Bartimaeus

We've always gone away somewhere for our wedding anniversary.  The somewhere is always chosen to start with the next letter of the alphabet - this year it is G for the second time.  I didn't know much about Grenoble when I first thought about it, but we soon decided it sounded interesting.

The work on Bartimaeus meant that we had an early end to our cruising season, so we were in Edinburgh before we had got anywhere in making plans.  My citation for jury service was a further block on planning, but once that had fizzled we got organised.

Neither of us went inter-railing at the age it used to be traditional to do so, but I soon discovered that it was the best way for us to travel,  We aren't eligible for the discounts for being young, but there are also discounts for being old!  The price includes your first and last days' travel in your home country, so we get the additional bargain of the Edinburgh to London leg being included in the price.

We could have done the journey in a single day, but opted to overnight in Lille in both directions.  To further spread the travelling we chose to stay two nights in Lille in each direction, allowing a day's tourism each time.  This worked well, all the train journeys passed pleasantly.

It was a little stressful trying to make sense of the rules for booking the Tunnel, but it was very straightforward really - I would have no concerns about doing it again.  The thing to watch for is that at busy times the bookings across the channel are limited, so making those early is advisable. We weren't even travelling at a busy time, though so we had no problem.

Our first full day in Grenoble was cold with snow forecast in the afternoon.  We headed for the major tourist attraction, the téléphérique.  There has been a cable car to the Bastille for over 90 years.  The "bulles" (bubbles) we rode in are a more recent innovation, they will be 50 years old next year.

At the top we had an ever-changing view of the mountains all around as the clouds came and went.  After a short explore, we went in to the restaurant for lunch and a warm-up.  It was almost empty when we first arrived, but suddenly filled up with a large number of young troops.  We had seen this group on the hill earlier drinking champagne in some sort of ceremony.

The troops abruptly departed just before us.  By this time it was snowing, so we went around to the nearby Museum of Mountain Troops, but were politely refused entry.  That was where the troops had gone - so we would have to come back later.  We found a small number of troops guarding their colleagues' equipment - rucksacks and rifles.  The guards were enjoying sliding on the snowy ground, looking just like children, except for the rifles slung around their necks.

Once they had had all regrouped and headed off downhill we went back to the museum.  There was an audio guide in English for the first part, and we can both read enough French to get the gist of the rest.  Much of the exhibition celebrated the local resistance during the Nazi occupation, including equipment parachuted in to the mountains by the allies.  The young troops we had seen earlier have a lot to live up to.

After more refreshment we found the cave system cut in to the mountains.  This was built to allow the defence of the castle below from attackers coming from above.  A hidden path allows defenders to climb underground to a vantage point above the defensive walls.

For us, this provided excellent cover from the snow still falling outside.  Going up warmed us a little too.

The openings in the top level cave gave uninterrupted views over the valley below.  I wouldn't want to be trapped below such a vantage point - fortunately we only had a few runners to contend with, and they were all friendly enough.

As we had hoped, the snow had stopped before we headed back down the road to get the cable car down in the last of the daylight.