Right, so I awoke this morning with the intentions of going for a bike ride around the towns and also to get some stuff done (such as clean my room, print some photos etc..) I had a shower, went downstairs and had breaky where Carole and Benoit were chatting. I made an effort to be non-exsistent whilst eating breaky so they could chat only to be discovered within a second and told that today, we were going to the Bastille.
"The Bastille, an ancient series of fortifications, sits on the mountainside
overlooking Grenoble, and is visible from many points in the city. The Bastille
is one of Grenoble's most visited tourist attractions, and is a good vantage
point for viewing the town below and the surrounding mountains.Although the
Bastille was begun in the Middle Ages, later years saw extensive additions
including a semi-underground defense network. The Bastille has been credited as
the most extensive example of early 18th century fortifications in all of
France, and held an important strategic point on the Alpine frontier"
-wikipedia, for your convenience.
Excited to know that I was going to do something, although not quite sure what at that time, I ran upstairs enthused to get everything done before leaving. I quickly went to the Kiosk and printed out photos (which was an utter disapointment as it didnt recognise any of my files except one!) came home and cleaned my room just in time because then we were going.
We all hopped into the car, it was good it was the first full 'family' thing that we have done together. We also had Tim's little friend Gabrielle here still (charile's brother) so there was 7 of us nicely fitted in the big car and off we went. The drive to Grenoble was great, the weather today was just amazing and sunny so I got some pretty views of the mountains and such. Also, when we were getting near the Bastille, we drove though a street and every shop on it was a pizzeria, it was pretty funny. So many pizza shops it was great! Haha.
Anyway, eventually we arrived at the base of a mountainy thing and looked up to the top where the Bastille sits. There are two ways to get up there. The first, famous, way is to take a system of egg-shaped cable cars ("Les Bulles") up to the top. Its very scenic and easy letting you relax on your way up. The other way is to hike. Up the steep enough mountain. Guess which we did? If you guessed hike you're on the money. At first was like.. cant we just go in the egg things, but then after about 5 steps, I realised that walking was a great idea. There was so much to see and take photos of! It took a fair while to get up the windy (not windy as in strong breeze, windy as in spiral-like) path to reach our destination but it was really worth it because there were some amazing views on the way.
When we finally reached the top, there was a nice little cafe and so we had lunch while watching out over the city of Grenoble from up high and the amazing mountains that surround it. It was a really really nice spot. FYI, I had a.. oh crap.. a *insert french name, which doesnt even sound all that french..* grilled piece of bread with lots of cheese and ham piled on top and a bottle of good ol' Coke.
After lunch we went up a part of the actual building (god this is hard to explain..) and there was an amazing gift shop there. I bought some things finally that I can keep as souvenirs! It was perfect. I will go back one day to buy more stuff, it will also give me an excuse to try out those egg thingis. Haha. Then we went up to the very very top of the Bastille where there were the most amazing views of Grenoble and the mountains. It was just beyond amazing up there.. and beyond a little bit windy (as in the breeze, not the spiral-like one) but that made it good, because there were a bunch of flags all flying with pride. It was good.
After that, we went to a museum which was just next to the little cafe which was all about the history of the Alps (I think..) It was a nice little museum I think, but the whole thing was a tour. You got given a headset which picked up radio signals from each room and explained stuff. It was all in French though and it was fast and terminology I am very unfamiliar with, thus I didnt actually learn anything. Oh well, there were things to look at at least, and it was free so it was okay :)
After the Museum we commenced our hike down again. It was so much easier on the way down than the way up however the littlies were falling down over and over again and each time crying. Oh I didnt mention, Gabrielle cries. Alot. All the time. Over nothing... example, he wanted a packet of chips at lunch because everyone had chips. There were three packets between the 7 of us and he cried because he didnt get one to himself. Then he cried because he couldnt have a drink of coke.. then he cried... etc.. sigh.
At the bottom, there was a park which all the kids had a good play at and it was fun to watch. Then there was one of those spider net things. I actually went on it. I was so proud haha. I went all the way to the top because Bastien and Fanny were up there and I wanted to be in a photo haha. It was pretty fun. I did drop my camera once which was scary, I thought it might've been broken but it wasnt. Oh and Gabrielle fell of the web and face planted the ground, it looked quite awkward and painfullish. He cried. After a while, we left to go home. It was a really nice time out. I enjoyed myself a lot.
Back home I went on computer, not as angstily as yesterday though as I had been out and felt like I had done enough for the day. I went through all my photos of the day and then went through Caroles and Benoits too, then they grabbed mine. At 5.30 Bastien, Carole, Fanny (a guest viewer) sat and watched Smallville. It was pretty funny because half way through tim and Gabrielle had one of their frequent arguements and Gabrielle came in complaining angrily about how Tim is really mean etc. Carole was on the ball and was all, dont tell us, tell Benoit instead. It didnt wokr though because he couldnt find him. So instead, Gabrielle proceded to explain to me. I felt a bit bad moving him out of my way while he was complaining but thankfully, Carole shushed him and sent out to play with Tim anyway. Haha. It was good, but it was a 'to be continued...' episodeand at 6.30 when it finished Benoit did the dad thing of taking control of the TV to watch sport. Cue my exit.
I went and played piano for a while until Tim and Gabrielle came down with handcuffs and attempted to handcuff me because I was apparently a bad guy. I then used my ninja skills to instead, handcuff them together. They both took them off but then Gabrielle cried again and stormed off in an angry tantrum. Me and Tim tried to get him to play cards with us, but he wasnt speaking so I played cards with Tim for a bit while he was gone. Eventually, he came back and wanted to play so I helped Carole with Tea. I also tried to introduce them to honey carrots, but they didnt have enough honey to add flavour, so it was a bit of a failure... oh well.. next time.
After tea, we watched more smallville on the laptop rather than the telly, it was just not the same but it was the season finale and thus intense anyway. After that, I came up here and typed this.
I probably missed stuff about today, but I think I covered most important things. It was a good day.
Photos (I highly highly recommend you check out my facebook photos, there is a whole folder dedicated today and I think is worth your while if you are interested in seeing what its like at Bastille):
A view looking out from the Bastille over a part of Grenoble
The city of Grenoble. Its huge, pretty and surrounded by mountains. Its perfect.
The mountains from way up high. just spectacular...
Me with the Beyliers just after lunch, grenoble and mountains in the background
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