Using theatre in the classroom? Photo: alancleaver_2000

Christina Rebuffet-Broadus invites local English teachers to participate in TESOL France Grenoble activities ahead of a swap shop on using theatre in the classroom.

English teachers of Grenoble unite!

Grenoble’s chapter of TESOL France has been around since 2008 and is here to give dedicated English teachers a support network where they can exchange ideas, share tips, and even get professional advice.

One of the main activities of TESOL-France Grenoble involves organizing regular swap shops. They take place on Thursdays and/or Saturdays because let’s face it, we’re all busy, and it is a great way to meet like-minded professionals. In the past, the sessions themes have sessions have been devoted to “Watching and Making Films,” “Using Podcasts in the Language Lab,” “Student Presentations—Make Them Beneficial and Worthwhile for Everyone” and other themes that participants have suggested.

Often teachers have given excellent, short talks (10 minutes to half an hour) on techniques that have helped their students progress.

These workshops are conducted in English, and teachers are encouraged to share ideas that have worked for them. After all, the more brains the better!

The swap shops alone make membership worth it, but there are other benefits to taking part in TESOL-France Grenoble too! Members get free admission to all TESOL France events. The biggest ones are TESOL France Spring Day (in Strasbourg in April 2012) and the annual conference (every November in Paris) and it pulls in some big names in the industry. Think David Crystal, Luke Meddings, and Ken Wilson!

All this costs only €49. And if you can get your school to agree on an institutional membership, four teachers will get yearly membership at a reduced price.

Membership also includes a subscription to the quarterly newsletter Teaching Times, which publishes articles on teacher development ideas, academic research, conferences in France and abroad, news from other TESOL France regional chapters, EFL/ESL book reviews, and more.

Of course, you don’t have to be a member to go to the regional events such as the swap shops. You’re just asked to pay a participation fee, usually around 8€. For more information about becoming a member, you can check out the TESOL France website at www.tesol-france.org.

And now for the personal note!

I signed up about a year ago, when I felt I needed a career boost. That was probably one of the best professional decisions I’ve made as yet (the other was joining the WWNG, Working Women’s Network Grenoble). I had been teaching for about five or so years and was ready for a deeper involvement in my job. I was getting bored and a bored teacher means bored students! No fun for anyone!

I’ve been to two Paris events and a couple of swap shops here in Grenoble (where I met the lovely Marianne Raynaud who is a mine of good ideas, met teachers from different parts of France and the world. Thanks to the Internet, we stay in touch on Twitter and Facebook, which have become my virtual teachers’ lounge!

But I’d have to say the biggest benefit was about this time last year, when I wanted to go for a Cambridge certification. I’d thought about the DELTA but wasn’t sure where to do it. Then I opened up the Teaching Times and there was a two-page spread on ESOL Strasbourg and their new CELTA/DELTA program. So I got in touch with the coordinator and signed up for the DELTA, which has literally changed my teaching life for the better. And all that thanks to TESOL France. No kidding.

I decided to start my own teaching blog, where, for the moment, I’m logging my DELTA Experimental Practice Assignment with Dogme teaching. Of course it’ll expand with time, but right now you can follow what is going on in a class where we are trying to go a whole semester with lessons that are materials-light, conversation-driven, and completely focused on students’ emerging language. Sound a bit fuzzy? You can find out how it works in practice on my blog!

Curious to know more about TESOL France Grenoble? Our next swap shop is coming up on Saturday February 25th! Click here to find out more.

This event is FREE to TESOL France members. Non-members are kindly asked to pay an 8€ fee at the door.

If you like, becoming a member of TESOL France (49€ for one year for individuals) on the day will also be possible. Please fill out the online membership form in advance if you would like to join.

To the Bastille by bubble

Grenoble Life’s Christina Rebuffet-Broadus shuns the mass exodus for the beaches to check out guided tours of her adopted home town. Here’s what she found out.

The French have flocked south for their yearly dose of Mediterrannean sun, leaving the city streets all but deserted. The smaller shops have pulled down their iron curtains with fermé pour congés annuels hastily taped to the facade before migrating for the summer. Every now and then, you catch a group of tourists (without skis this time) wandering around the city.

Rather than crowd yet another beach and up the chances of getting skin cancer, city-tethered locals and French-challenged tourists may want to explore Grenoble. The Tourism Office operates a few regular English-language tours during the summer. Admit it – getting cozy with the city is way more fun than trying to squeeze onto a beach with half of the French population. Afterward, you can impress friends and family with your expertise in Grenobology.

