GDR Lyon

GDR - well I don't know what it stands for but in France it is generally the starting three letters of a conference held in specific topic. I attended something called GDR Diamant in Lyon. I was supposed to speak about my recent advances in this field. So far so good, but there was a little problem, all the speakers except for me were speaking in French. So, for me I could not understand a word of what others were saying. Hence, I simple transformed this opportunity into GDR Lyon or in short sightseeing Lyon. I went there with my supervisor and then after the first session and lunch I simply slipped into the town. First stop hotel Alexandra on Rue Victor Hugo. I checked in dropped my luggage at my room took my camera and so started my Lyon trip. Straight from my hotel I went to Place Bellecour.

Place Bellecour

It is the largest clear square in Europe with a statue of of Louis XIV the place looked simply enormous. I stayed there for sometime then started towards Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière. This is a place a little up the mountain. On the way I came across a cycle rental station. It is completely automatic and one just needs a French bank card or any international credit card to rent a bicycle. I took it with the intention that I will ride it up the mountain to the Basilica but what I did not realize is that the climb is extremely steep and I ended up hauling the bicycle all the way up with the incentive of riding it down with style. After a long haul I reached the basilica but I was completely exhausted. Nonetheless it did not dampen my spirits and chained my cycle to a post and then took out my camera.

Notre-Dame de
Fourvière

Inside the
Basilica

There were more surprises for me on this trip to Basilica. My lens cover had dropped somewhere on the way. Anyway without loosing heart I went in the basilica and started clicking as many pictures as I could take. I stayed there for few minutes then proceeded to climb down the hill. On the way down I visited the ruins of a roman era theater.

The Roman-era
Theatre

One can get an excellent view of the city from here as well as the basilica.

City view

Next stop was the Saint-Jean Cathedral, seat of the Archbishop of Lyon. The astronomical clock inside the church is a thing not to be missed. After a short stay and few clicks at the cathedral I headed towards Place des Terreaux.

The Saint-Jean
Cathedral

Notable things at this place is the city hall and the Fontaine Batholdi. Here to after spending some time I went around the town on my bicycle and in the end back to the hotel to be ready for the dinner hosted by the conference at Brasserie Georges. That brought an end to my Lyon sightseeing. the next day in the

City Hall

Bartholdi
Fountain

Brasserie Georges

evening I was back again at Grenoble.

Long way from home

Strasbourg and Basel

One day out of the blue I decided, I will go and visit Strasbourg. The main attraction being its over hundred meter high cathedral and European parliament. Anyway,

Strasbourg
Train Station

once decided I put into the act of preparing for the trip. First I called one of my old friends to check if he would be around when I visit Strasbourg and then once confirmed his presence I booked my tickets. It is close to seven hours by train from Grenoble. Started early morning and reached around early afternoon. Had a light lunch at his place and then mission Strasbourg starts. First stop the famous cathedral. Built over a timescale measuring in centuries this cathedral

The
Cathedral

is the sixth tallest church in the world. Me and my friend went around the place for sometime admiring the Gothic architecture before stepping into the church to look at the glass works. Currently the church is going through a renovation which is supposed to last for 29 months. Anyway that did not block our view of the main tower. We took some pictures. It is possible to climb half way up the church. We decided to do that the next day when we go around town with my friend and his wife. After spending sometime at the cathedral we went around the city clicking pictures here and there.

Kleber Place

Since I reached in the afternoon we could get only few hours before it became dark and we decided to return home. Next day started with a visit to a place called Petit France.

Petit France

Its a collection of old buildings but the name is not due to its architectural reason but rather due to a strange historical reason. According to wikipedia the name was given by its former German inhabitants because of the numerous prostitutes living in the area and in Germany prostitution was known as the "French business". Anyway, the place was nice to go around though I guess the place is now known for its beauty rather than its notoriety. I should have mentioned it earlier that the city of Strasbourg had been in and out of German occupation from time to time. One can read its detailed history on the net. After strolling around a little more, me and my friend headed back to his place for some light lunch and then back again to the streets but this time his wife was also with us since we were going to have the city view from the top of cathedral. Within 15-20 minutes we were on the top of the cathedral, not the top of the tower, and the view was simply unimaginable. It is true a bird's eye view of a city is always marvelous and if the city is as old as Strasbourg

City View
from the top of
the cathedral

then the amalgamation of the old and the new forms a view that is unimaginable. We stayed at the top for half an hour or so and then went to see the Louise Weiss building. Inaugurated in 1999

