There are soooo many things to do!

• Going out

With my friends and that was the case of most ERASMUS, we organised a lot of parties in the halls of residence. It was either dinner parties or just drinks and nibbles. The cooking parties required more or less effort depending how many people were there (we managed between 5 and 20), what was being made (Italian pasta, French crepes, fondue, tartiflette, Spanish tortilla patata or simply one dish made per country!) and how many people were involved in the organisation!!
The other parties just required a lot of drinks and music.

When reaching the town centre, there are plenty of bars to go to. ERASMUS students spend a lot of time in "Le couche tard", "Le vieux manoir" or "Le Notre Dame cafe" but there are more places than that such as "Le barbe rousse", "L'estancot" to name a few.

 

During the summer, a lot of student just end up chilling out in "Le jardin de ville" which is a pretty park right in the middle of town. During the weekend, we also organised BBQ in a park ("L'ile d'amour"). Getting all the stuff there was a very rewarding challenge.

 

• Sport

Great place for skiing!!!

Being at the bottom of the mountain means that you are 30 mins away from the closest ski resort which I could see from my room...

Whatever you do (ski or snowboard) and whatever type of resorts you like (massive or pretty), there are plenty around:

• Chamrousse - the closest from Grenoble, not very big
• Les 2 Alpes - really big, with a part of it being on a glacier (gets really cold up there)
• Les 7 Laux
• L'Alpe d'Huez
• Villard de Lans
• L'Alpe du Grand Serre

The mountain can be used for other things though such as rock climbing although I didn't do much of that, racketing, via ferrata (a mix between climbing and walking), rafting, etc

 

• Places to see

There are many nice places around Grenoble to go and see. I started doing things quite late into the year as I enjoyed just being in the town, meeting new people... The biggest trips I went on are a weekend trip to Geneva, one to Torino and one to Toulouse...

 

Torino was nice as I went around the town with a group of Italians that were friends of a friend! Although Italians don't think that Torino is one of their nicest cities I thought that it was rather pretty. The problem was that the town was preparing itself for the 2006 Olympics and therefore there was roadwork and scaffoldings everywhere. I lived the life the way the people I was with were living it and that was the best part... It was fun!

 

 

Geneva is nice but not worth staying for a whole weekend in my point of view. There is not that many shops and places to see.

 

 

Toulouse is my home town and I went with 5 other ERASMUS so that they could discover the beauty of "the pink city". We went for the National day, le 14 juillet and the long weekend that went with it. We had fantastic weather. We went around museums and parks along with typical restaurants. The way of life is very different in the south and was definitely worth the 5 hours drive!

 

 

 

I then went on smaller trips in the region: day trips to Montpellier and Annecy.

Montpellier is a lovely town, full of charm on the Mediterranean coast. We went to enjoy the sea so we spent a whole day around early June by the beach. The weather was fantastic; it was just great!!

Annecy is a little town in the middle of the Alps (La Savoie) with a magnificent lake. The town also has a lot of little streets, canals and old buildings, etc. It is possible to swim in the lake or rent a boat to go where there is no crowd.

 

 

In the towns surrounding Grenoble itself, there is also plenty of things to see.

Vizille is a town with a big castle and is said to have hosted the beginning of the French revolution. There is a free museum about it along with a very beautiful park with wild animals.

 

Sassennage is a little village where a cheese is made but it also has a kind of caves that can be visited. The scenery is very pretty to get there as you have to climb a path for about 20 mins with a view on Grenoble and waterfalls

Voiron has no special character as far as I can tell but it hosts the brewery of "La chartreuse" which is the local liqueur. The visit is interesting and there is the opportunity at the end to taste the various different types.

There are also plenty of lakes around to walk around or swim in...