Montessori school shelves with toys. Photo: 3neus

In a three-part blog Camille Bromley describes a day in the life of a teacher at the Montessori International School of Grenoble. Read part I.

7:38 am

Bus stop, Place Verdun.  As the number 31 bus to Meylan: Maupertius approaches I’m hastily devouring the remaining third of my Big Chocolate, freshly purchased for 1 euro from Sandwich House located behind the Maison de Tourisme tram stop, outgoing side. Ordinarily the Big Chocolates from this Sandwich House are not especially good pain au chocolat, but they’re easily the size of two regular pain au chocolat, a good bargain at 1 euro (the American in me is always a sucker for bargains), and in the morning when they’re warm they’re still pretty darn tasty.

The Big Chocolate is the ritual first step in my once-weekly workday as an English teacher at Montessori International Primary School in Meylan, as this is the only day in the week I exit the house early enough to catch one while still warm. The other days of the week I work as an English assistant in public primary schools.

Teaching at Montessori International School is not like teaching in French public school.  It’s vastly different, in fact.  If you’re not familiar with what’s called the Montessori Method, I’ll briefly explain: The Montessori Method of children’s education was originally developed in the early 20th century by an Italian educator named Maria Montessori. It’s an alternative approach to schooling, encouraging a child’s individual self-directed learning using the support of materials and teacher observation. 

From what I understand, while many schools worldwide function under the heading of Montessori School there are no defined guidelines for the specific practical application of this education system. However, the general idea is that children learn best when they follow their natural instincts and interests. In other words, it’s self-study for kids; less academically-put, the kids do what they feel like.

This “do-what-you-feel-like” philosophy is most decidedly not the norm in French public schools, from what I’ve seen in my year’s experience there, the essential part of a teacher’s oral utterances consisting of phrases such as, non, tu n’as pas le droit!; vous levez la doigt pour avoir la parole!; TAISEZ-VOUS! [yelled shockingly loud]; vous êtes insupportables aujourd’hui! [tone of resignation and accompanying sigh]; and finally the much-loved Bravo!, with exaggerated sarcasm. Thus, Montessori International reputedly offers an alternative to parents who prefer their kids to receive more positive encouragement than negative during the first 6–9 years of their educational development.

However, I haven’t given an entirely clear picture of the Montessori International School in Meylan. This school is foremost an international school, with instruction provided in French and English. I am the English-instruction teacher (on Mondays anyways), and a woman with a confounding last name, Martine Grzelak, functions as school director and French-instruction teacher. 

We take care of the primary-age children, age 6–12. The children in this group, about 25 of them, are mostly Francophone, with a solid group of Anglophones and couple French-English bilingual kids. There is another, separate class of students at the school, the pre-school age group (ages 3–6), also Francophone or Anglophone or both, headed by Emilie Ballivy. The pre-schoolers are called Les petits castors, which gives an accurate impression of their work ethic and focused accomplishment under the guidance of Ms. Ballivy.

The school makes use of an impressive collection of Montessori materials and supplies, and the curriculum is organized around the French National Education program, so that children are expected to cover a similar material to public school students. More on the Montessori Method as the day progresses.

Part II

Part III

Paul Waters at The Cake Shop

Grenoble Life meets Paul Waters, The Cake Shop’s young British pâtissier, to ask him about leaving the UK to make British and American style cakes in France.

Grenoble Life: What’s your job at The Cake Shop?

Paul Waters: My job is a mixture of things – with there only being two other people that work at The Cake Shop and so many things to do the work gets shared around. I mainly design and create the cakes but I also help out in the shop front stocking the shelves and serving clients.

I also get to make the cupcakes and other tasty goodies that you see on display when you come to the store, as well as teaching people my skills and helping to organise events. But I mainly stick to designing and creating cakes. If it’s been made with sugar paste nine times out of 10 it will have been made by me. I literally eat and breathe sugar paste – it’s my life, and a tasty one at that!

GL: How were you recruited and where did you train? 

Paul: I trained at The National Bakery School at South Bank University in London. I intended to do a two-year course there but, due to government funding, it was cut to one year. Nevertheless I left with my Diploma in craft studies. I studied pretty much everything from bread to chocolate.

It was my mother who found the job at The Cake Shop. She was flicking through my Cake magazine when she saw there was a job going for a store in France. At the time I was happily making a mess in the kitchen making something tasty when she approached me with it. I was highly interested and desperate for an adventure, not thinking I would get anywhere because at the time I was only 16 and just starting college, although I have been baking and creating cakes for people since I was eight. But my parents assured me to go for it I distinctly remember them saying “if it doesn’t go anywhere it’s all good experience.”

After sending the email, the following day I received a phone call from the owner, Ariane Zenker, who gave me a mini-interview on the phone. After the call ended I was so excited, my imagination went into overtime as I began to dream of what could happen next. After lots of talk and conversation via email I arranged to go out and see her in February during half term with my mother. After that things just took off and one thing spiralled into another.

GL: Tell us a little bit about your background?

Paul: Well, I grew up in an area called Essex just outside of London, when I was about 11 my parents sold the house brought a smaller one and another one in the south of France. That sparked my love for France and from then on it has been a never-ending love affair, holidays spent with a wall paper scraper in one hand and a paint brush in the other, whilst trying to figure out what ‘plaster’ is in French.

GL: Why did you decide to move to France?

Paul: Well the fact my parents already have a holiday home in the south and they plan to move there permently next year was a big deciding factor. I knew what to expect from my time spent there I had a basic understanding of French life and language. There have also been a lot of problems in my family, a lot of upset; I wanted to get it away from it all as well. The English weather also leaves a lot to be desired.

GL: How have you adapted to life in France?

Paul: I have adapted very well mainly because of my parents having their holiday home in the south but also, because I was so desperate to leave the UK to see the world, determination has kept me going. My advice to anyone moving to this country is to relax, clear your mind and embrace the culture. Do not make comparisons with your home town don’t try to live your life like you normally do, change it to fit the environment.

When I first moved here I was just 17 a lot of people never took me very seriously at first, not to mention the fact that my parents had to sign everything for me as I had no signing power! I couldn’t even take out a phone contract or internet as a result but now at the age of 18 things are a lot better.

I also find the French attitude to being free/open and expressing your self very strange. Paris is a place of art, fashion, the weird, the wonderful, and is filled with some of the most beautiful things. Yet when you come to express yourself through fashion and art you raise a lot of eyebrows and get some very strange looks. It seems the rest of France has no desire to follow in the shadow of Paris; if this has anything to do with French people disliking the Parisians I have yet to find out. 

GL: Tell us about a typical day at The Cake Shop?

Paul: Well I usually arrive at 11:00, Ariane will brief me in on the plan for the day, she will say something along the lines of; “you have that wedding cake to start and the cookie class at 3:00”, “I also got an email from the woman that you did the Princess Cake for, she was very happy”. Then I make a start on my jobs for the day. I could have a long list of cakes to decorate or, if a delivery has just arrived from the UK, it needs unpacking, pricing and being put on display.

