Mark had a conference in Grenoble this week, and had to be in Dublin last week, so rather than fly home in between he stayed in Europe in between commitments… and since our anniversary fell on the weekend in between ALSO, it only made sense that I join him on his travels… so here we are!
We’re staying in a little one-bedroom apartment near where we lived the last time, just two blocks away. It’s nice to already be familiar with the city and not have to learn where things are and (more importantly) how to get to them!
I had planned to use the time this week while Mark was at his conference to write and post both on this blog and on a new one I’m starting, and to do homework for a Certificate in Positive Psychology (CiPP) course I’m taking… only my plans needed to be adjusted when our car was broken into while we were in Ireland and my laptop and purse were stolen. I know they are just things, and they can be replaced, and no one was hurt… and I know in the scope of things, this is small. And I’m getting there; I really am. But when we got back on Saturday afternoon after taking a lovely walk (on our 28th anniversary!) to a tea house in the Killarney National Park and saw our back driver window smashed in and my purse and laptop gone… I felt awful. Like I didn’t want to go anywhere anymore because it’s safer to stay at home. Like how dare someone take things that don’t belong to them, things that were locked up and hidden from view… MY things. Like of all my material possessions, I think I can honestly say that my computer is quite possibly the thing that means the most to me.
And then I think… okay, so what is the lesson in this for me? What do I still need to learn? Have I been putting too much emphasis on material things? I don’t think of myself as a material person, and yet, when I look at our house and how many things I have because of their sentimental value to me (as opposed to their monetary value), I realize I have quite a few material possessions… things I don’t really need, but that have sentimental value to me. And if my most valued possession was taken from me, and I survived… well, perhaps, I could survive with a few less of the other material possessions I have. Many of them are Mom’s things that I haven’t yet found homes for, because it means getting rid of some of my things to make room for Mom’s things… or perhaps I would like Abby to have some of the kitchen items that were Mom’s… but what if Abby doesn’t really CARE if she has them or not? What if I’m the only one who really cares…
I think of myself more as an experience person, and one who has empathy as well (is it empathetic or empathic?? I’ve heard them both and don’t know when to use them, or if they’re interchangeable or what…), sometimes extreme empathy. Like nine years ago, after our dog got hit by a car and we had to put her down… two weeks later, driving to work on a very slushy, icy day, going about 4 mph so I could stop if necessary, seeing the dog on the side of the road, thinking it’s good I’m going so slow so I can stop, starting to slow down so I can stop, seeing the dog dart in front of me, not being able to stop… not knowing if I hit the dog or just scared it ‘cuz it kept running (I did; the corner panel on the car was gone…), and stopping at the nearest house to tell them what had happened. I was near tears and feeling awful and they were appreciative that I stopped. They called later that day to say their dog was fine, and they thanked me for stopping and telling them… Like that. I already felt bad for the person who hit our dog… did I really need to experience hitting a dog, so I would know what it felt like to be in their shoes?? Apparently…
My point is that there’s something I needed to learn from this happening. Maybe it is to be less materialistic. Or maybe I needed to take my mind off of coming back to Grenoble, which is where I was when my mom had her stroke and where I came back to after she died. Or maybe it was something that someone ELSE needed to learn, someone I had interacted with after the fact. Like the woman at the Killarney National Park who said, “I leave my computer covered, on my back seat, all the time…” or the person who actually STOLE my stuff. In my computer bag were my notes from my CiPP course and my gratitude journal, and what if that person read them and realized there is goodness in life if you look close enough for it, that we all have things to be thankful for (yeah, (s)he has things to be thankful for, alright… MY STUFF!)? Maybe it’s a long-shot… but maybe it isn’t! I’d like to think things that were important to me didn’t just get thrown in the trash…
Observations about Grenoble, Part Deux:
- 34 degrees C is really HOT, especially after being in cool, rainy Ireland where we needed to buy sweaters and rain gear just to stay warm and dry.
- Things have changed AND things have stayed the same. I had no idea I would be back here just a year after leaving. The little Italian restaurant that we could see from our apartment is still there, although it has a new name. One of the Lebanese restaurants we ate at has moved to our street. The woman in the little organic store below our old apartment cut her hair; in fact, when I commented about it to her she looked closer at me and said, “I remember you! Raspberry jam and chestnut spread!” Many of the vendors at the market are still there; some showed signs of recognition when they saw us the first day, even asking questions of us the second day.
- We only had two desserts from Jack Julliard down the street, the Tendance (pistachio that looked like a green apple) and the Caprice (white cake with a bit if raspberry and cream). They were both still yummy, but maybe not AS yummy as I remember. I think this is typical; we remember things to be better than they really were! Perhaps we’re just eating better these days, healthier, and sweet things just aren’t as appealing to us this year… except for…
- The apricot croissants at Pauline’s are STILL just as yummy as they were a year ago! And the cute little blonde woman is still there, and she recognized us, too!
- I still don’t understand French; not a lick. AND I was successful in buying our train tickets from Grenoble to Montreux, Switzerland. We’ll leave on Sunday, June 23 (or 23 June as they say it here).