I’m a big fan of being a tourist in your own city. Don’t take the attractions for granted—get out and do them! Start, for example, with the Tourism Office’s audioguided tour of the city center. If you’ve lived here long enough, you may already know when Cularo’s rampart was built. Maybe you can pinpoint where Napoleon marched into Grenoble on his way to power-center Paris. But you’ve probably never eavesdropped on those events as they happened.

The audioguides go beyond stringing dates, places, and names together like a 1850s history book. In about an hour-and-a-half visit through the city center, the history of Grenoble speaks to you, literally. Listen in as two tourists argue if it’s Place du Trib’ or Place St. André and let the abbot of St. Hugues church tell you what Place Notre Dame used to be.

I thought I had schooled myself well in Grenoble history and still learned a few new things about my adopted hometown. Plus, with all the other tourists walking around, I didn’t stick out so much with my map, headphones, and a remote-control-looking device hanging around my neck. When I opted to listen to some Liszt, I could peacefully contemplate the facade of the hotel where he stayed. 

If you prefer flesh and blood to plastic and LCD screens, the Tourism Office also hosts two regular guided visits in English: the Bastille and the city center. I tried the Bastille tour, just because it includes a ride in the Bubbles (honestly, how many of you still haven’t taken the Bubbles?). Little did I know, the Bastille would storm me although I’ve been regularly climbing its slopes since I’ve lived here.

To begin the tour, I joined Steve, my guide in the Jardin de Ville for a short lesson on Lesdiguières and why he built the first fortifications in the 16th century. You will have to take the tour yourself to find out, but here’s a hint: If he could do it, so could anyone else, which was not good for Grenoble’s security (Hint for the hint: “it” doesn’t mean building the Bastille).

We floated to the top of the site and began by reading Grenoble from above. The roofs below told the history of the city through color. The red roofs represented the oldest parts of Grenoble from the middle ages. Lesdiguières left his mark with blue slate roofs. More recent architectural history was written in black and white. 

The history of Grenoble is written on the rooftops

With a guide, you can visit parts of the Bastille usually closed to the public. We explored the upper blockhouses where soldiers lived and canons once boomed. The vaulted ceilings gave the living quarters the false feeling of an early medieval chapel but the sentinels probably didn’t pray much. They never came under fire. Construction of the Bastille ended in 1845 and Grenoble could feel fully protected from potential Savoyard invasions. Then Savoie became French in 1860 and the Bastille had no one to guard Grenoble from.

As dutiful tourists, Steve and I attacked the dry moat, no man’s land, and we tunneled through Mandrin’s grottoes. All of these parts are open to the public, but with a guide, they become more than a place for a panoramic picnic or holes in the mountainside.

To understand just how ingenious the Bastille’s layout is, let the guide explain it to you on site. You will literally see how the Bastille functioned as a fort. As Steve pieced the elements together, I understood how well Haxo had planned the Bastille. He probably never even knew he was creating the star of Grenoble. 

Audioguides are available for rent at the Grenoble Tourism Office for 5€. For an extra euro, you can have a second set of headphones so that two people can listen to a single device.

The Bastille visit costs 9.50€ and includes a round trip on the Bubbles.

The city center visit costs 6.50€.

You can sign up for the city center or Bastille visit at the Tourism Office or at their summer information booth at the foot of the Bubbles. The city center visit takes place at 2:30 pm and the Bastille visit starts at 4:30 pm, every day except Sunday.

Les Halles Sainte Claire, Grenoble

Grenoble Life’s Christina Rebuffet-Broadus walks Les Halles Sainte Claire, Grenoble’s foremost covered market and former convent, now site to a “divine experience of another kind”.

France wouldn’t be the same without the places that fire the wanderlust of francophiles everywhere. There are the cafés for people-watching and sipping an espresso in the sun. There are the Gothic cathedrals with spires straight out of a Victor Hugo novel. Then there are the open air markets, a sort of grand mass for the foodies of France. Almost every Sunday, I show up for service at Les Halles Sainte Claire for my weekly indulgence.

The Sainte Claire site once offered a divine experience of another kind. From the 15^th century, Clairisse nuns saved the city’s soul from inside the convent that once stood here. As industrialization conquered 19^th century France, the citizens of Grenoble needed physical rather than spiritual nourishment and the city decided to build a modern marketplace—the Halles Saint Claire, in 1874. The Grenoblois have been “going marketing,” as Julia Child would say, at Place Sainte Claire ever since.