I may also get the chance to develop new products or create new classes. I may be teaching people in the evening or doing things on the computer. Every day is completely different – you never quite know what obstacles you will need to overcome or what you are doing. I usually finish about eight in the evening after shutting up the store for the night.

GL: What’s the best thing about your job?

Paul: I love what I do and so many people don’t get the chance nowadays to do what they love. The best thing about my job is it’s so different, I am never bored, never creating the same cake twice, or sat around with nothing do. Working at The Cake Shop can be fun, crazy, hectic and stressful but it’s all worth it in the end.

GL: What are some of the more difficult experiences you have had working at the cake shop?

Paul: Working at The Cake Shop can be very difficult at times – when you have a lot of work to do the pressure is on to meet your deadlines. When things go wrong everything seems to go wrong at once but, because of the nature of my job, some of my worst experiences are also some of my best. For example, you have a cake rapidly melting in the heat and it’s causing the icing to stretch and expand at the sides, you have to act quickly and work out why it went wrong and how to stop it. I will then learn from that and move on, turning it into a good experience.

GL: What do you love about Grenoble?

Paul: I love the way Grenoble is so small yet has lots of big name stores here and nice shops, it gives it a city feel but at heart it has the community of a town. It’s very hard to explain but it makes it a very nice place to be, surrounded by all the mountains. I also love Grenoble’s cosmopolitan feel, the mix of all different nationalities and the students.

GL: What are your plans for the future?

Paul: I would love to take The Cake Shop to Paris; I would love to get back to the buzz of the city, its pulse runs through my blood. I would definitely consider doing my own business in Paris – what would be really good is if I could set up a company in France that manufactures or imports all the products that you can’t get here, all the kinds of things we sell in The Cake Shop. That way people like Ariane wouldn’t be my competitor but my more like a colleague as I would be helping her keep her shop stocked with my products.

Part III

12:00 pm

Lunchtime. The microwave cart is wheeled in, desks are cleared, chairs fetched. The students eat in the classroom. The children are expected to be settled quietly in their chairs, ask to go wash their hands, and then ask to get their lunchboxes before they are allowed to eat. Meanwhile, the child in charge of setting the table this week goes to get the silverware and dishes.   

12:30 pm

Everyone is finally sitting and has more or less the complete tableware set in front of them: plate, fork, knife, little yogurt spoon, and plastic cup (Martine’s cabinet has slowly but surely been rid of all the glassware glasses, not intentionally).

The table setting procedure always takes much longer than is logically necessary, probably because the child assigned to set the table is for some reason 90% of the time the same small boy, who due to his diminutive size and severely ADD nature seems the absolute worst person in the room to give the task of distributing various separate pieces of cutlery to students sitting in disorganized clumps around the big room, not to mention that when you see him trying to lug the heavy glass water pitchers around to each table you get the sinking sense of futility of watching someone trying very hard to complete a Sisyphean task. Half the pitcher will have been emptied on the floor by the time he gets to the table, and he’ll be sent to get more in five minutes.

I send the children in groups of two or three to the cloakroom to get their lunchboxes. I imagine that you can tell a lot about the home life of individual children from their lunchboxes. A lot of the older children seem to have the freedom to creatively fashion their own concept of a meal; there’s a group of three girls (who aggressively defy the assertion that social cliques don’t exist in small schools) that bring their lunches in family-style portions to share with each other: a bag of Lay’s potato chips, a Tupperware box of pasta and sauce, an entire sleeve of Speculoos cookies.

The Anglophone children belong to a different breed of household, one that clearly holds in contempt the irresponsible consumption of low nutrient-to-calorie ratio foods and environmentally unfriendly packaging. S—, a six-year-old with extraordinary feminine style (how a child of that age is able to exude such class is beyond me), declares matter-of-factly that she hates ice cream and cake. Her treat of choice is the green pressed seaweed paper that sushi rolls come wrapped in — in French it’s translated as algae, which expresses better, I think, the total bizarreness of a six-year-old reveling in the taste of a seaweed wrap (imagine an apple cheeked little girl saying with a charming missing-front-tooth smile, “My favorite food is algae”).  

1:15 pm

The kids are fairly hopping to get outside after a full morning of being together in one room. They go into the cloakroom to remove their slippers and put on their outside shoes, most of which resemble work boots or what English people call “wellies” rather than the slick bright white Pumas or the metallically shiny girl-sized heels (!) public school children wear. This is because the playground provided for amusement and the venting of various child frustrations during the lunch recess is not actually a playground, it’s an empty field behind the Montessori school building accessible only by a quick jump across a ditch (a wide step for you or me, a brief air-bound thrill for the 11-year-olds, and an unbreachable chasm for the 3-year-olds, who nevertheless enjoy the jump immensely so long as you’re holding their hand.

Supervising, I can’t help thinking that innovative playground developers, with their tangle of curved colored bars and knotted rope systems, are entirely missing the point — the kids have more fun rolling around in the grass and throwing rocks at trees than with any preconstructed equipment education authorities can buy. I’m reminded how innocent and sweet children are at heart when I hear G— and S— playing a sort of tag-zombie game which seems to consist of yelling “I’m going to suck your brain!” and attempting to grab the skull of another player.

2:00 pm

Emilie and I file the children back into school, past the company workers in button up shirts and pencil skirts taking their smoke break. Monday afternoon is devoted to art class and Spanish class, and the children are sent in small groups to participate in those activities. Otherwise, the students can continue the projects of the morning. The students complete impressive individual projects throughout the year that don’t sacrifice depth or quality for the lack of collaborators.

S— is working on a postcard project; she’s contacting friends and acquaintances across the U.S., asking them to send her postcards at the Montessori school address, teaching her about their town or state. She’s gathered a large number of postcards and will organize them into a visual presentation. O— has completed a project about the state of Israel, its history, people, and culture, and the poster is hanging on the classroom wall.

One of the goals of the Montessori school is to effectively link all subjects together in the child’s mind; to create a truly interdisciplinary understanding of the world. This objective makes for very creative project ideas, and the results are evident in the variety of student-made artwork and presentations on display around the school.

3:30 pm

The school day is over, but many students will stay for the next one to two hours, playing the gymnasium or participating in an activity Martine or Emilie has organized. I, however, say my rounds of “See you next week” and am out the door.

The next day I’ll be at one of the public primary schools in Grenoble. Not being an education expert, I’m not going to offer my judgment of the effectiveness of the education system in public schools compared to the Montessori approach. The purposes and needs of the two school systems are vastly different and require different methods of teaching and classroom management. Montessori schools may give more individual attention, but they also provide a lot less guidance and structure. This may or may not work well, depending on the character of each individual child. One thing I do know, however, is that I’ll be doing a lot more yelling in my public school.

