Ok - so I had a business trip to Sweden because of a FDA inspection of our facilities in Göteborg and Karlskoga. That was 12 days of my trip (we had a successful inspection). Then came the 3 day adventure to France.

Thursday, October 9th, I flew from Göteborg to Paris. I had to fly in to Degaule airport and somehow get to the Hilton at Orly. Wow they are on opposite sides of the city, and I do not speak French. Fortunately, I am sitting next to a Frenchman who speaks English. He helps me through customs, and I find a bus to Orly airport. From Orly, I take the Hilton shuttle to the hotel. So far so good because the staff at registration can speak a little English. I have a 7:00am flight to Grenoble in the morning so I try to get some sleep.

Early Friday morning I check out of the Hilton. The clerk is puzzled when I give him my room number from the last hotel I stayed at in Sweden (The Hilton was my 6th hotel change). So the room was 444 and not 125 - anyone could have made the same mistake!.

The flight to Grenoble is only an hour, and I arrived to an empty airport that is many miles from the city. Shortly after landing, Julie arrived - what a wonderful sight. After a long hug, she informed me that it took 3 different buses to get to the airport from her apartment, and if we did not hurry to get the bus heading back to the city we would have to wait until 10:00 to get the next one. I suggested that we get a rental car - Julie agreed.

Avis has a Fiat diesel with standard transmission available, and we drive toward Grenoble. Julie suggests that we go to the apartment, leave the car and take the bus into the city to eat lunch and get me a two day bus pass. The view from their town (Corenc) is spectacular. Mountains surround the city of Grenoble, and Corenc is at a much higher elevation than Grenoble. Julie showed me some stairs up the street from the apartment - they put to shame some of the hills of San Francisco. We drive to the top of the stairs and look down. Julie tells me that she and Andy walked them - once. The day is warm and clear and the view is wonderful.

The bus stop is near their apartment and the system is good. We travel to downtown (one bus transfer gets you there). It seems that every intersection in the downtown area has a fountain (even one with Mermen instead of Mermaids). She recommends a crepe restaurant. Julie orders in French - very impressive. We have lunch crepes and dessert crepes (Chocolate and pear - yummy). Next we go to the bus station and again she explains in French that she wants a two day pass for me. Yikes he starts asking questions in French. Julie explains that she has exhausted her knowledge of French, but he hands the correct ticket to us.

Next we head back to the apartment. We still have to get to Andy’s research center and check into the hotel. Julie had planned that we would bus to both and had, in fact, chosen the hotel to be close to the train station in downtown Grenoble. I had enjoyed the drive to Grenoble from the airport and suggested that we drive - Big mistake!!

Grenoble may not be a large city like Paris, but the streets are narrow and the maps confusing. Julie had trouble navigating to Andy’s work, and we settled for a parking lot of a huge grocery/everything store where she and Andy shop. A short bus ride, and we were there. Andy showed me around the facility and explains that they are working on a sensor positioning system that would allow, for example, a doctor to more accurately position a needle in a cavity near the heart should it be necessary to drain the area.

Next back to downtown to the hotel to check in. More trouble trying to navigate the streets. Parking is almost non-existent. We finally park close to the hotel, and I take my bags in. Julie again impresses me with her French (of course I do not actually know what she said). Oh No - the toilet does not work. Try telling that to a person that only speaks French. I think he said maybe tomorrow.

We decide to drive back to the apartment and leave the car there for the night. Because Friday was the start of Yom Kippur, and the French restaurants do not start serving dinner until late, Julie made a delicious spaghetti sauce, and we had an early dinner which ended with a tangy lemon tart from one of their favorite bakeries with candles on top to celebrate my birthday. Julie and Andy may have a limited French vocabulary, but they are eating well and looked great.

A bus ride back to the hotel ends the first day in Grenoble.

The next morning Andy and Julie take the bus in and meet me at the hotel. We walk around downtown Grenoble, and I take pictures of some to the sights. We discuss what we should do next. Julie had made dinner reservations at a nice restaurant high on a hill at the Bastille overlooking Grenoble. Access was via some fancy cable cars. This was for 8 pm to be after sundown. We had to keep Andy’s mind off of food until them (and still sneak a snack for ourselves). Julie mentioned that she had seen an ad for a cavern in the mountains near Grenoble that really looked interesting. My family has visited several caverns and caves in the USA, and she knew how interested I was.

Since we had a car and the caves were about 2 hours away, we decided that would be a fun venture for the day. Andy and Julie do not plan to get a car, so this was an opportunity to see a part of France that is only accessible by car (as we found out later, only barely accessible by car).