Inside the Eiffel-esque glass and metal building, all those things that we expats love about French markets swirl about. There are a few cheese stalls with wide selections of what France does best. A baker offers classic baguettes and an assortment of more sophisticated pains. There are meat, fish, and poultry sellers for the protein. A few stands offer ready to eat delights if you can’t face the stove or wait to get back home to dig in.

There are a few stands that have upped my consumption of certain dishes. I’m almost on a first name basis with the sauerkraut lady (I said almost) of La Fée Maison. This young woman is like my French food fairy godmother. Ever tried to find good take-home choucroute in Grenoble? Well, here it is. This woman hails from the hearty land of Alsace and regularly goes back to select her cabbage farmers. She’ll also help you pick out the meats to serve with all that fermented cabbage—there’s a secret to choosing, but you’ll have to ask the expert.

Al Dente is the other stand that makes mush of my will power. Their homemade gnocchi measures up to the store bought stuff about the same way discount Carrefour glace does to artisanal Italian gelato. They always have a few olives set on the counter for sampling, but it’s the colorful antipasti and dried fruits that will catch your culinary eye.

Les Halles Sainte Claire isn’t just about the food—the sellers are as much a part of the experience as the food they sell. There’s the Harley riding chicken man that invited my husband and I to a rockabilly soirée at a neon-lit biker bar somewhere on the route nationale between Crolles and Chambéry. If you’re looking for a juicy poulet de Bresse or a jumping Teddy Boy joint, he’s your man. Catty corner to the chicken man, there’s the Chesire cat-grinning butcher. This man was born to be a butcher. Not so much for the kooky smile as for the savory paupiettes de veau that he ties up by the dozen. Go early if you plan on picking some up.

In fact, go early period, especially on Saturdays. Like anywhere in France, Saturday is synonymous with shopping crowds and trying to navigate the alley ways with a caddy full of groceries can be an exercise in patience and learning to live without personal space. Accept now that you will be trampled by little old ladies. That’s when it’s time to shop not in the halles, but around the halles.

“Ooh, pour ça il faut voir avec ma femme là-bas, c’est elle qui fait la cuisine et je suis pas encore mort! C’est que c’est pas trop mauvais!”

More brouhaha from the fruit & vegetable man?

Much of the brouhaha outside comes from the vegetable man who converses with his customers as if they all wore hearing aids. That’s how everyone in line learned that the secret of sautéeing buttery chanterelles baffled me. But I got a good recipe from his wife, not to mention a free bouquet of parsley, and a complimentary kiwi before being sent off with a few kilos of fruits and vegetables (my mom would be so proud) for around 10 euros. The quantity of produce carted away always seems to defy the low price and really, who doesn’t love those hollering market sellers?

The market at Les Halles Sainte Claire is convenient as the sellers set up shop every day except Monday, until around 1 p.m. On Fridays and Saturdays, the inside stands even stay open until 7 p.m. so that shoppers can prepare for weekend dinners with friends. Shopping starts as early as 6 a.m., so technically you could pick up some groceries before going to work.

Marketing can be hard fun. After a morning of poring over produce and poultry, you’ll find me at Le Zinc, a postcard of a bistro that usually has a few tables set up just opposite Les Halles. Watching this picturesque part of France from behind a grand crème offers the perfect reward for loading up on all those vegetables.

Sainte Claire, paradoxically, is unique and much like the outdoor markets all over Grenoble. It reminds us of the France that Julia Child loved, the France that M.F.K. Fisher praised, a France that still exists somewhat, defying the million metre carré Carrefours. A France that wants to enjoy grocery shopping as foreplay to a good meal. Customers come to savor the food, not just consume it. The nuns may be gone, but Sainte Claire still serves up a certain spiritual nourishment for the gourmets of Grenoble.

Pumpkins

Bob and Sylvie Tharinger own and operate Pumpkins (33 rue d’Alembert), Grenoble’s only authentically American restaurant. Christina Rebuffet-Broadus of Grenoble Life talks with them about showing the French that American cooking is much more than McDo has led them to believe.

Grenoble Life: Could you tell us a little about yourselves? It seems every Franco-Anglo-American couple has a story. What’s yours?

Bob: I had traveled around the world, had already been to Grenoble once, and came back here to work. This is where I met Sylvie, then we lived a while in the United States, where our son was born. But finally, we settled down in Grenoble in 1978. We came back because Sylvie wanted to return to Grenoble.