Part I

Part II

For more information:
http://www.montessori-grenoble.com/UK/school-montessori-grenoble.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montessori

Part II

8:12 am

Terminus on the number 31 bus line. The bus halts in front of a grouping of new, enterprise-y looking buildings with big reflective glass windows framed in a shade of blue that suggests innovation and forward-thinking. The school is rather unexpectedly housed in one of these buildings, towards the back of the complex, sharing quarters with some kind of company that requires men and women in business attire to enter and exit through the same doors as the free-spirited, frequently-in-high-speed-motion Montessori kids.

The school is essentially three large rooms, the primary schoolroom, the pre-school room, and the gym, which is carpeted and doubles as an art studio and Spanish nook. There is also Martine’s office, a nap room for the preschoolers, a storage room, and a cloakroom where the children hang their coats, bags, and change their shoes into indoor shoes. They are only allowed to wear slippers inside the school, as it is carpeted. This reminds me of Japanese schools, except that here the children are allowed to bring their own slippers. In Japan the slippers are part of the uniforms and must be regulation color and design.

8:45 am

The kids wander in the room one by one and are by this time more or less all present. After some general comments and reminders, Martine starts the weekly routine of designating “responsibilities” onto each child. This is performed by use of a chart listing cleaning tasks to be completed each day and a small canvas sack containing the names of each child on Velcro tabs.

It took me a few months to figure out that the responsibility entitled Muffin referred to the class hamster. Insisting that the responsibilities be assigned by a random pull from the bag, Martine cheats openly on her own rule by fishing for names that she believes merit a particular nasty chore this week. The kids either suffer tremendously from the injustice of this favoritism or get a kick out of it, depending on how you choose to interpret the situation.

The responsibilities I find to be an ingenious system for ensuring an attitude of collective care and respect from all the students towards the cleaning and upkeep of the school room and materials. By being allowed to choose, in a fashion, what chore they do each week the child is given some autonomy and feels like she’s making a voluntary decision to contribute. This is probably a distinctive Montessori touch. Japanese schoolchildren also clean the school as part of their daily duties, although there they are responsible for the bathrooms as well, which I remain convinced is a mistake (imagine how what kind of clean job a second-grader might do on a bathroom — then repeat that every day for the whole year).

8:52 am

Work time. The children are either broken up into groups or sent to a desk to work individually. All the primary school kids, from 6 to 12, work in the same room, some in groups and some independently, and they pursue different activities. Martine keeps an eye on all of them and remains aware of how they’re doing and what progress they’re making, a remarkable feat for about 15 different students and different levels.

There are no set subject periods or age groups. The children have more or less the choice to work on one activity the entire morning or change subjects freely. There’s no morning recess, although there is a snack, which the children are expected to provide, following a rotation schedule. If the children tire of one activity and want to do some less-strenuous but still constructive activity such as reading, it is permitted within reason.

I take the group of English speakers. There are two first grade girls, a third grader, a fifth grader, and sometimes a first grade boy. We either do a language-arts activity all together, harder versions adapted for the third and fifth graders, or I split them up to work in pairs or alone. It’s my choice based on what we’re doing that day and how well the children are working together. When the English speakers take breaks to work on another subject, I choose a group of French children to do an English language lesson.

11:00 am

With Martine in the room, the classroom functions smoothly. With some notable exceptions, the children work quietly, although their rate of productivity is subject to debate. Clearly, some children are more ideal Montessori students than others. A group of three boys writes a bilingual dialogue together concerning an inept motorist and a driving instructor for their upcoming play. Another boy does French grammar exercises on the computer. A girl visualizes multiplication with wooden beads and a counting board.

Meanwhile, little G— sulks at his desk, complaining that his work is “too hard” and he doesn’t “understand nuffing,” and I— doodles on the margins of his essay and gazes out the window. I remind I— to get back to his work and Martine appears over G—‘s shoulder to investigate the veracity of his claim.

Part I

Part III

Guida Bulba: Corps & Voix

Grenoble Life’s Shonah Kennedy meets Guida Bulha of Corps et Voix, a trainer and consultant in oral communication.

As a teacher I have the privilege to meet a vast array of people.  I am constantly amazed, entertained and, more often than not, pleasantly surprised.  One of the people I had the pleasure of meeting was Guida Bulha of Corps et Voix.  Below Guida explains what she does, how she does it and what benefit it could be for you.

Shonah: How do you describe what you do?

Guida Bulha: Well, I am a trainer and a consultant in the oral communication area – working the body and the voice.

Shonah: What does the process do for people?

Guida: This helps people to speak with greater confidence and conviction, and communicate more effectively in both business and social environments.

Shonah: What have been some benefits for past clients?

Guida: To develop their self-esteem has permitted some of them to find new customers.  For some public speaking with more confidence and for others to find jobs, etc.

Put simply: to develop their skills in their professional field.

Shonah: How did you start in your business? What is your background?

Guida: I began my career as a language teacher and translator; after that, I worked in several companies. Today I bring together my experience in international business, communication and marketing, and my experience in the voice field.

Guida Bulha working with a client

Shonah: When did you start doing this line of work and why?

Guida: I started in April 2008. More than ten years ago, I participated in a vocal workshop. There, I discovered that the voice – my passion – was much more than a simple emission of sounds. The voice is “something” fragile and powerful. It was a great surprise for me. Therefore, I decided to push my discovery further and I undertook training in this area.

Shonah: What is the link with workshops or training sessions – such as public speaking, telephone interactions, front-line workers, sales, team building – and the body and the voice?

Guida: People who work in these areas use their voices to communicate.  You know, the most important part when you communicate is the non-verbal language, and that the voice is embodied in … the body. To equilibrate these three parts of communication. I mean; the body, the voice and the word, are fundamental. If you want to be heard and understood.

Shonah: How long have you been in Grenoble?

Guida: I have been here for 19 years. I saw the mountains and I fell in love.

Shonah: How do you help people to help themselves?

Guida: I help them to find – or to be conscious – that they have in themselves the resources to communicate. I accompany people to find the confidence in themselves.

Shonah: What are your plans for the future? 

Guida:  Well, I want to develop in other directions. I think particularly in the English speaking community. I want to propose to them workshops and training sessions to improve French or to improve their skills in public speaking or other themes. In French or in English. It is also possible to work the voice to sing or to speak. Just to find the pleasure to be confident.

Shonah: Thanks so much to Guida.  If you would like to contact Guida for further information you can do so through her website at Guida Bulha Corps et Voix.

Guida Bulha in action

Thierry Grange

Grenoble Life talked to Thierry Grange, Dean & Director of Grenoble Ecole de Management, about educational reform, shaping the future of Grenoble, and designing and building motorcycles.

Grenoble Life: What is your role at the Grenoble Ecole de Management and what does this involve?