Louise
Weiss
building

it is the seat of European parliament. Well, nothing much to say about it. Just that from whatever little we could see it seemed gorgeous. Our next stop, Jardin de l'Orangerie, its a beautiful garden with a small pond for boating. There I saw the white stork or the Alsace Bird. One thing amazed me most is the size of the nest of these birds. After we spent some time in the garden it occurred to my friend to visit the border between France and Germany. It is a place twenty minutes by bus. The river

The nest of the
white stork

Rhine divides the two country. There are many bridges connecting the two sides and one can walk or drive from one country to another. We went up a walking bridge, spent sometime on the river Rhine and then

From the bridge
on river Rhine

called the trip off for the day. Next day turned out to be a holiday in France and so my friend decided to visit Basel in Switzerland which is around 1 hour by train from Strasbourg. The city is just

Basel on the
banks of
river Rhine

like any other European city with its mix of old and new buildings along the river Rhine flowing through the heart of the city. There we saw an exhibition of collection of paintings by Vincent van Gogh. This was my first time that I was seeing original paintings of any great artist so I enjoyed it though my friends I guess were bored. Then somebody suggested that we go to the Basel zoo. Having come from India which is full of wild animals I was little reluctant to see it but then in a group majority counts. Anyway I was more interested in the cathedrals

Town hall of
Basel

and architectural wonders that the city had to provide. But I would say the zoo trip was good. Though I was reluctant but

A statue
in the
town hall

I did see some animals which I did not see in India. After the walk through the enormous zoo all of us were more than exhausted and time was also short for us. Hence it was decided that we would see the famous city hall and the cathedral and then take the train back to Strasbourg. The city hall was closed but we could access the main courtyard. The town hall has little medieval look. From there to the cathedral which here too was under extensive renovation. So then back to the station and then back to Strasbourg. The next day was my day to return to Grenoble. In the morning I went to see the city again. Being sunday it was completely deserted. In the afternoon I took my train back to Grenoble.

Load shedding in Grenoble

ATM Down

This will be a short one. I experienced a small power cut or load shedding in Grenoble. That was not

No light at
the end of
the street

Power is back

exactly a load shedding because the power was back in five minutes. Probably some minor technical fault. Anyway but something stuck me very hard. If the power goes even for one minute here in France everything stops. The ATM, the traffic signals, the security locks in the building even the smallest gadget one can think of. There is no back up even for systems like ATMs. or security locks. At least back home in India everything has back up. From top to bottom we are so vulnerable to faults that we have back up of everything, probably that keeps us going.

Fête de la Musique à Grenoble

I will remember 21st June 2009 as the day when I first saw what is called a festival of music. If you read in wiki, it will tell you the idea was first conceived by American musician Joel Cohen, who proposed a all-night music festival at the moment of the summer solstice. Later on French Music and Dance director Maurice Fleuret took the idea and the first festival was held in 1982. Well, as they say the rest is history. Being the longest day of the year me and my friends started to go around quite early. Our visit started with a visit to the nearest place from my apartment that is Victor Hugo park. There a group three guys were playing nice music on their instruments. The same park had another stage where we heard a few French songs. Some of the groups were amateur but many were professionals as well. So we stayed around that place for a while. People were so enthusiastic that some climbed on the statue of Hector Berlioz to get a better view. The groups changed after sometime. Then we moved into another place where a group of amateurs were playing soft rock. Then walking towards another crossing we came across two guys who had just setup their own place with just two chairs and their musical instruments. A similar thing I saw at another place where a lady had setup her instruments and was singing to a large crowd. I think when pioneers of this festival started this event they had exactly this image of city streets filled with musicians wherever you go somebody is playing a tune. The next stop took us to Place St Andre where a professional team was playing some modern classical. It was being conducted by a professional conductor. If I am not mistaken I had listened to this group earlier in a concert here in Grenoble itself but I am not sure. Here we stayed for sometime and were completely lost in the melodies being dished out. Our last stop took us to Chavant. Here a group of young people were singing some popular songs which I am not sure but think was soft rock. By the time we reached Chavant it was midnight, five hours from the time we started. So last stop Istanbul kebab shop for dinner and back home with nothing but a full belly and sweet memories.

