Quick note: If you'd like to see some more pictures feel free to go to: http://community.webshots.com/user/grenoblegirl Also feel free to ignore all the other pictures there. The album titled Grenoble has some that aren't on this site and some captions too. Enjoy.

Ok, so that last entry about the Coupe Icare (If I didn’t explain it well enough there, the Coupe Icare is a festival of paragliding and other in-air sports held near Grenoble. The highlight is usually on Saturday when the paragliders all dress up in very elaborate costumes to jump, but I wasn’t there for that because…) was from Friday. I wrote it right after getting home from the entire “adventure”, hence the tone of utter frustration. It was pretty cool though, wish I’d been able to see more. Quick little update here, though I don’t have a particularly large amount of time. Saturday I went to Vienne, France with my group (CEA). It was a much better trip since it was all pre-planned and arranged and paid for so all I had to do was show up at the bus station and then follow fellow anglophones around. The private tour around the city was all in French though, as was the tour of the museum, but I was actually able to understand about 90% of everything that was said so I was proud of myself. I did end up with a pretty nasty headache on the bus ride home from trying so hard to understand all day. The highlights of Vienne were the roman ruins and the cathedral. Vienne is a really really old city, originally settled by the Romans because it’s at the mouth of a river that runs from the Mediterannean up into the Alp region of France. There are ancient roman walls and pillars and foundations and a theater and a temple just chillin’ in the city surrounded by all the modern stuff. It’s so odd to see all these people eating lunch at a café next to a thousands of years old Greek temple as if it’s nothing. I can’t imagine taking that for granted. It’s really difficult for Americans to really understand and comprehend the age of something like that since, in the States, anything over 200 years old is considered “ancient”. The museum we went to after lunch was all about the Romans and how they lived in Vienne and then right outside was part of the city that they’ve excatvated and attempted to re-create a little. Fascinating and really cool.

The cathedral was probably my favorite part of the whole trip though. I’m pretty sure I liked this one better than Notre Dame. I can’t really put my finger on why, but it’s just a really open, high-ceilinged, gorgeous cathedral. The stained glass windows were an interesting mix of contemporary abstracts and characteristic story-telling picture frames. The arches were an amazing example of roman and gothic style as well, since the cathedral was built in two different architechrual periods. It’s still very much used by the community and I think feeling like I was in a real church, as opposed to a tourist site, really made me like it more. I’m thinking about even returning there to get more pictures and study the carvings and windows more. Vienne is only about a 1.5 hour bus ride northwest of Grenoble.
After that trip I ended up going for a really nice run through Grenoble. There’s a path that runs through the park near my house so I just headed out on that. It’s a really long path and when you’re surrounded by mountains and the sun is setting on them and you’re listening to good music it’s really easy to lose track of time and place and all of a sudden I was 25 minutes away from my house and had no clue where I was. It was a really great run though. I’m hoping to make it a weekend ritual. Speaking of weekends however… this is kinda going back to the Coupe Icare as well I’m doing a bit of a repeat. What? No, I’m not getting on a wrong bus and spending ridiculous amounts of money to go up a terrifying ride and get gypped by showing up at exactly the wrong time to something!! Do I look crazy? Don’t answer that. Anywho… this Friday I have an appointment to go tandem paragliding!!! (Mom and Dad, don’t freak out, only one person died in 4 days of the festival last weekend, I’ll be fine. J) So wish me luck, I’m sure I’ll have fab pictures and stories to tell about that. I won’t be online this Sunday cuz I’m taking another trip… one that I want to keep a secret for now, but next week there’ll be something up about it as well. The exciting-ness and travel has officially begun so we’re off!! (This travel and excitement was brought to you in cooperation with the Sallie Mae Foundation and Ohio Northern University. :-p)