January 28 – February 6, 2012
We were very excited to be hosting our very first visitor at our apartment in Grenoble – my Mom! Here are some of the highlights from our week together.
We took the famous Grenoble "Boules" up to the Bastille where we got a great view of the city and surrounding mountains.
We drove to Lyon for the day, where we walked around the Old Town to take in some sights, and had lunch at a delicious little restaurant. From the restaurant we could see across the street to this awesome building with a "tromp-l'oeil" painted on the side. My mom later found out that this mural is called la Fresque des Lyonnais and that most of the people and objects featured are important or iconic to Lyon.
On several occasions we visited the "Marché de l'Estacade" which is right outside our apartment. Here we gathered the ingredients for many delicious home cooked meals!
On the weekend the three of us drove up to a little town called Annecy that we had heard was beautiful. It is a very old town with canals running through it, right on the edge of Lac D'Annecy. It was a lovely spot to wander around - if only it wasn't so cold!
We decided to warm up with some yummy Vin Chaud at a cute little lunch spot where Paul also enjoyed his first official Tartiflette.
On the drive back from Annecy we made a small detour to check out a very cool castle-inspired bridge called "Pont de la Caille".
There is a very famous French liqueur called Chartreuse which is iconic for the Grenoble region. It was originally made by Carthusian Monks in the 1700's and the same secret recipe is used today. We went on a tour of the distillery, which included a 3-D video and a walk through the longest liqueur cellar in the world!
The tour finished off with a tasting strategically placed in the distillery's gift shop, where my Mom picked up a bottle of Chartreuse to bring home for my Dad.
My Mom was flying home through Geneva, so we decided to spend a day and night there so we could explore the city a bit. We saw iconic sights like the "Jet d'Eau" and the Flower Clock in the English Gardens.
No trip to Switzerland would be complete without an authentic cheese fondue! What a delicious way to end off a wonderful trip together!
We had a great visit with my Mom, and it was really fun exploring the region with her! And we’re looking forward to hosting more visitors over the next few months!