something for the snow removal responsibles back home to learn from.

On arrival the sun was shining it was however quite cold I would estimate that the temperature on the top was around -20 C however in shelter of the wind you could feel the warmth from the sun.

The day was perfect given our circumstances, just cruising the easier slopes enjoying the scenery.

Defeat at the Oisan mountain range

2010-01-31T11:50:00.000-08:00

We left Grenoble around 17.00 friday afternoon, we were heading for the Les Deux Alpes in the Oisans mountain range. The reason for our trip was that one of my expat colleagues (Johannna) sister was spending her vacation at the Les Deux Alpes ski resort and we wanted to join for some serious friday partying. We were also supposte to stay over the night, skiing on saturday. The Friday party team consisted of Johanna, Fredrik and myself. We stopped by Carrefour on the way buying 16 bottles of wine (!!?), cheese and snack . Btw the wine was really cheap ~8 Euros for 8 bottles, but then you have to buy at least 8 of them, so we bought 16. The drive started in the best mood, singing and revealing stupid or strange things we had done in our past. However while we were approaching the Oisan mountain range the weather conditions became worse due to heavy snow fall which meant that the road condition rapidly deteriorated. We were still quite cocky because we had a backup plan: snow chains. We stopped in a pocket next to the road, in the snowy cold and dark wheather we fumbled trying to figure out how to apply the chains to the tires. After some struggling we finally made it (at least that's what we thought). We started to drive again but we didn't came far, suddenly a strange noice was coming from one of the tires, we pulled to the side to check it out and realized that one of the snow chains were broken and we haden't even commenced the climb. We continued for some kilometers but the we were forced to make the tough decision to turn back, the risk was to high driving up the mountain. The drive back to Grenoble was bitter, the disappointment was obvious no Friday party and the saturday ski trip was in jeopardy.

When we arrived involuntarily in Grenoble (around 22.00) we had a car full of wine and skiing equipment so what do you do, one thing is for sure you don't ski in downtown Grenoble. That night ended around 4.30 in the morning after a swetty and quite scabby night club visit.

Before we went to bed we decide to call each other in the morning around 09.30 to decide if we were going for a second try up the Oisans.

French language studies

2010-01-31T11:16:00.000-08:00

This week the French language studies kickstarted with three occasions with one
all participant session and two sessions in smaller groups (1 to 3 students per lecturer, we are a total of 6 students). The first session lasted 4 hours (!!?) just discussing about France, wine, cheese and Grenoble and what bars, restaurants to go or not to go to. I think this is the third time I have had a session like this since I arrived, and of course this is also what I discuss with my French colleagues. Therefore the session was perhaps not that rewarding. The two other sessions this week was more like common Swedish language training.

For some reason my fellow students became quite upset and felt that I knew more French than them and as a result of that accusing the teacher for proceeding to fast. (I don't really know any French, yes I studied for three years back in high school sitting in the rear of the classroom not paying attention)

Well anyway the french lessons will proceed twice a week from now on.

The Visit

2010-01-28T12:24:00.000-08:00

Me and a Swedish colleague were invited to a French colleague's house this tuesday. One of the obvious reasons for the visit was that Mr. Druilhe is moving to Sweden next week and he wanted to exchange information. I was really looking forward to the visit, seeing an example of how a French family live. Perhaps I over dramatize the cultural differences because I realize now after staying here for three weeks that there are more similarities in living than differences. The Druilhe family lives in the outskirt of Grenoble almost at the foot of the mountains in a nice house with a garden. The evening went quickly and it was inspiring to see Mr Druilhe entusiasm about his upcoming trip, for example he had posted large posters on his walls with Swedish and their corresponding French meaning. We were invited to a excellent four-course dinner ranging from soup, chicken, cheese plate, apple pie, red wine, ending with a sip of vintage Chartreuse liqueur. You could say I was pretty full afterwards.

Thanks Druilhe family for a good evening.

Everyday life

2010-01-27T14:53:00.000-08:00

So it is about time I write something of the everyday life here in Grenoble and not only about our weekend ski trips. You can see my office in the picture below neighbouring the European Synchotron Radiation Facility (the ESRF, ring on the picture). The ESRF operates the most powerful synchotron radiation source in Europe, however I'm not that sure that it is a good thing working so close to it?

I would say that quality of life is very high in this area of France, great food especially the lunches are more sofisticated with a greater variety of dishes to choose from. For example you can choose from a variety of appetizers, cheese plates, deserts and main courses and the price is good. What I have heard the healthcare is also excellent and the nearby mountains keep people in shape.

The cost of living is also quite high, everything is more expensive than in Sweden however the exceptions are wine, cheese and Dijon mustard.

Everyday grocery shopping is done in Carrefour supermarkets, I have so far tried 3 different such supermarkets. My first visit was a nightmare but I'm slowly getting used to it, finding my way around.

Every wednesday is the official eating out day. All swedish expats in Grenoble meet and have dinner together, so far we have tried french specialities such as fromage fondue, côte de beauf but we have also tried Indian and Italian restaurants. Afterward we often finish with a drink on a nearby pub.

