Adele abroad: Vizille

So, after a brief letting off of steam I return to the purpose of this blog. Keeping you all informed about what I am doing. After I let you all hanging about Vizille I am back to resume the tale.

First things first, I went for brunch at a restaurant called Pain et Cie. I am not usually someone who describes food and I am definitely not someone who is inclined to photography their food but I was sorely tempted. If only to document the sheer volume of food that was presented. As you are all aware, brunch is usually a mix of breakfast and lunch foods. The brunch here followed the same principle with one important deviation. Whereas at home, bunch is the size of regular meal, at this particular restaurant I felt like I was eating a full breakfast, and a full lunch in one sitting. The waitress brought everything out in stages, first was a bread basket with 4 different kinds of spread (one of which being white chocolate macadaemia, mmm) and a croissant each. The bread (and croissant) had been freshly made on location and they were delicious. This on its own would have sufficed for breakfast, but there was more to come. Next came yogurt and granola and a soft boiled egg with bread strips. I should also mention that during this phase of the meal there was also tea (or espresso, or coffee, or hot chocolate), freshly squeezed orange juice and water. I would easily have been full after all of this but just as I was finishing the waitress brought out the salad. Since there was no more room on our table, the waitress had to place the salad on the adjoining table, luckily it wasn't too busy.

Now, this was not just any salad, there were indeed lettuce and greens involved but there was also an incredible amount of meat and cheese. I had four different kinds of cheese on my plate, there was brie, fresh mozzarella and two others I don't know the names of. I should also mention that the amount of cheese per kind was greater than the sum of cheese you would expect to find in any salad at home. There were also deli meats (as if I wasn't already overwhelmed enough), proscuitto, salami and smoked ham for those wondering. Overall it was a delicious experience, though in the future I may try to order just breakfast or lunch so I can move after.

Now, getting on back on track to the original purpose of this entry after brunch we waddled to the tram stop so we could go to train station. We didn't actually catch the train but took a coach bus that operated in much the same way as a city bus, except the distance between the stops was much greater. It ended up costing 8€20 for the round trip which seemed a little expensive but it was about 20km's each way so I suppose it was fairly reasonable.

Here you have a pictorial representation (I have been told they are useful so I keep including them). I took us about 1hr to get there but mainly because the bus went in circles in Grenoble picking up people, and as we had jumped on at the first stop there were quite a few of them. Once we arrive in Vizille we were pleasantly surprised to discover that the entire park and museum were free. I was also some what mistaken as the castle in Vizille actually has two functions. It is as castle, but it houses the museum of the French revolution, so its kind of a two in one visit.

We went into the museum/castle first. Now, I am not really one for museums with audio guides but this one was very good and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The museum consisted mainly of paintings done during/of the French Revolution displayed in various rooms of the castle. Some of the were massive with a person in the painting being the size of real life person.

A tapestry with "Freedom or death" written. I was originally annoyed with my reflection but I think it looks kind of cool

That piano is a grand piano, so you can imagine how huge the painting is.

Again, this people are only slightly smaller than real people. There was a ton of symbolism in this picture but I can't remember any specific example at the moment

This is one of the picture that the audio guide really brought alive. All of these people are rebels waiting for their names to be called by the executioner, in the background you can see a woman struggling who's name has just been called. The man in the center was an important figure, sadly I can't remember his name

The woman in white is Marie Antoinette, wife of Louis XIV on the way to here execution. The audio guide commented on how here torso was elongated to make her seem more heavenly, which was common in many English paintings of the era (this was painted by and english painter)

the stone walls you could see at certain points inside the museum

the declaration of man's and the citizen's rights

Perhaps one of the best known painting of the revolution. This event actually took place in the castle in Vizille (July 21st 1788), but the room in the picture has since been destroyed. This is only a small portion of the photo as I couldn't get far enough away to get the whole thing in.