May 10

Thursday, May 10, 2007
So this morning…at 4am…Françoise and I got up so we could drive to the Lyon airport to make sure the Canadians got back onto the plane to go home (well, to Paris and then Canada). It was kinda cool to see them all…because I totally remember when I was in their position. It seemed like they all had a pretty good time – did lots of shopping and all that good stuff!! There were lots of teary good byes and bags that had to be paid for because they weighed too much, ect. It was pretty cool to feel like I was on "the other side" – what ever the other side is!!
One girl didn’t get there until after the gate had already closed! Everyone else had already gone through security and all the parents gone, ect and finally this last student (that Françoise had already tried calling several times with no response) rushed up. Fortunately, it was calm enough and a small enough airport and the staff were nice enough that they kept the gate open and she got through. Françoise was furious, to say the least…haven’t really heard that many ‘negative’ words at once in French before! I’m just glad it wasn’t me!!
We made it back to Grenoble at about 8am and I was going to stay there for the morning. We had "un petit café" while we were waiting for Christian to get to work so she could leave me…but in the end she went to work and I just went exploring.
I walked up to the Bastille today, and it basically took me all morning. It was a beautiful walk up the mountain. (Don’t really know if I’d necessarily call it a mountain, but it is definitely bigger than a hill…so, mountain it is) It was all switch-backs in the trees that went through the remains of the fort on various levels as I ascended. The views were incredible too…
There was this older lady that was walking at basically the same pace as I was and we played leap frog up the entire thing. It ended up being a good thing because she took a couple pictures for me, which was nice! But, she was giving me a run for my money she was walking so fast! We’ll chalk it up to the fact that my lungs are basically non existent today and that is why she was moving so fast!!
The Bastille is where the little cable car ends up and I had said I was going to take it down after I walked up, but it was such a nice walk up that I decided to walk down as well. It was a great thing to do today because there wasn’t a cloud in the sky and hardly any smog/fog in the mountains. Because it was so clear, I got a great view of Mont Blanc, which is the highest (or second highest??) mountain here. It was pretty cool.
Once I got down there was really only an hour left before I had to be back at the office to go back for lunch. I thought I’d walk through centre-ville again to see if more shops were open today (nothing is ever open on Monday mornings). Everything was open! I tried on a bunch of amazing clothes and had a good look at a lot of amazing shoes…I still managed not to buy anything. I don’t know if I can pull off the short dress with the leggings underneath, and that is pretty much the main style here at the moment…we shall see! I think I’ll have a few more days to shop before I come home!!
And then I had lunch and a nap and now it is almost 5pm and a gazillion degrees out!! I would love to go for a run, but I can’t eat without loosing my breath at the moment, so I figure running may not necessarily be good for my health!! I may go in the pool here though. I am going to wait until someone gets home though, because if I am going in an unheated pool in France, I am going to be getting a picture of it!
Tomorrow I get kicked out of here and will be in a hotel so that Mme Lenfant and her other people can stay in the house! It promises to be another interesting weekend… J
Later
-Allison