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I arrived on Tuesday Jan 7th late in the day due to bad weather in Philly and thus a missed flight in London. (the price I paid for flying business class I guess) For those who don't know, my company shipped me out for a project in Grenoble France, for how long I'm not sure. And knowing my company, they're probably not sure either. I will be here 1-10 months from what I gather.

Grenoble is in the southeastern part of France. It is surrounded by huge mountains with many vertical faces. The Bastille overlooks the city from a mountainside just north of the town. The weather has been overcast (due to being in a river valley), with very occasional light snow, and temperatures in the twenties (F).

This week has been a huge adjustment. I have never been so lost in a city. Grenoble is not that large but the streets are either marked so poorly that you'd have to get out of your car and walk to the sign to see it, or they just aren't marked at all. Only once (that I'm aware of) have I gone the wrong way on a one-way street. It was easy enough to do. I simply missed a turn in a series of several round-abouts and exited on the wrong road. Most of the streets in Grenoble are one-way, but I learned this too late. A U-turn in mid-boulevard seemed to fix my error until I discovered I was headed straight-on with the TRAM. (their light rail) A few headlight flashes from the conductor alerted me to the problem and another quick U-ey got me going with the flow. I wandered until I finally found a road headed in the desired direction.

Like I mentioned, I have been miserably lost at times. It has been cloudy and without the mountains for reference, or the sun, and with no compass, and streets with no signs and in the pattern of a spider web (spider on drugs I should say), and with darkness much of the time, well, it's been a challenge. In addition, the hotel is on the wrong side of the tracks (literally) and few streets cross the tracks, but after asking many questions, and being lost for hours, and finally allocating one morning just to drive around (during daylight this time), I am finally able to get to and from work and in and out of the town.

Yesterday, Saturday Jan 11th, I had no zots and, rather than take a trip out of town, decided to just walk the streets. It's about a 15 minute walk across the downtown, from my hotel near the train station, over to the historic district. The TRAM can run this in about 2 minutes but I wanted to learn my way and had plenty of time. The historic district is the area surrounded by the old Roman wall (built a few million years ago I suspect!) and is closed to traffic. It hops on a Saturday. The locals were quite helpful; one man told me in rough English the total for a street-side lunch after I failed to decipher the words of the person behind the counter. I've been offered English menus without asking, and at one restaurant, the waitress, who spoke as much English as I do French, stopped to "chat". My high school Spanish is of little benefit. Needless to say, there is a lot of pointing and gesturing while communicating. Sometimes a grunt or a gag is used but I think this is just part of the French language or pronunciation. The nasal sound in many of their words reminds me of the sound Snoop (my cat) used to make when coughing up a hairball. I can't reproduce it.

Today I headed out of town to the south, towards Briançon (see travelogue 3), Europe's highest town of any size, near the Italian border, to the ski resort of L'Alpe-d'Huez. It's about 40 minutes from here. The Tour de France cycle race has this road to L'Aple-d'Huez as one of their toughest climbs on the circuit. 21 switchbacks to get to the resort and many gear changes in the Renault Megane. It was quite spectacular to finally get above the clouds and into the deep blue sky, and to see the really rugged mountains of the Southern Alps.

By the way, TV here at the hotel sucks. There is one English-speaking channel in the hotel: BBC SkyNews. (similar to CNN Headline News but much worse). No golf. I am expecting to move to an apartment in a couple of months and rumor has it that two stations will be available there.