Thierry Grange: My role is to provide human and financial resources to deploy properly our mission which is to contribute to companies’ performance by providing skills and knowledge. It implies structuring academic activity to set goals and to control their execution.

GL: Tell us about your experience in Africa and Asia . How did your time working in developing countries inform your later decision-making and career choices?

Thierry: I was working as a project manager for setting up industrial facilities – steel work, paper mills, and cement plants – in emerging and developing countries. This has given me good experience in human resource management and in creating a capacity to achieve goals.  I developed, in this first part of my professional career, my great interest for entrepreneurship. Probably, this is the reason why I accepted to work right from the start on the Grenoble Ecole de Management ‘project’.

GL: You once founded and ran a motorcycle manufacturer. What are some of the similarities between working in this environment and running a business school?

Thierry: The similarities are in the importance of the production process. A business school is about transforming brains from a student perspective to a professional perspective just as designing and producing motorcycles is a process of transformation – fortunately on a much less sophisticated ‘raw material’.

GL: In your opinion, how must the French higher education system develop to make itself more competitive?

Thierry: The French higher education system is undergoing a major reform which will transform its mission from public service towards contractual learning. This will involve carrying forward the universities’ contribution to the improvement of society and not only to the development of bright students.  

GL: What three professional achievements are you most proud of?

Thierry: I’m most proud to have contributed to the development of a business school that is now recognised as a European player. Another pride is to have had the chance to go to the end of my dream: designing and building motorcycles. Finally, I am very proud to have professionals that have worked with me for years and that still say hello to me every morning – human relations is the greatest achievement for me.

GL: How has the business environment changed in France since you co-founded Grenoble Ecole de Management, and how has the school contributed to this change?

Thierry: The business environment has definitely become more global, more competitive and offers more opportunities. Our school contributes to this evolution by accepting the rules of global competition and by teaching the necessary skills to create value within this new reality.

GL: How has the learning and training environment changed since the school was founded?

Thierry: The learning environment has changed by becoming more pro-active: students have good ideas on what they expect to learn and business schools have better knowledge of the specificities of corporate demand in terms of what professional profiles businesses require.

GL: How is the Grenoble Ecole de Management involved in changing the future of Grenoble ?

Thierry: Grenoble Ecole de Management is a leading institution in the world competition both in training and research and is contributing to the global visibility of the city. Grenoble Ecole de Management is one of the founders of the GIANT project, alongside Grenoble-INP, the CEA, ESRF, ILL and EMBL, that will greet an integrated campus combining industry, research and education in the Western part of the city. 

GL: What do you love about Grenoble ?

Thierry: The culture of proximity that helps anybody meet easily, if one is looking to improve professional achievements. It is a real collaborative spirit that is offered to everybody regardless of origin, position in hierarchy, age etc. You could call it natural diversity.

Judith Bouvard, Dean of Grenoble Graduate School of Business

Grenoble Life talks to Judith Bouvard, Dean of Grenoble Graduate School of Business, about her background, the changing business and training environment in France, and why students should consider coming to Grenoble.

Grenoble Life: Where do you come from originally?

Judith Bouvard: I was born in a small town near Manchester in the North of England. 

GL: Why did you come to Grenoble ?

Judith: When I left Manchester I went to live in Romans in the Drôme, to work in the luxury shoe industry. After a couple of years there I came to live in Grenoble to resume my studies.

GL: What kind of work did you first do on arrival in Grenoble ?

Judith: When I arrived in Grenoble at the same time as I was studying I was working part-time for a UK firm as a marketing consultant helping them to develop the market of protective clothing for building sites and road works. I then started to work in the training and continuing education business by doing some teaching and helping some French companies to set up in-house training courses.

Then I started working at ESC Grenoble – this was the name of the school before we became ‘Grenoble Ecole de Management (GEM)’. I was involved with the school right from the day it was founded and I was even a member of the entrance juries for the Grande Ecole program before the building was finished.

I started teaching at the school and little by little I increased my contributions by developing the international relations. Then, in 1995, I created the Master in International Business (MIB), which was the first international program to be offered by GEM. I really felt there was a niche market for such an Master in Management program taught in English in Grenoble.

I gradually introduced more international degree programs taught through the medium of English and continued to develop the portfolio of international programs until GGSB became one of the schools of GEM.     

Parallel to that I continued my studies on the Henley DBA program and also obtained a Postgraduate Diploma in Management Consultancy.

GL: What three professional achievements are you most proud of?

Judith: Developing a whole new international school from nothing and setting up all the programs; putting Grenoble on the map in international rankings, such as those of the prestigious Financial Times. I am also very proud of the careers and success stories of our graduates further to qualifications that I designed.

GL: Apart from the quality of the course programmes on offer at GGSB, why should potential students consider coming to Grenoble?

Judith: They should certainly consider coming for the dynamic nature of the city. It is easy to get by in Grenoble for non-French speakers. There is not a day that goes by without me hearing English on the street. However, most of our students become quite fluent in French rather rapidly as they experience true French culture. Our students are also sure to build a large international network of friends they can rely on in the future due to the fantastic diversity of the student population at GGSB.

GL: You have created partnerships between GGSB and schools around the world, including those in Iran and Saudi Arabia. As a woman, did you face any challenges in this respect?

Judith: The challenge was for me to actually challenge the pre-conceived ideas of what people had warned me about in advance. In those countries, people actually respect you for your intellect, status and qualifications regardless of your gender. Qualifications come above anything else and with more and more women gaining higher education degrees, the challenge for them is lessening. The other challenge was the dress code, but only from a comfort point of view. Wearing a head scarf when it is 40 degrees outside can be quite uncomfortable when you are not used to that!

GL: How has the business environment changed since you arrived in France, and how has GGSB contributed to this change?

Judith: Over the past 30 years, I have seen more international exchanges – both academic and corporate – and better means to conduct these exchanges, thanks to technology. Technology has definitely changed the way people do business. We can now work with different parts of the world without feeling that it is far away. For example I can be talking to a colleague in China or Singapore in the morning and to another colleague in Mexico in the evening. Of course the result is that the working day can be quite long!

At GGSB, we train qualified managers capable of working beyond national borders with a multitude of cultures and ethnic backgrounds. Our graduates are increasingly working in virtual teams spread over different countries. The contact with colleagues all around the world definitely adds a different dimension to business. 

GL: How has the learning and training environment changed?

Judith: We now have access to more information, thanks to the internet. What used to be called a ‘correspondence course’ is now called a ‘distance learning course’; technology has made learning more user-friendly. Furthermore, whereas years ago classes were made of one single nationality, the learning environment has become highly international, offering numerous opportunities for students.

Also the faculty members have become more like facilitators than lecturers. At GGSB gone are the days of long monologues by a lecture standing in front of the students. Now there is far more interaction and exchange between the lecturer and the students. Also I think that business schools have realised that it is important to have a good blend of lecturers with a more academic approach and business professionals who bring their work experience to the classroom.