Another suprise is also that quite many of the Frenchmen actually can explain things in english.

Second weekend

2010-01-24T10:40:00.000-08:00

Les Deux Alpes

My 2nd weekend abroad has been amazing

We started of early saturday heading for the Les Deux Alps ski resort. Of course I overslept again, same reason as last time (the flight to Geneva), that damn day setting were set on weekdays only again. Anyhow my fellow expats woke me up asking where I was.

Well the drive took longer than anticipated event though the roads were good. The drive from Grenoble took about 1,45h.

Once in Les Deux Alpes we were met by sunny wheather and a nice buzz around the town , you could tell that this resort was bigger than the other villages we previously have visited on our tour de ski through the French alps. This was also the day when I was going to try my new ski-boots (the skis will arrive next week).
The day was perfect, the slopes where prepared in a perfect way, the gear felt great, the sun warmed, the beer was good, we even ate our lunch outdoors. I peaked the lunch having a hot chocolate in a deckchair. We continued skiing until closing time.

Back in Grenoble we started up the sauna relaxing and drinking beer. I went to bed early cause we were going to Les Sept Laux the day after.

Les Sept Laux

Same procedure as saturday, early morning and a early drive today we were going to Les Sept Laux. The ski team were a bit decimated this day, some of the guys were in Sweden over the weekend, some had guests leaving for Sweden and some were still tired from the day before.
We were however temporary strengthened by a colleague from Sweden.

The wheather was great also this day however the slopes were quite crowded and icy, it was however still a great day for some sunday cruisin. We also found a nice place having lunch in the sun were I could improve my tan from yeasterday.

The day ended as the day before with a nice sauna, however without the beer this time.

First weekend #2: Chamrousse

2010-01-20T10:04:00.000-08:00

Sunday started early (as all other weekends), today we were heading for Chamrousse. After yesterday´s mistake I went down to the restaurant to get a decent breakfast so that I would cope with the whole day.

The snow fell heavy on the Belledonne mountain range this sunday and it was foggy most of the day, not optimal for skiing. Chamrousse is perfect for sunday skiing not to many energy-consuming slopes exist here and you can relaxed cruise around the olympic slopes. As previously stated in this blog Chamrousse hosted the six alpine skiing events at the winter olympics of 1968.

Just before we were leaving the weather cleared and we could see the surrounding mountains, see pictures below.

Three confused ski bumps staring at the beautyful view.

The Chartreuse mountain range in the distant. Chartreuse is also a famous local liqueur brewed in the mountains btw it tastes very good .

Grenoble in the distance

First weekend #1: Alpe D'Huez

2010-01-19T09:36:00.000-08:00

The weekend started with early morning, our plan was to catch the early ski bus to Alpe d'Huez.
However our plan was temperary dashed due to a damn long queue, we had not taken any equipment with us neither eaten any breakfast. We decided to drive, nothing was going to stop us this morning! The drive was about 1h on excellent but hair raising roads climbing altitude.

Alpe d'Huez, the village is on an altitude of 1860 m highest peak lies on 3330 m (Pic Blanc) you can actually ski here also in during Juli and August on the glacier.
Here also exit the French Alps' longest black run. From the top of Pic Blanc you can see both Switzerland and Italy. Alpe d'Huez is also a famous and mythical étape of the Tour de France starting from Bourg d'Oisans.

The skiing in Alpe d'Huez range from dead-easy to deadly which inevitably realized fast, in our desperation to ski we went up to the highest peak containing only deadly black runs with about 1 metre of mushy snow in the slope. All our energy was lost fighting us down and we never really recovered that day.

Some pictures:

The apartment

2010-01-16T11:11:00.000-08:00

Here comes a tour of the Grenoble apartment, all in all it's ok inspite the somewhat negative comments below.

Hallway: if you can call that a hallway it's practically a part of both the kitchen and the livingroom. Well there is also quite spacious wardrobe.

Kitchen: actually it's a disgrace to call this a kitchen, it's not well equiped (just some
glasses, knifes and forks no stove just a couple of hotplates) anything else than cooking noodles or boil an egg would be almost impossible to cook. You almost feel obliged to eat out.

Bedroom: Not much to complain about here, the bed is actually quite comfortable. But what was responsible purchasing manager thinking buying that bedspread. And what is it with those beige colors.

Bathrooms: at least there is a tub! Don't miss out on those beige tiles, yuck.

A honest old privy!

Last but not least some nice views from my breakfast window.

The trip to Grenoble

2010-01-16T10:59:00.000-08:00

Early Sunday the tenth of Januari I started my journey that was going to take me to Grenoble.
The first leg was just getting to the airport for a flight bound for Geneva a fairly easy one but turned out to be the most troublesome, next leg was to pick up a car and drive to Grenoble
The positive side of the trouble was that I succeded to hit a new personal record. I simply overslept waking up approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes before the flight departure. All This because of a feature in my cell phone where you can decide which day of the week you want the alarm to ring, of course my alarm was set to ring on weekdays only, bad luck for me. Anyway I made it standing at the airport 30 minutes before take off.

