Ce week-end à Grenoble…

Equal Rights Collective

Santa, Place Grenette

Christmas Market Lamp Vendor

Grenoble sous la neige !

À Grenoble, It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas… Mais attendez, c’est pas décembre, c’est encore octobre ! (But wait, it’s not December, it’s still October!)

Alors ma question suivante: Où est le vin chaud ? (So, my next question, where’s the vin chaud at?)

The Ides of November: Bring out the Booze & the Christmas lights

It’s mid-November in France. The colors of the trees are fading away and now I’m dependent on my apartment’s heaters to keep me warm. If a sunny day comes along I try and make it up to the Bastille and Mont Jalla while it’s still nice. In all of the city centers around France men are setting up the Christmas lights, which will soon (and more importantly) be followed by the marchés de Noël.

Mont Jalla, November

Men setting up Christmas lights on rue de Bonne, Grenoble

MOST importantly, there’s something here called apéro: a house party involving all sorts of alcoholic beverages + food to pick at. Here in Grenoble: French and English languages flying around the room. More bottles of red wine, rosé, champagne and Ricard than you’ve ever seen before in your life.  It’s no longer warm enough to enjoy a sunny terrace, and my top-floor apartment is no longer too hot to have company over. Five months in, I now have enough chairs, glasses and plates to serve a large group of people. Up until the day of of my first-ever house party, I finally found two large pitchers (are pitchers not used in France?) to make classic and strawberry mojitos. I rolled enough bulgogi kimbap and California rolls to feed everyone and their moms. If you didn’t like sushi or mojitos before coming to my party, you do now.

morning after

Shucks, a fiesta involving Bread is Pain, Crystal, Laët and moi (among others), and all I’ve got is this lousy morning-after shot of my kitchen counter. (Sorry Keith)