Sylvie: I’m not originally from here, but have family in Grenoble. For me, it was more that I didn’t want to live in southern France than I wanted to come back to Grenoble. I would have liked to live in one of the Scandinavian countries, with their Nordic landscapes. Grenoble was sort of a compromise for us.

GL: How long has Pumpkins existed?

Bob: We opened in September 2004. We bought the place in June of the same year, but of course had to do some work beforehand. It’s been almost five years, unbelievable!

Bob and Sylvie

GL: We all know the French people’s reticence towards American food. How did you get the idea to open an American restaurant?

Bob: We’ve always done a lot of cooking, often for our friends, often a lot of American dishes. We both like to cook and eat, and realized that people didn’t really know the variety of things you can eat in the United States. Unfortunately, the French tend to have a very fast-food idea of American cuisine. They would never believe the food you can get in the United States.

Where I’m from in Minnesota, we noticed restaurants do a lot of different things, there are all kinds of influences. So we figured we could probably do anything we wanted and call it American cooking, but we didn’t really want to call it “American” for fear that people would run in the other direction. So we just called it Pumpkins.

Sylvie: We got tired of people saying “American cooking … beurk!” We wanted to show people that real American cooking exists. Plus we didn’t want to put “American” in the name because it could sound a bit snobbish or exclusive, like not everyone was welcome. But we also didn’t want to use “American” because of a certain image that the French had of Americans, especially at the time of the opening because of the political situation. We just wanted everyone to feel comfortable, not like Pumpkins was just a place for Anglophones.

Bob behind the bar

GL: How did you come up with the name “Pumpkins”?

Bob: Sylvie just had the idea the one day! And I thought it was great because it’s very visual and something people remember easily.

Sylvie: I thought it sounded convivial. It made me think of the pumpkin patches in the American east coast at the end of summer when we used to visit. Plus Pumpkins sounded good and was easy to pronounce for us French.

GL: Now, for the good stuff. Tell us a little about your menu. What kinds of American food can your guests find at Pumpkins?

Bob: We really try to offer a sampling of the United States’ regional cooking. We have family all over the northern U.S., plus both of us like southern food — barbecue, seafood, and especially African-American cuisine, which in itself is extremely varied. There’s also a Jewish delicatessen influence, something relatively unknown in France. And if you go to the northwest region of the United States, there’s a great mix of Chinese, Japanese, and Native American cuisines based on the abundance of good, local products. More or less, we try to do a little of all this.

One of the hardest things is to do meat like in the United States. Lucky for us, we found a French butcher who lived and worked in San Francisco, but now he’s right on rue Nicolas Chorier. It’s great because he knows American cuts of meat. He knows what an American pork chop is and can cut a sirloin steak if we want. He even helps us to do real corned beef, which is practically impossible to find around here.

Sylvie: Every two weeks, we change one dish on the dinner menu. There are some things that we always have. We’ll always have the burger. At lunch, we always have chili on the menu, but we change the presentation — one week the chili will be in a tortilla, another it’ll be with guacamole. Once we had a couple come in and they both ordered the same dish, so I gave each one different sides. That way they could taste everything!

Downstairs dining room

GL: Pumpkins also does brunches. When are they held and where did that idea come from?

Bob: We’ve been doing the brunches for two or three years now. Our brunches are typically midwest-American. We wanted to host a brunch much like the Sunday brunch that I knew when I was a kid — eggs, bacon, sausage, plus some extras. We would like to do a real family-style brunch, with a self-serve buffet, but here we don’t really have enough room.

With all the families that come in, it would be hard for people to serve themselves with the strollers and the children and I don’t want to lose that family atmosphere by doing a buffet. It’s fantastic to see the people at the brunches — they’re relaxed, happy, even if they have to wait sometimes for their food,  they don’t care. They come in and have a good time.

It’s so successful that we have to turn down almost as many people as we accept for the brunches. We do just one service per brunch, that way the people can come and stay as long as they like. We want them to feel at home.

Sylvie: From a culinary point of view, I think we do the only real brunch in Grenoble. Our brunch is “made in Minnesota” — it’s not French, it’s not Spanish, it’s not Dutch. When we were younger, all the kids in Bob’s extended family knew they could go to his dad’s house on Sunday morning and be greeted with the smell of bacon grilling, eggs scrambling and the whole family got together. That’s the brunch we try to recreate, that family-get-together atmosphere.