GL: What is next for you and the school?

Judith: I’m very excited about our new Global Executive MBA that will begin in January 2011. This new course will run in eight different locations: Grenoble – Geneva – Moscow – London – New York – Singapore – New Delhi – Beijing, and is aimed at top managers who will travel to each location for specific courses and country case-studies.

This Global EMBA is the result of all the knowledge I’ve acquired over the years, after observing how companies function and their different needs. I’m also an AMBA auditor, so I’ve got to examine various programs, their pluses and minus.

I’m also preparing the future of GGSB when I will no longer be there to ensure the continuity of GGSB. I’m busy getting the right people in so the school will keep the same prestige and have the possibility of progressing. I’m proud as I see the next generation come in to be trained by GGSB. Often, children of those who I taught come to seek advice and are keen to live the same enriching experience at GGSB as their parents did.

Resident Grenoble Life photographer Suzanne Bonnefond shares a mini photo-essay about transhumance … and if you don’t know what that is, you’ll have to read on.

Transhumance is an ancient tradition. Herds of sheep from the South of France return to the summits of the Alps in search of fresh pastures, to stay there all summer.

In the past, these herds accompanied the shepherds arriving by foot across the Alps. It took them several days, sometimes weeks. They took the paths we now use as trails for hiking. They have been immortalised in literature by the works of Jean Giono.

These days, the herds arrive by lorry. This one came in from the Alpes de Haute Provence, having crossed the col du Lautaret.

Arriving in Chazelet, in the spectacular setting of la Meije, a herd of a thousand sheep returns to pastures 2000m in altitude, where it will stay until October.

We can easily see them on hikes in the Oisans, Belledonne or the Vercors.

Finally, if you want to hear what the transhumance sounds like, click here.

Skiing in June? You bet! Photo: Christa Gimblett

Grenoble Life ski reporter Christa Gimblett has some good news for those of us sweltering in the valley: there is still some snow left to ski.

All right everyone, it’s a good two months since you all went skiing, I know you’re missing it already. Don’t deny it.

Well the good news is that you don’t have to wait until December for your next fix of the white stuff because both 2Alpes and Tignes are open even as we speak, and offering more summer skiing than we’ve seen in years. All right, Tignes is a long drive for a bit of glacier skiing, but come on, 2Alpes is virtually on the doorstep.

Usually restricted to the summer park and the glacier runs above 3200m, this year the resort is open and skiable down to midstation at 2600m. There’s even a fair bit of off-piste and plenty of snow on the closed areas for those who know what they’re doing and are prepared to hike for it.

I’m not going to tell you that summer skiing is anything other than expensive – it isn’t. But your pass buys you a whole lot of other activities as well, so if you’re happy to make skiing just one part of a day out or a mountain weekend you’ll get good value.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that you have to get up there first thing to make the most of it (unless you like boiler plate ice, in which case be my guest). Your best plan is to get to resort for 09:30 and buy a half day pass, which lets you ski until lunchtime. Start with the runs below 3200m, which will have softened up nicely by this time, then when you’ve done that a few times, move up to the top.

The only way off the glacier at the end of the morning is by the main lift, so expect to queue – or alternatively have a beer on the restaurant terrace, leave the scrum to the race teams and descend at your leisure.

The half day pass gives you access to the rest of resort until close of play at 18:00, so you can spend the afternoon mountain biking (100km of marked trails plus a bike park), ice skating (included with your pass) or just riding the lifts, admiring the views and doing a bit of walking. If you want to make a weekend of it, a two-day ski/VTT ticket also gives you unlimited swimming and skating, and a bit of tennis and summer luge to boot.

The mountain biking and other activities go from strength to strength over the summer, but if you want to make the most of the skiing, do it soon – the snow won’t hang around until August in this weather, and who knows when we’ll see another season like this one? So get yourself up there now, while you still can.

Photo: Christa Gimblett

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Christa Gimblett left the UK for a seasonal job in Europe in the recession of the early 90s and forgot to go home again, spending nearly 15 years working for UK tour operators up various mountains. Now living in Bourg d’Oisans with no cash, two cats, a man with a broken foot and a car which looks like a frog.

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Grenoble Life editor James Dalrymple shares a few photos and reflections on the Grenoble’s defaced shop fronts and the transformation of the city on a Sunday.

Sunday in Grenoble. All the shops are closed, their shutters displaying garish graffiti. Quite depressing, no? Well, not for me really. I have a curious proclivity for decay and dereliction – as an amateur photographer, anyway – and hate shopping, so Sundays in Grenoble provide an irresistible opportunity for me.

To be fair, though, any casual visitor to Grenoble – particularly on a Sunday – might be tempted to see a city blighted by vandalism: tagging, bill stickers and a recent proliferation of anti-capitalist street art. Or else they might be lead to conclude that the Grenoblois store owners are lacking in civic pride or are overly laissez-faire when it comes to the wanton degradation of their shop fronts.

For me Grenoble’s Saturday to Sunday transformation is a welcome one. Gone are the herds of gabbing shoppers and down come the shutters, with their daubed slogans and spray-painted murals, simultaneously lending the city an air of decadence and “down at heel charm,” as a guidebook might optimistically put it. Sometimes vibrantly coloured, sometimes dingy, the character of the city on a Sunday is undeniably different. Love it or hate it, it invites you to look; inseparable as it is from the visual language of the city.

Here are some of my photos of Grenoble’s shut up shops, and of other defaced or stencilled doors, graffiti and bill sticking around the city. Let me know what you think about the photos and of Grenoble’s “down at heel charm.” 

Radio Activity. Photo: Velocity kendall

In the final English Talk Radio before the summer break, guests include Kristine Minski, talking about global currency markets and Bertrand Tappaz, talking about the history of 90.8 Radio Campus Grenoble.

Listen to the show: here

English Talk Radio is a talk show in English on 90.8 Radio Campus Grenoble. We talk about film, theatre, finance, restaurants, travel, and have a variety of topical guests. There are four presenters: Kristine Minski talks about finance, Christina Menez talks about China, and Vivian Draper – animatrice/rédactrice – hosts the show. Every Sunday at 12.30pm, and every Wednesday at 7pm on 90.8, Radio Campus Grenoble and live on www.campusgrenoble.org – and also here on Grenoble Life.

Listen to ETR in your car! 'Pump up the volume'. Photo: Travich

The June 13 English Talk Radio took place at Grenoble Graduate School of Business. The guests are: Thierry Grange, Dean of Grenoble Ecole de Management; Elizabeth Gorilla, Marketing and Admissions Manager; Michelle Mielly, Marketing Programme Director; graduates Beatriz Diez and Denis Coupe; students Ben Pawson, Jay Anandou and Timothée Bardet; and Pat Brans, writer, consultant and time-management guru.