Once in Geneva I was suppose to pick up the car. See below for a picture of the monster, a brand new red Citroën.

Of course getting the car didn't go as smoothly as I wanted this took a hour discussing with a very confussed clerk. Anyhow the drive from Geneva to Grenoble went smoothly listening to some great tracks:

Doves - Caught by the river
Stone Roses - Waterfall
Ben Folds - Tiny Dancer
Razorlight - America
The Strokes - Someday
Van Morrison - Into the mysic
Joao Gilberto - Desafinado
Stan Getz - Corcovado
Mojave 3 - Breaking the ice
Wilco - Jesus,etc
Shout out louds - Normandie
Paul Simon - Heart & Bones
Pete Yorn - Strange Condition
Toad the Wet Sprocket - Windmills
Bob Dylan - I want you
Teenage Fanclub - Mellow doubt
Josh Rouse - It's the Night time

My new address

2010-01-02T04:23:00.000-08:00

My new address as from 10 Januari is:
25 Avenue du Doyen Louis Weil, 38000 Grenoble, Isère, Rhône-Alpes, France
The apartement is situated in the central of Grenoble, check it out on the map below.

One can see the apartement on the left and the garage to the right on the picture below

Some services that comes with the apartement are:

24-hr reception.
Daily cleaning.
Relaxation area, lounge.
Fitness room.
Sauna.
A large garden with ponds.
TV with Canal+ Le Bouquet.
Heating and air conditioning.
Breakfast area open from 7.00 am to 9.00 am.
Internet.
Dry cleaning.

Below is a nice mountain view taken in the nearby vicinity of the apartement.

The intercultural awareness course

2010-01-02T03:21:00.000-08:00

As previous stated I attended a course that was aimed to give me some preparation for my expat experience. The course was held by a company called Human Entrance a company whose whole business idea is to facilitate international relocation. I must admit that I felt somewhat suspicious at first since my previous experiences on courses dealing with cultural aspects has been based on catchphrases and humbug one word that will do justice to the speakers are buffoons. However even though this course also had its shared moments of catchphrases it turned out be quite refreshing. The speakers articulated good and felt reassuring, on the contrary to my previous experiences.

It was quite a while ago I attended a non-technical course and perhaps that's why this course felt bracing, I found myself immediately thinking in different terms. This could be something to think further upon, elements of social studies in the otherwise technology-laden course portfolio could be important to get a wider perspective and useful rethinking, cause all in all it´s all about people. However with the note of caution that one avoid the catchphrases, buffoons and fuzz and that one focus on innovation and rethinking, ofcourse the speakers are also always important.

Anyway below is an extract from the course:

Perceptions from both french and swedish perspective.
Social codes and norms
How we communicate (non-verbally)
Do's and don'ts in French business culture

HR meeting

2009-11-29T05:19:00.000-08:00

I had a Q'n'A and a form filling session with the HR(Human Resource) departement were we tried to sort some things out.
To my disappointment not many of my questions were answered, instead i got
somewhat suspicious if the HR department actually has the eye on things.
For example since i'm not going to pay tax in Sweden anymore how will this this affect my
interest deduction for my apartement here in Sweden. Well the answer is simple and obvious (after talking to the IRS): I can't do any deduction here in Sweden since I will not pay any tax here and apparantly I can't do the deduction in France either, this of course sucks because I will loose a substantial amount of money! However I asked for a tax advisor here in Sweden and they said that they will look into it. On the brighter side of life I received information that I will get to learn french during working hours.

I also must add a couple of word regarding skiing, and I will start by mentioning the ski resort that lies closest to Grenoble which is Chamrousse (~40 min drive or by bus). Chamrousse hosted the six alpine events at the winter olympics of 1968 where Jean-Claude Killy of France swept all three gold medals in the men's events. The picture above shows a Chamrousse slope with Grenoble city lights in the distance.

Next week I will also attend some cultural training (whatever that means), more info on that to come!

2009-11-12T09:05:00.000-08:00

Welcome to this blog which is solely dedicated to the experiences and events that will occur
during my up-coming 2010 expatriate in Grenoble France!

This is the first post and hopefully there will be many to come.

I received some promising news today, at least some things was good today since I have been at home the whole day with some substantial back pains, #"%¤&!!.
Well anyway, seems that everything is now set and that I have finally been choosen to go abroad and looks like I'm going over seas already on the 10th of January.

Btw if someone doesn't know where on the map Grenoble is check out the map to left, Grenoble is marked with the A tag.
As you can see Grenoble is situated at the heart of Europe and at the foot of the French Alps.

I'm really looking forward to this experience and interested to get to know France not only from a business perspective but also the everyday life and different cultural aspects (and of course not to neglect some of the worlds best skiing oppertunities lies in the nearby vicinity).

So stay tuned more info is coming up!