Bob: In the 1960s and 1970s, my father would host these fantastic brunches and people would just stop by. Family members, friends passing through the area, and the ambiance was simply extraordinary. That’s part of the reason why we created this restaurant and really wanted to host the brunch.

GL: That’s a heartwarming story, wanting to recreate the family ambiance that you knew growing up at your dad’s. Speaking of family get togethers, does Pumpkins do anything special for American holidays?

Bob: We would like to do something for the 4^th of July, but since we’re in the city, it’s unfortunately impossible to do a backyard barbecue. Thanksgiving, however, is enormous. Last year, we had 60 kilos of turkey and I think in all we served around 150 Thanksgiving dinners, but I’m not sure. It got to the point where we stopped counting.

We also did a Christmas brunch, again with a lot of midwestern, German-American influences. We had German-American style pastries among other things because in the past, many German and Scandinavian immigrants settled in that region.

The idea behind all our dishes is family cooking. For all our meals we create a plate like if you were eating in an American family situation—all the food’s on the table and you help yourself to everything. Except we put the plate together in the kitchen, recreating that American plate, with the meat, sides, sauces and relishes all in the same plate.

GL: To finish, I’m going to ask you the impossible. How would you describe American cooking in a few words?

Bob: (with Sylvie, laughs) I remember our first cook, who was a very competent cook mind you, told us, “OK, I get it: just add sugar and hot sauce and it’s American cooking.”

There’s not just one American cuisine, there are lots of American cuisines, just like in France — the food varies enormously between the regions.  The cuisine of the southwest has touches of Mexican influence and is completely different from the cooking of the northeast where you’ll find chowders and baked beans. That cuisine has nothing to do with the cooking of New Orleans, which also has a totally different taste from the growing Cuban-American cuisine. There are lots, lots of different American cuisines.

But we’ll always have a hamburger on the menu for the French who don’t want to be disappointed and the Americans who want a real home-style burger.

Although the menu changes often, at the time of this interview, Pumpkins was serving Cajun catfish, a blue cheese burger, tortilla wrapped chili, and Los Angeles Fire Department-style chicken wings. Dinner dishes cost around 10-15 euros, desserts such as cheesecake, pecan pie, and sundaes cost 5-6 euros.

Pumpkins (33, Rue D’alembert, 38000 Grenoble) is open for lunch on Thursday and Friday; for dinner Wednesday through Saturday. Brunches are every other Sunday. Call ahead to reserve: 04 76 29 48 21

You can also sign up for the Pumpkins newsletter with the season’s brunch dates emailed in advance. Email pumpkins.restaurant@wanadoo.fr

Bookworm Café

Denis Rivière of Grenoble owns and operates the Bookworm Café (91 rue Saint Laurent), Grenoble’s newest English-friendly establishment. Christina Rebuffet-Broadus of Grenoble Life talks with him and his English wife Dawn about setting up a used book shop and tea room in one of Grenoble’s historic neighborhoods.

Grenoble Life: Could you tell us a little about the people behind the Bookworm Café?

Denis Rivière: I’ve always lived in Grenoble and I’ve been working since I was 18, in several different jobs. After having obtained a BTS in sales, I worked especially as a sales administration manager.

Thanks to this professional experience, I knew what it was to run a company. However, the times being what they are, I was laid off, like so many people today. I wanted to take it as an opportunity to work for myself. And people gave me lots of suggestions as to what kind of business to set up, but it was my wife who had the right one. So I’ll let her tell you about it.

GL: Yes, please tell us, how was the idea of Bookworm Café born?

Dawn Rivière: Originally from Shrewsberry, England, I’ve been in Grenoble since 1991 and the idea of a tea room/book shop had been running around in my head for quite some time. Before, in the quartier des antiquaires, there was a bookshop called Just Books. It was magnificent, an intimate little boutique, with tons of books—used books, new books and I always thought it would be great if there was a tea room right there in the book shop. Quite a lot of us felt the same way. We said why not, in Grenoble, have a used book shop that was also a tea room?

So, Denis and I discussed it for a long time, we thought about its potential and viability, and finally we said, “why not?” It’s something that didn’t exist in Grenoble and that market needed to be filled.  English book shop tea rooms exist in Paris, but Grenoble had yet to have one. I remember when I was in a student in Coventry, we had such a tea room, where my friends and I would eat and buy our books for school. The whole atmosphere was really fantastic.

GL: Where did you get the name, The Bookworm Café?