Listen to the full show: here

English Talk Radio is a talk show in English on 90.8 Radio Campus Grenoble. We talk about film, theatre, finance, restaurants, travel, and have a variety of topical guests. There are four presenters: Kristine Minski talks about finance, Christina Menez talks about China, Mary Zaccai talks about student issues, and Vivian Draper – animatrice/rédactrice – hosts the show. Every Sunday at 12.30pm, and every Wednesday at 7pm on 90.8, Radio Campus Grenoble and live on www.campusgrenoble.org – and also here on Grenoble Life.

Prakhar Amba, Grenoble Life’s very own photographer-flâneur, strolls the stalls of the Brocante des quais du Vieux Grenoble, June 13. Here are his photos and impressions.

Last Sunday (June 13th) I was walking along the pedestrian bridge on Isère which gives a wonderful viewpoint of the cable car (Les Bulles), crossing the river to the Bastille. I saw an unusual number of cycles chained to the bridge. I followed them to discover a flea market on the Quai de la Perrière, Grenoble, leading up to the rue Saint Laurent.

I started with a shop selling plastic dolls. One look at the price tag (150 euro) and the silent horror on my face must have convinced the shopkeeper to nod sharply to me, “yes,” and silently mumble, “get away,” or something of that sorts. I walked away wondering, is this really a flea market? Thankfully, as I walked deeper into the market prices fell to earthly levels and whole loads of antiques and curiosities were on display.

Lots of toys, train sets, gramophones, rotary telephones, big-box AM/PM radios, video games, hats and all sorts of knick knacks were present at bargain prices. It was like a walk into the past. Remember the good old days when the world was analogue, things were made in wood and real brass knobs and lasted generations? I tried to fathom the age of the Remington typewriter, alive enough to type out another letter –wondering if today somebody would bother to keep their keyboard for even 20 years.

Somehow the planned obsolescence of today’s products (three years lifecycle max.) has taken away the memories we used to have with our possessions. What would the flea market of future look like? I wondered as I photographed the flea market of today.

My wife bought two porcelains dolls (10 euro a piece) dressed in 19th century clothes, from an old grandmother who had a hard time parting with them. She had had them since her childhood and gave one last brush to their hair, passing on her memories.

Nicola Piroth at work and at play

Nicola Piroth is a play therapist with a private practice in Grenoble. She talks to Grenoble Life about creative approaches to psychotherapy, her international background and setting up a cabinet in France.

Grenoble Life: Tell us a little about your methodology.

Nicola Piroth: I practise as a play therapist, which means that I use a creative approach to psychotherapy. Play therapy recognises that children naturally use play as a creative form of self-expression and communication in order to grow and develop, as well as to address traumatic and painful issues from a safe distance. Children that are faced with distressing life events may not feel comfortable talking about their emotions, but through play therapy they can communicate and explore their feelings, learn skills and tools to heal their emotional pain.

In my cabinet, I mostly see children and adolescents in individual, regular play therapy sessions.  However, I also use another approach called filial therapy with some families. Using this alternative method I train parents to conduct individual play sessions – similar to play therapy but with their own children. This way of working can be so helpful when communication hasn’t been possible between parents and their children – for any number of reasons, but often simply because we don’t get any training to be parents even though it is quite possibly one of the hardest tasks we are faced with as adults. Children communicate through play – it is their innate language. By teaching parents the language of play, and how to use play therapeutically, the communication gap between parent and child can be closed.

Perhaps it is surprising, but I also use play therapy, and more specifically sandplay therapy, with adults. Using small trays of sand, clients sculpt the sand and position miniature objects and figurines to create scenes, worlds or designs that are expressions of their inner world. Sandplay therapy gives the client direct access to their internal self, allowing them to understand issues in a deeper way. As adults we often get stuck in certain situations or circular ways of thinking, and it is helpful to use a creative non-verbal tool to explore our inner workings, alongside more traditional dialogue.

GL: Does this methodology differ to established methods in France?

Nicola: As far as I know, traditionally, psychotherapy here has mostly been a verbal, intellectual process, perhaps based on a more medical model of psychiatry concerned with cause and effect. This relies mostly on talking things through. In play therapy we additionally use non-verbal, creative approaches that give space to the intuitive Self – the part of us that knows what it needs to heal, even if it can’t explain it. Experiencing our Self at this level allows us to integrate what we feel and what we know intellectually in order to move on.

Another aspect of the predominant model of psychotherapy in France is that it is still largely ‘adult’ led, with the doctor, psychiatrist or therapist seen as knowing more than the patient who is a passive recipient of the treatment.  In my own work, I believe it is essential to follow the client’s lead, to trust that – given a safe and accepting environment (as in child-centred play therapy) – children have within them the desire and strength to find their own way to heal and to grow.

This non-directive approach facilitates the development of self-responsibility, self-control, and appropriate self-esteem. It is my responsibility as the therapist to provide that safe and containing space in which the child can explore who they are, how they feel and ‘play out’ different solutions.  This also has larger implications regarding how I work with parents. I believe therapy must be a collaborative effort. For the child to have the safe space in my office is one thing, but regular meetings between the parents and I give parents the support they need in order to be able to accompany their child on the journey towards growth and change.

GL: Who comes to you and what are some of the reasons why?

Nicola: I see clients between one and 100 years of age … Traditionally play therapy was developed to work with the specific needs of 2–12 year olds, but I practise a more general creative psychotherapy that I feel applies to all of us…

Why do people seek psychotherapy for themselves or for their children? It’s a very big question that has as many answers as there are people in therapy… adults come to work on existential issues, difficult life experiences (such as divorce, a loss, or adapting to a new country), or to further their personal development. Children and adolescents are referred for equally diverse reasons, for example, their parents have noticed low self-esteem, depression, or the development of challenging behaviours at home or at school. Perhaps the family or child has recently undergone a traumatic experience – ranging from maltreatment to moving homes, the birth of a sibling, long-term illness and hospitalisation, adoption, bullying … to name but a few.

Yet other children have difficulties ‘fitting in’ (whatever that means!), struggle at school, or have been diagnosed with developmental difficulties that require a little extra help to develop their sometimes hidden potential.  Play therapy is useful for a whole range of emotionally-based problems of behaviour and adjustment.

GL: Are these reasons different in any way to those you have encountered working in other countries?

Nicola: Regarding my work with children, I would say that generally the reasons are the same here – parents come because they are worried about their children –  and though the way I work using play is unknown in France, it attracts a lot of people looking for a more child-centred approach. International families often come to the cabinet when they feel misunderstood or judged by more traditional French therapists who might be unfamiliar with different child rearing and cultural practises (for example long-term breastfeeding or co-sleeping), or the challenges facing  multi-cultural families.

