Alpine Delight (Friday, October 21, 2011)

This morning we didn’t have to make the decision—will we have cereal in our room again or venture out for an expensive but tasty breakfast? Which was good, considering that some sort of party was going on in the room across the hall, which involved numerous groups of people coming and going, knocking on the door and waiting in the hallway, laughing and running around until 4 AM. The kids slept through it, Brian would wake up, hear a bit of it, and fall asleep, while I lay there with a pillow over my head, trying to control my rage. At one point, I did pop my red-eyed, frizzy haired blonde self out the door and, lacking any French, said “Shhhhhh” very forcefully. The 4 people in the hallway giggled and got a bit quieter, but then they went into the room across the hall and more people took their place. Let’s just say that, upon waking, I was not in my finest mood.

No matter. Rita was serving breakfast. Back we went for more Selles hospitality: Chocolate muesli and croissants made everyone happy. Not to mention the bag of folded laundry that had been hanging out to dry on the line outside their kitchen balcony (dangling 4 floors up, I think).

After loading us up, Otto and Rita took us to the cable car that runs between the town and the hill overlooking it, a hill ringed with old fortification walls. The cable cars are clear orbs, much to the delight of our kids, that skim the sky and give great views on the way up. We could see so much from the hill, even though there was still a haze enveloping the mountain ranges. Our tour guides pointed out the very modern building that is the American high school their kids go to, the old section of the city that is identifiable by the red tile roof on each building, as well as the hockey arena built for the 1968 Olympics and the controversially expensive state-of-the-art soccer arena built a couple of years ago. The whole city is built in the valley of the mountains, bigger than we had thought and still some somehow cozy in the way it nestles into the hills.

Afterward we stopped at a café for some hot drinks. There was a woman there in a wheelchair, and we talked later about what hardships that must represent, as almost every doorway in Grenoble has a step leading to it. Very little is accessible, which is true of most everywhere we’ve been in Europe. You can’t help but wonder how limited this must make the lives of people who grow up there with mobility needs.

Back at their apartment, Rita laid out supplies for us to pack a lunch. We are so pampered! We packed sandwiches and fruit and chocolate, and we took them all up to the end of a road, where we could hike up to Charmant Som (I think that’s how it’s spelled; either way, it translates as “Charming Summit”). We hiked for about an hour or so up a hill, where we found a few other hikers and a glorious view of mountain ranges on all sides. The most amazing were the snowcaps far in the distance, which could be mistaken for a line of white clouds if you weren’t paying attention. We could even see the tallest peak in Western Europe, Mount Blanc. So breathtaking. I tried taking photos—they don’t do it justice. The faintest haze hung in the air—really the clearest day we could hope for—but just enough to take the stark clarity we experienced out of the pictures.

When we returned, we showered and changed, and went once more to their apartment. This time, all 3 of our kids and all 3 of theirs settled in for the night—homemade pizza and a showing of “Kung Fu Panda 2”. Meanwhile, the adults went out to a French provincial restaurant: La Ferme A Dede. I won’t pretend to understand French, but I think it translates to “Dede’s Farm” (Dede being a man). We had hearty farm food—plates of meats and salads as well as hearty pasta or chicken and potato dishes. Fabulous. We also talked about what it’s like to share the world with your children, both the pros (broader experience of the world, encouraging independence, and developing a  better understanding of people different than themselves) and the cons (producing children who are restless to see more and may possibly have unrealistic ideas about what they’ll do in the future). We debated and most likely solved the European and American debt crises, though we haven’t yet come up with a way to fix American medical care.

Speaking of medical issues, though we’d eaten plenty, we still ordered a couple of chocolate desserts. Unspeakably good. I think it speaks to the experience that when I look at the pictures for the last couple of days, they are almost all pictures of food. Good thing we hiked up that mountain—we needed the exercise.

Our return to the apartment was almost unnoticed, involved in their activities as the kids were. Eventually we rounded up the three that belong to us and said goodbye. It was a short but wonderful visit, and we are so glad we could see where the Selles are serving this year.