Trip to Lac de Monteynard-Avignonet - An experience to remember

I have been thinking of writing about this for quite sometime now. Last week on 1st June it was holiday for us. So me and my friends decided to visit Lac de Monteynard-Avignonet which is a man made lake 10 kms long and at places upto 300m wide. So we set out for the lake though we did not plan properly as to how to reach it just a brief sketch. We got down at a place close to the lake or we thought close to the lake. Since we could not find our way, we asked a local person and he told us go down the way a little and then you will see a road bifurcating from the highway, take that road down all the way. So we set out and then saw a road bifurcating and took it. That led us into the jungle. We walked for about an hour in the jungle and then we realized that we are lost and probably have taken the wrong crossroad. So now the aim became to get out of the jungle and ask somebody again for the direction. Walking another half an hour we finally came out on a small road. All this time in the jungle we could see the lake from far off but never could get close to it. So coming out we saw a small farm where an old guy was working in his garden. We walked in and in our imperfect French explained to the person that we are lost and we would like to go to the lake. The old man told us in no uncertain terms that it is impossible to go to lake from here on foot. You need to have a car. We said we have no car so tell us how to get back to the bus stop from where we will catch our bus back home. He said why the bus stop, you have come so far and you will go back without seeing the lake. This is not fair. By that time his wife had also joined the conversation. They said we will take you guys to the lake in our car. It was like we dropped from the sky and before we could even figure out what was going on we were in their cars and heading towards the lake. We stopped at a place to take a few pictures of the lake from the top of a cliff. After that they took us directly to the lake. It was a beautiful place with lot of wind and clear blue water. There were lot of people camping around with some people doing water sports. We stayed there for half an hour and then the old couple took us to restaurant for a drink where we payed even though the lady was reluctant to let us pay. While sitting in the restaurant we exchanged our names, places we came from, where we live in France and things like that. After the small drinks party they invited us to their house in the village for some wine and cake which we readily accepted. The wine was superb as was the cake. Their one of my friends sang an Indian song and then we chatted for sometime about our daily lives. In the end they dropped us at the bus stop from where we took our bus back home. While coming back to the bus stop we realized the mistake we had done at the first place while taking a crossroad. Well no regrets, at least this mistake led us to two wonderful people. In the end we had nothing else to say but to admire the people and really ponder over the fact that there are still people in this world who would believe in you without knowing anything about you.

A trek to Fort St. Eynard

Yesterday, me and my friends went for a trek to Fort St. Eynard. I have been there in the winter when the mountain track was covered with snow and the trees and plants were devoid of leaves except for the coniferous ones . The trek is approximately 3 kms and takes close to one and half hours. This time the whole path was completely different. The trees had leaves and occasionally we could hear the birds chirping. The weather was sunny and pleasent. We started off at approximately quarter past nine. It took us close to one hour forty five minutes to reach the fort. This time the fort was open. It is closed in the winter hence the last time I went, I had to satisfy myself with a view of the closed door only. But walking on the snow was both fun and more dangerous. We had to hire raquettes to be able to walk on the foot high snow. In the winter it feels like walking on a white sheet of imense expanse. After we reached the fort we continued along the track and reached a small village. Along the way we enjoyed the view from the top of a sheer cliff. I have vertigo, so it was little scary for me but anyway it was a nice feeling. After walking for a while we sat down and had our lunch with pain au chocalat, juice, chips, fruits and croissant. It was a little picnic and off course a nice one on the edge of a sheer cliff. On the way we met few trekkers which was completely absent in the winter. The fact is that the trekking route is closed in the winter but when we went to tourism office to enquire about it they could not give us any information. Anyway the absence of information was boon in disguise. Near the village in the winter the mountain slopes become a paradise for skiers. Generally the trekking routes are marked. But sometimes the marks are put on a stone in the ground. So when we went in the winter we were kind of lost in the snow and finally landed up on the skiing slope where I guess walking must be prohibited. Anyway, the funny thing was that while crossing over to the skiing slope from the forrest my raquette got caught on the trip wire of one of the telepheriques meant for carrying the skiers up the slope. And the consequence the skiers were stranded for ten minutes without power. Well that was in the winter. Once we reached the village, we trekked for four kilometer to Cole de Vence along D512 where we had parked our car. Last time we took the bus back from the village to Grenoble since it was already dark and we did not have our vehicle like this time. Walking on this track both in deep winter and summer I have seen the two faces of the same place. I could not imagine the place which had nothing but snow all around could play host to a variety of flowers in the summer.