I certainly do not pretend to understand the cultural background of all of the families I work with, but through my own personal experience, I am aware of some of the daily struggles one faces just trying to adapt to something as potentially stressful as a new school system …

GL: Where do you come from and where did you train as a therapist?

Nicola: That’s not such an easy question for me to answer… I was born in Germany to German parents, and have since lived in six different countries across four continents. I originally trained as a psychologist specialising in child development in the UK, but after a short career in a major child and adolescent psychiatry unit in London conducting psychological research I decided to train as a play therapist.

I think I realised that I am much better suited at playing Peter Pan with four year olds than at establishing a diagnosis or quantifying human experience in order to plug the results into a computer for analysis.  Don’t get me wrong, I respect and value psychometric testing when it’s necessary and well-carried out by a sensitive psychologist – but those are not my skills and no longer the approach I practise. My training as a psychologist remains extremely useful to me and it definitely informs my work, but I have tried to move away from ‘putting problems in boxes’ to working and thinking problems ‘out of the box’.

GL: What languages do you work in and why?

Nicola: I work using the languages I am fluent in – that is English, German and French.

GL: Why did you come to Grenoble?                   

Nicola: Our move from the USA to Grenoble was not an easy one for me – I loved living in California, but at that time it was necessary for our family to return to Europe. Luckily we were able to settle in Grenoble since it’s so central in this fantastic mix that is Europe.

GL: What difficulties, if any, did you have in setting up your cabinet in Grenoble?

Nicola: Perhaps the biggest hurdle for me was that play therapy didn’t exist here – at all. There wasn’t even a French translation for it, so I made up my own, la Thérapie par le Jeu. I am affiliated and registered with several international play therapy associations – but none of my foreign qualifications were recognised in France. Coupled with an attitude I frequently encounter here of “no one’s every done that before, so surely there is no point changing things by trying something new now….” I took a risk setting up my practise without any professional network.  And now, of course, that the cabinet is up and running, the French reaction is extremely positive and open minded with reactions such as “why don’t you train people here”!

GL: What advice would you give people setting up their own businesses/private practices in France?

Nicola: I’m not sure about giving advice, other than don’t be put off by all the scary looking forms and impressive civil servants. It does sometimes feel like everyone is trying to dissuade you from even trying, either by piling useless and endless paperwork at you or by sounding generally negative and complicated about relatively straightforward business. But if you have enough time to stand in queues and patiently rephrase your question for the third time, often that very same administration (like the URSSAF) can actually be a goldmine of information. France really is ready for some innovative business ideas, if you can just navigate and bully your way through the system.

A taste of Celtic Connection events

Maighread Gallagher, Secretary of the Celtic Connection in Grenoble, talks about the origins of the association, the events it organises, and celebrating St Patrick’s Day in style.

Grenoble Life: What is the Celtic Connection?

Maighread Gallagher: The Celtic Connection is an association loi 1901 which promotes Irish and Celtic culture in Grenoble and beyond.

GL: What sorts of activities do you organise?

Maighread: We organise cultural events and informal meetings, these include: film screenings, an annual picnic, something for Hallowe’en, something for Christmas, and of course we celebrate St Patrick’s Day in style! 

GL: What kind of services to do you offer?

Maighread: We don’t formally offer any services, but we are happy to help new arrivals with the administrative hurdles they will encounter in Grenoble, or even just to meet up because during those first months it can be lonely in a new city and country. Sometimes it’s nice just to be able to talk to someone who understands where you’re coming from. We can also put people in touch with an Anglophone doctor or dentist if they need it, and we have a few contacts at the embassy in Paris.   

GL: When was the Celtic Connection created and by whom?

Maighread: The Celtic Connection was set up in 1992 by a group of Irish people recently arrived in Grenoble. Most of them are still here almost 20 years on.

GL: What is your role in Celtic Connection and why did you come to Grenoble?

Maighread: I am the current secretary of the association, although this high-powered job was not my main reason to come to Grenoble! I originally came on Erasmus in 1994, to study biochemistry. Grenoble has an interesting effect on people, it’s hard to leave. So, despite having left several times, I am now here to stay.

GL: What events do you have coming up?

Maighread: The calendar is pretty full over the next few weekends. We will mark Bloomsday (June 16), which is a celebration of James Joyce and his epic work Ulysses, with readings and music. This is organised with the help of the Bookworm Café, and will be held there on Saturday June 19th. Our annual picnic is coming up on June 20th, and this year our sister association in Lyon will be joining us for that. We are hoping to make it a regular joint event. We are also in full swing for the organisation of our film event, which will be in mid-November this year – watch this space.

GL: Where are some of the best places to find Celtic culture and people in Grenoble?

Maighread: In the early days of the association, this would have been easy to answer – just check out the Irish pubs (The Shannon, O’Callaghan’s, Druid’s), we used to go there every Friday. Those are probably still good addresses for meeting Irish people, especially if there’s a match on. Other addresses are similar to where you’ll find many Anglophones – through the international schools, at Pilates, through The Library at Babel. And if you’re dying for a bit of brown bread or Cadbury’s chocolate, go to the Irish shop (Comptoir Irlandais). If you want to meet up with us on a regular basis, and participate in our activities, join our association, it’s easy – just come along to the picnic on June 20th, or to another event and we’ll put you on the list.

GL: Tell us about your members: who are they generally and why have they come to Grenoble?

Maighread: A lot of our members are Irish expatriates, although over the last couple of years the Scottish contingent has grown considerably. Some are second-generation emigrants, and of course we accept all nationalities! What unites us all is an interest in Irish or Celtic culture and sharing our experiences. Many of our members came to Grenoble to work for the microelectronics industry; there are also a lot of scientists among us. A lot of us came initially intending to stay only for a while, but as I said earlier, Grenoble can be a very hard place to leave once you’ve acquired the taste for the sun, the mountains and the quality of life!

Garvin on the sofa

Grenoble Life talks to Garvin, Grenoble’s premier Franco-Welsh-Scots rock band, about their musical background and development as a band; and streams two of their songs especially for you!

Garvin are Calumn Mackay, Vincent Thourigny and Gareth Powell. They were in conversation with James Dalrymple of Grenoble Life.

Listen to Spellbound confused by Garvin: here

Listen to Same Crusade by Garvin: here

Grenoble Life: On tracks like Spellbound Confused and Same Crusade I hear an emotive guitar-led pop that I associate with British alt-rock. However, tracks like Vocation seem to have a more reggae flavour, and there are occasional flutters of latin-sounding guitar in a number of your songs. Is there a ‘Garvin sound’?

Calumn: We like to experiment with different instruments, bringing different sounds to the table depending on the feel of the song. For instance, I sometimes use electronic Roland V-drums instead of, or as well as, my traditional acoustic drum kit. Also, as each of us dabbles with song writing in different ways, we are not fixed to a single approach.