- When I hiked to the Bastille Thursday I had no fear; none… except for maybe of the men with guns. Apparently, it was “army celebration day” at the Bastille, and there were men and women in full uniforms carrying machine guns and knives. I had to chuckle, when I saw a class of maybe 3rd graders doing a ropes course, and one of the things they did was zip-line over the heads of the soldiers who were in formation. But when I said I had no fear, I was referring to the heights; no fear what-so-ever. I could look over any edge anywhere and I was fine. This was huge for me, if you remember my posts on heights last year… I think last year with Mom dying while we lived here, I was just feeling more fragile than I’d ever been. I’m think I’m just stronger now, in many different ways. This is just one of them.
- The little round tower on the hike to the Bastille is blue this year, like a periwinkle. Last year it was red.
- I enjoyed the Musée Dauphinois as much this year as last, especially the video that showed how the Alps people made bread once a year.
- Some of the street graffiti is the same as last year; some has changed. I took pictures of the new ones that I saw (I will upload some when I get home, because in spite of my best-laid plans, I no longer have my computer with me here…).
- We hiked up to the Bastille this morning; Mark hadn’t been up there yet. I just love that hike, and am happy to have made it up there a second time. It’s possible we will be heading up there tomorrow morning before we leave, but that is still to be determined.
- The rotisserie chicken from the Saturday market was still just as good and chickeny as we remember! We had our traditional Saturday lunch: rotisserie chicken and potatoes from the woman with the yellow truck, salad, cranberry sesame bread, green olives, and fresh strawberries, all from the market! And we ate lunch while listening to the Midnight in Paris soundtrack, something we did most Saturdays last spring when we lived here. We thought about all the people who came to visit us during that time, especially those who had shared that same Saturday meal with us! It was a great re-enactment memory.
- Stracciatella (aka chocolate chip, although the actual definition according to Wikipedia is something like vanilla ice cream with chocolate shavings “… analogous to chocolate chip ice cream in North America though the chocolate is intended to be less chunky and more integrated with the gelato”) ice cream is still yummy. Before today, we’d only had it at Amorino, on the Black Blob. Today we had it at the other place, Punto Gusto, near the Viva la France! fountain, which seems to be only open during the day (except on weekends). The verdict is: we like the ice cream from Punto Gusto, where we were today, but the cone (cornet) from the other place better. Figures!
Last night we ate dinner outside (it was a great day, according to how I rate a good day… we ate outside! It was a good day for Mark, too, because he got a nap!) at one of the many Italian pizzerias on the other side of the river, Paradiso Pizzeria. At the restaurant next to us, a band of young 20-somethings were setting up. Mark (jokingly) said, “We’re in for a real treat!” They played two songs, and we thought, “Mehh,” and we continued eating. When we finished, they were ready for their second set. That’s when things started to get interesting! They had a bass player, drummer, lead guitar, violinist (who we didn’t really hardly hear until we moved closer, and even then, we didn’t hear much of him), and a female lead singer, who also played electric/acoustic guitar. Since we didn’t know the band’s name, Mark decided to dub them this band don’t suck. And they didn’t! They were actually quite good. My favorite song they played was from the Beatles’ Abbey Road album, I Want You. I wish I had recorded some of that one. Mark’s favorite was Led Zeppelin’s Whole Lotta Love. That’s when he decided he not only liked the band, he loved the band! We saw a variety of people there, watching and listening. My favorite was the two-year-old with the AC/DC t-shirt. It still makes me chuckle to think of her! As we were walking home, we realized there were bands set up outside all over the city. Some had crowds around them, some, not so much; turns out, for good reason. Mark decided that we heard the best band of all the bands we walked by on the way home last night, probably about 12 total.
So tonight’s our last night in Grenoble. We had dinner at home with food we’d bought from the market the last couple of days. My new favorite dessert is from a little place near the Viva la France! fountain. When Brooke, Chelsea, and Amy visited us last year, Brooke had gotten a strawberry tart from this place, a place that I don’t even know the name! We split one of those tonight (my new second-favorite dessert!), along with a raspberry tart that had a layer of raspberry under the custard and a topping of what looked like meringue but wasn’t stiff like meringue. Whatever it was, it was GOOD!
Who knows when we’ll make it to Grenoble again? I had no idea that visiting here this year was in the plan, just a year and a week after we left last year and headed to Italy; it just worked out that way. Tomorrow we’ll head to Montreux, Switzerland, since Mark has a day of meetings in Lausanne, on the north shore of Lake Geneva. We’re looking forward to visiting cities we’ve never been to before, and taking the train through Geneva, where we visited last year with Laura and Ryan and toured the United Nations.
It was fun to visit Grenoble as a former resident this time, as someone who is familiar with the city, and where things were familiar and didn’t take getting used to. We didn’t even need a map! It felt like visiting a good friend that we hadn’t seen in a long time, and we both enjoyed our time back here. ‘Bye, Grenoble… we’ll miss you! Till we meet again…