Vizille

On Monday afternoon I went on a mini excursion to the nearby town of Vizille. It's half an hour away by bus, and has a château with a museum of the French Revolution inside. The château was quite interesting, some of the rooms were set up, others contained displays of various revolution artifacts. The château itself was at one time a residence of the president of France, and Charles de Gaul hosted some set of foreign visitors there. The château itself is worth a visit, but the garden was really spectacular, even covered in snow. There are formal hedges and flowerbeds, a water feature with a fountain and many little arched bridges, and ducks. A path runs all the way around the small park, through stands of trees with benches and tables. It would be a lovely place to go in the summer, with a sketch book and picnic lunch. Actually, Grenoble in general would be nice in the summer - all the parks in the city center, and hiking in the mountains.

The Château

France-ness

So here I am in France, without ever photographing and posting about my Christmas knitting. There wasn't a whole lot of it, but enough to warant a post with pictures surely. I produced a scarf from Knitted Lace of Estonia for my sister - the peacock and leaf scarf, except much longer and in white angora. For my brother I made a pair of socks, in blue with a knit two, purl one, one seedstitch, purl one rib (which was very successful) with a green cuff. I also made a document carrying bag for my dad out of green leaf-patterned brocade.

I'm staying in Grenoble for the next month and studying French at the CUEF (Centre Universitaire d'Etudes Françaises). I'm living with a host family in the center of grenoble; right in the old city. I take the tram to class every day - the stop is a block or so away, and I have a 20 minute ride.

The tram is pretty awesome. It runs on electricity, and is very quiet. There are wires overhead, but only two except at intersections. The rails are set into the pavement, and cars drive over them all the time. Because the electricity is in wires overhead, there is no third rail like the subway, and people step onto the tracks and cross over. Even when the tracks are separated from the road there is no barrier of any kind - at the station you just walk to the other side to change direction.

I forgot my camera (I don't know how - I walked right by it when I left) so there will likely be no pictures, but I'll still be able to post discriptions.