We bus back to their apartment, and head out to the Grottes de Choranche. Oh no, we have to drive through Grenoble. After a few wrong turns, we are in the country side and headed the correct direction. On the map it looks close, but the tourist center had estimated 2 hours. We head toward some of the mountains. It is a beautiful sunny day, and it is so warm that jackets are not needed.

We stop occasionally to take pictures. We start climbing the mountains - the road gets narrower and narrower. The cliffs are spectacular. There are parts of the road that are now only one lane. Sometimes the cliffs go straight up (and down!) from the sides or the road. There are no barriers on the sides. In some cases the cliff has only been hollowed out so that a car can pass under it - or a small tunnel has been carved out of the cliff for a car to drive through. You can probably guess that Julie has gotten very nervous by now, but Andy and I are thoroughly enjoying the view. In fact I am in awe at the spectacular scenery. We do decide, however that we must make the return trip while it is still daylight, and Julie says she wants the back seat to lie down in and close her eyes on the way back.

After about 2 hours, we reach the entrance to the caves. There are at the base of a sheer U-shaped cliff that towers hundreds of feet above us. There are only about 10 cars there, but there is parking for a hundred. They have a restaurant and two of us have a sandwich.

The caverns are tremendous, and compare favorably with the best caverns we have seen in the USA. These caves have thousands of delicate "soda straw" stalactites which have no comparison in the USA. I took pictures, but it is hard to get good pictures under such low light conditions. The tour guide spoke in French, but they had a one page English translation describing the various chambers that we saw.

The tour is over and we head back to the car for the "roller-coaster" ride back to Grenoble. Julie gets in the back - Andy and I enjoy the beauty of the drive. There is more traffic now, and we proceed cautiously on the one lane portions that curve around the cliffs - editors note - I had to do all of the driving because they don’t teach young people how to drive a standard transmission car these days. We go back to Grenoble and Corenc and to Julie and Andy’s apartment and wait for sundown.

Julie says that there is free parking at the base of the cable cars, so we head back to Grenoble by car. The free parking is 10 spaces, and they are filled as is every street parking space in site. We finally find a parking garage that has some parking available (actually I think we got the last space).

We walk over to the cable cars that climb over the Isere River to the Grenoble Bastilla. The cars are giant round balls that have seating for 6. There are two sets of 4 cars that travel in tandem and cross about half way up. Julie says that the best view is from the last car as we go up. Since we are the only ones going up, we choose the last car. Julie gets nervous again (too many high places for one day), but Andy and I enjoy the view. We had planned some time to sit out and enjoy the view from the Bastilla. Unfortunately, it is now lightly raining and all of the vantage points are outside. We look anyway as the city lights up below us. We decide to go to the restaurant early to see if we can move up the reservation. They do not start serving until 7:30pm, but they let us in and let us sit at our table. We are next to a window with an excellent view of Grenoble below us. It is very dark now, and the city is shimmering in the light rain.

The menu comes with a lot of exciting choices. We have a feast of appetizers (Salmon and rabbit and snails - is this the main reason that Andy came to France) and main dishes (fish and beef and ? - it looked good, but I forget what it was) and cheeses and desserts (beautifully presented and delicious). Andy, of course, helped Julie finish her meal.

Next the cable cars back down. Julie ponders how long it would take to walk. We convince her to ride and close her eyes. Back down, back to the car and I take them back to their apartment. We study the maps one more time to the hotel and then to the airport. I thank them for the adventure and head back to Grenoble to the hotel. It is almost midnight and still there are no parking places available on the streets near the hotel. After circling a few times, I find a parking garage and walk back to the hotel.

The next morning I check out about 6:30am. The clerk does not speak English, but can process a Visa card so all is well. I lug my bags to the parking garage and find that the entrance door is locked and the car entrance/exits are closed garage doors. Don’t panic Bob - look around. There is a machine near the door with a slot and instructions in French. I put in my parking stub, and the door unlocks - no problem. Now I leave the garage and a right, right and left should head me across the river and on to the airport. Hmm now where is that river. It is dark and peaceful, and I do not recognize anything. They must have moved the river. I backtrack and try again. Aha now I know where I am, and I drive to the airport.

The rest is routine, Grenoble to Paris, Paris to Chicago.

I rarely write to family, so please consider this a labor of love. I know that many of you want to know how Julie and Andy are doing, and I thought you might enjoy this. Andy and Julie may have to issue corrections if they disagree with my interpretation of what happened. I do not have Email addresses for everyone. Please forward to anyone that might enjoy my grand adventure.

Bob