Surrounded by mountains

Wednesday 4th June

We are now in Grenoble for 3 days and love seeing the snow on the surrounding peaks. Not enough snow for skiing now as Grenoble is not at a great elevation, and we are now into summer,  but for us snow starved Aussies it is a sight to see. 

Today we have had a restful day with a little shopping on the agenda. We did come to Grenoble on out first visit to France and all I remember is we got a meter park right in the centre of town, and I bought a handbag. Our apartment is right next to a stop on one of the tramlines, so we left the car at home and ventured out on the public transport system. Very easy to buy tickets here - just at the tramstops. You don't need a myki or similar. We found our way in to the city and first stop the office de tourisme for a map of the city, and a transport map. 

We did part of the walking tour of the city and found our way to the wool shop (yes, another one). Then it was off in search of new walking boots for Rob. We had decided to buy a pair of the brand he likes and thought while we are close to the source (Italy), but the only place that had any said that they don't get the large sizes in France as they all have smaller feet - not size 13 aussie feet. 

Cats today.

One of the old streets in Grenoble - not medieval, but not recent.

17th century walnut door.

Entrwnce to the old Hotel Rabot with a renaissance style turret.

Grenoble has a street art festival at this time of the year and as we wandered around we saw some lovely works on the walls of many buildings.

This mural is on a building at our tramstop -

And this one is on the other side of the street.
Our apartment is at the back of this building, behind the boys feet.
50m to the tramstop (which was just as well when we arrived home in the rain).

This street was just around the corner from the wool shop, in the Championnet neighbourhood,
and this area was where a lot of the street art originated.

Not sure exactly what the artwork is, but look at the mountains behind.
We probably walked about 5k today and as we walked along this street
we got views of the mountains.

I think these spots on the road were part of the street art.

Grenoble seems to be a quieter city - not a huge amount of traffic, and not the frenetic pace of some other places we have been. And apart from parking lots, there seems to be quite a bit of street parking, and not all at a cost. And it has a very extensive public transport system, with trams that we used being quite frequent. 

By the time we'd had lunch and were in search of the final shop, there was a serious thunderstorm building above the mountains. Were we going to get wet? Not very, thankfully, but as we got off the tram at the door, the heavens opened and it has been raining and thundery for the past couple of hours. 

Thunderstorm building. Lots of rumbling and grumbling.

Waiting for our tram in the city
we could see these old fortifications above the city.