Dawn: We had several ideas. We considered The Literary Café, but thought it sounded a bit pompous. We were afraid that the name would frighten people who didn’t consider themselves to be very literary or intellectual. Of course The Bookworm Café was in consideration. So we made a list of four or five names and passed around to friends of ours, and The Bookworm Café won.

GL: True, The Bookworm Café sounds warm, cozy, like wrapping up with a good read. And what was it like to start your own business in Grenoble?

Denis: Everything went really well. As all new businesses, I had to register The Bookworm Café with the Chamber of Commerce and they gave me lots of advice on building a business. Thanks to my professional experience, I found the administrative aspects quite manageable. I met lots of people who were very willing to help with the project. Of course, I had a solid project and an accountant who helped with the financial aspects, but the people at the Chamber of Commerce were very pleasant to work with, very helpful.

When you’ve got an idea and you’re sure of it, you have to go for it. And the Chamber of Commerce is not naïve. They know that half of all new businesses fail within their first year, but if you have a viable project, they’re very willing to help. You just can’t be afraid of paperwork and bureaucracy, but once the ball was rolling, everything happened quite quickly.

The Bookworm Café terrace

GL: Grenoble boasts France’s second-largest Anglophone population. Does The Bookworm Café have a mission regarding this population?

Denis: No, not necessarily. It’s true that the Anglophone community likes to get together, in the pubs for example. It’s true that we serve English tea and pastries, but we’re open to everybody, English and French speakers who enjoy the coziness of a typical English atmosphere.

Dawn: We want the Bookworm Café to be a meeting place, like Denis said, for English and French speakers. You don’t have to speak English to enjoy a good cup of tea! Perhaps if we do have a mission for the English community, it’s to provide a good cup of real English tea, which is not so easy to find here in Grenoble!

GL: Tell us a little about the literary side of the Bookworm café. How do the book sales work?

Denis: It’s very simple! We sell used books. Paperbacks start at 50 cents and for the other books, the price depends on the age and the condition of the book. We’re considering putting into place a fidelity card system — each time someone donates a book, we’ll put a stamp on their card and once they’ve earned a certain number of stamps, they get a free cup of tea or something like that. But that project hasn’t been finalized yet. We want to know what our clients would like and then adapt to them.

GL: You also mentioned a book club. That sounds like an exciting idea.

Denis: Starting around mid-September, the Bookworm Café will host a free book club. There will be two groups, surely on Tuesday and Thursday, both starting at 5:30 p.m. We’ll have two groups — one for native speakers and French people who have spent some time abroad or who speak very good English; the other will be for people who enjoy reading in English, but who have more difficulties speaking. And of course both will be free and open to the public.

Dawn: As a teacher at the Université Inter-Ages, I realized that my students liked to get together and speak English together. This would give them, and others who are interested, the chance to practice English. We’ll also have an English server who will take orders and chat in English, just like what the participants would experience if they were in a café in England.

GL: Do you have any other programs that you are considering organizing?

Denis: We’re thinking about doing a class for younger children based on games, songs, things like that. Wednesday morning will surely be for younger children, with classes for older children and teenagers Wednesday afternoon. Since these would be classes, there would be a fee.

We’ll also have a Children’s Hour, with storytelling and and such. This would be a free program to help children have fun and just enjoy listening to English.

These programs will be put into place starting around the rentrée, so if anyone is interested, they should contact us for more information.

GL: The Bookworm Café is in the Saint Laurent neighborhood, which is one of Grenoble’s historical districts. What are your impressions of your neighborhood?

Denis: I’ve known this area for a long time, and back in the day, it was very lively, with butcher shops, green grocers, but since, these things have closed. But the neighborhood is being revived and there is a project underway to renovate the area and create a second city center.

Dawn: It’s a beautiful neighborhood, very charming, very historic – really worth discovering. For us, it’s a bit of a risk to have chosen this neighborhood, as it’s out of the way. There are fewer passersby than in the city center, but we think the people will come here because they like the atmosphere, the books, and the tea. In the city center, no other places that we looked at had the charm of this neighborhood, and we think that will attract people.

GL: Now that we can’t wait to have a comforting cup of tea and get cozy with a good book, where and when exactly can we find you?

Denis: We’re at 91 rue Saint Laurent in Grenoble. The Bookworm Café is open Tuesday through Saturday 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. For more information, please contact us at 04.76.25.29.98 or by email at bookwormcafe@gmail.com

The Bookworm Café is currently closed but will reopen on Thursday. July 30.