I-Day in the Countryside

Yesterday was the first time I was not in Bangalore during Independance Day, and it was the first time in 3 days that I felt homesick. I woke up in the morning wishing I'd be at Victoria Statue, seeing the Queen on my left, and Gandhi in the park across the road... the junction lined with boys selling plastic flags at the traffic signal, and everyone proudly displaying their patriotism, as plastic as it is.

!'sigh'!

I went down for breakfast, and sat there eating my croissant, when in walked Kaustav's boss and invited me to join a small party of 4, for a small trip to the mountains around Grenoble.

So off we went, driving into the Vercors. At this point i must tell you a bit about the geography of Grenoble. The city is essentially triangular, with 3 mountain ranges on the sides. The Chartreuse in the North, the Vercors in the west, and Belledonne in the east. Maybe i'll post a map later, cant find one readily.

Anyway, we drove for an hour into the Vercors. I must tell you more about this drive. The road was cut through the mountains, and at a point, the cliff face is on the right, and a deep gorge on the left. At the bottom of the gorge is a thin stream, and on the far side are 25-30 metre tall conifers !! It was beautiful... and when we reached about 400-500 metres up the mountain, we broke into pastures of green green grass. The kind you generally see in Bollywood films, where Salman Khan is trying to woo Karishma Kapoor (ok, stupid joke). But seriously, its like those Alpine meadows we see in postcards, where you pass through villages with a local cheese factory and the village centre has pavements replaced by flower beds ! Oh, and there were cows in the pastures, which had the "i'm-better-than-u-cuz-i-give-milk-from-which-u-make-great-chocolates" look.

So finally after an hour we stopped at a place called Choranche. It has a very normal looking cave, atleast from the outside. When i entered, i figured why i was paying 8 euros to get in !

This cave is about 30 km deep, and inside the mountain, an underground river flows. The interesting thing is that it is so cold in there, that a glacier has formed, and hasnt melted ever ! All over the cave, u can see ice stalactites from the roof, just about a centimetre in diameter, but some over 3metre long, formed over 6000 years !!

 

From this place, we drove to a village called Pont en Royans (meaning "Bridge at Royans"). The river flows through this village, and you can enjoy a picnic lunch on the river. It was quite crowded, even by French standards. We enjoyed a great meal here, at a resto (french slang for restaurant) called Cafe du Royans. They served an amazing ham salad, albeit a bit raw, and the best lemon pie i ever had. Of course, the wine was kick-ass !

 

After lunch, we drove to a ski-resort (no snow though), and took a 2 hour trek in the mountain, to reach a peak called "La Mucherotte", overlooking Grenoble. The view was breathtaking, and our host showed me my to-be-office, from the top of the mountain ! I must also mention that we plucked some wild raspberries on the way up. Believe me, these fruits are extremely delicious, and no "Amul Raspberry Duet" ice-cream can replicate the real taste.

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The walk down from La Mucherotte took another hour. And just when we reached the car, we had a downpour !! Perfect end to a perfect day !

I got dropped back to my hotel, and crashed for the day.
Exhausting, but totally worth the effort !!

And i finally went to work today, after a long long weekend.
But this blog isnt about that.