Gareth: I think there is a certain Garvin ‘sound’ since vocal textures and playing styles are idiosyncratic. As far as our musical and composition style is concerned though, we have a consciously open-minded approach which is incredibly inspirational – no restrictions. Also, we like the surprise element in music.

I suppose we have to keep an eye on not going too far off the track, but we just aren’t thinking like that. We’re enjoying exploring and mixing up styles.

Vince: The group’s sound is moulded from each of the band member’s influences as we compose. The fact that we all participate collectively in the composition of the songs, as well as the inherent chemistry developed when we’re playing, means that the resulting sound tends to be one and our own. We like to experiment and explore new horizons, which undoubtedly add to the flavour of Garvin’s music.

GL: What are your musical backgrounds? What other bands have you been in and what kind of music did you play?

Calumn: I’ve played in bands since I was 14, starting on piano then moving quickly onto drums. After a few school/student bands, I joined a cult punk/new wave band called the Scars. After our first single Adultery/Horrorshow, we played regularly in London and toured with bands like The Human League, The Rezillos, Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Cure. I took a year out of school to decide whether I wanted to be a full time musician. After three singles and with an imminent album looming, bizarrely, I decided to go to college instead.

In 2005 I met up again with the Scars to do a cameo spot with Lemon Jelly, who had sampled a big chunk of Horrorshow, on a single which charted in the UK. I took a cut-down V-drum kit in a suitcase on a plane to Edinburgh and then to London for the short five minute appearances. It was great to get up on a stage in front of 4000 people and the London concert was broadcast live on BBC radio. Paul from the Scars managed to purchase the rights of the Scars recordings back from EMI and released a limited edition CD. There are apparently still Scars fans out there!

While a student in Edinburgh I joined Blues n Trouble (amongst other bands) and connected with the blues for the first time. BnT went on to release tons of albums, tour extensively and are still going now. I’ll be doing a guest spot in a band with their original guitarist at the RockBeir festival in Venlo this summer.

Later I lived in London and answered an ad in Melody Maker for a blues band called the Pinetops Boogiemen. We had regular gigs in south east London pubs and also in a few nice venues like the Half Moon on Herne Hill. We still meet up every couple of years to record a CD, but we have had no commercial success. It was a fantastic experience though and we are all life long friends.

I moved to France in 1995 and met Gareth through a mutual friend. We played in various line ups, gigging now and again and recording occasionally. Our last group, XL5, was a 1970s-style British rock band.

I’ve also been playing in the King Billies blues band for a couple of years and am part of the Lou Pelaya Celtic association where I occasionally play drums and acoustic guitar (badly).

I joined the Garvin duo in summer 2009 after jamming at a couple of their pub gigs at the Druids bar in Grenoble. There’s great energy and stamina in the group as well as a comfortable chemistry. Very strong creativity too, and the door is always open to any new ideas and adventures – the way it should be!

Gareth: My first gig in Swansea Students Union was at age 16; a terrifying experience – lost a lot of weight in the three or four days leading up to it. Then played in cover bands and slogged at the original music scene in the UK. I got to do many gigs and European tours with a few semi-known rock bands when I lived in Wales, and even after coming to France to live. I am still in touch with the guys in my last UK band, and I get to play impromptu gigs with them from time to time. They currently have a band called the Storys from Swansea, who achieved some success and tour regularly with big names. While they played in Monaco last year, they asked me to replace their guitarist who’d had a bit of a nervous breakdown. I played a gig in the Globe in Monaco, and the day after in front of 50 thousand people opening for (cringe…) Celine Dion in Ajax stadium, Amsterdam. That was surreal – I had song notes and chords written on a piece of paper at my feet.

I’d love to do big shows like that with Garvin – that would be the “mutts”… though preferably supporting U2 or Kings of Leon instead of Celine!

Vince: I am basically self-taught. I could hardly play the guitar when I joined my first group at 16, but I’ve never stopped since. For the last few years I worked on solo projects and did many live shows using a loop-sampler to create multi-layered live song arrangements, but I can say that playing in a band is a real pleasure, especially given the high potential of this group. I’m not really interested in talking about what I used to do, instead I’m much more interested in talking about what we are going to do!

GL: Please can each member of the band name three bands/artists that have influenced them the most.

Calumn: Difficult to say. I like a large spectrum of music, although in my formative years I liked The Doors, original Ultravox, and I still like Carol King.

Gareth: I’d have to say people like Jeff Beck, Adrian Belew, Robert Fripp are notable guitar influences; and David Sylvian, Cy Curnin, The Divine Comedy, as vocal influences. General music/composition influences are bands like The Cocteau Twins, Kings of Lyon, Jeff Buckley, Interpol, Bjork, Led Zeppelin, or anything new that comes along and blows me away.

Vince: I think my musical development and appreciation was deeply influenced by The Beatles. I learned to play, sing and compose listening to their music. I used to attempt to reproduce their techniques on my own recordings. King Crimson was also a revelation for me in my formative years. I have great admiration for a more recent discovery, Joseph Arthur, a New-York singer/songwriter and all-round artist.

GL: What facilities are there for new bands in Grenoble to get together and jam?

Gareth: There are rehearsal places and some associations that try to nurture this around the town, but we aren’t the best guys to ask since we are fortunate enough to have our own studio that is also adequate for rehearsing live sets. And we definitely jam a lot …

GL: In your view what are some of the best bars and pubs to watch live music in Grenoble?

Calumn: I’m not really sure there are any decent venues for groups. We tend to be squashed into corners in bars and I usually have to leave most of my drum kit behind most of the time. Salle EVE is pretty good.

Gareth: Le Bobine is gaining a good reputation. There does seem to be a response in progress to the local Grenoble musicians’ plight of having embarrassingly few venues for such a cosmopolitan city. It’s still difficult to play locally regularly enough for a new group to build a following. For a few months we played fortnightly residencies in Druids Pub, an Irish bar in Grenoble, which was good but a bit tight under the arms.

GL: For the British members of the band: how has living in France influenced your approach to music?

Calumn: I don’t think is has affected me really, although I’m probably more open to French music than I otherwise would’ve been. Media moves so fast these days so for the mainstream I’m probably listening to the same music here than I would be in the UK. Also we live in a bit of a bubble with access to UK TV and radio at home.

Gareth: There was an initial shock at going from a three to four night per week gig rate in the UK to zero – it was like going back to the bedroom to play guitar again, which was not what I’d imagined. I fortunately found an association who share-owned a recording studio (Studio 33) in town. After persuading them to let me join them I spent a long time writing and recording songs mainly on my own. It taught me about producing music and also allowed me to develop a few things, like singing, so I don’t consider it as wasted time, even if it was a bit of an implosion in some respects. The other good thing is it was how I met Calumn. The immediate accessibility of a studio has now become a luxury that I couldn’t live without.

GL: For the French member of the band: how has playing with Brits influenced your approach to music?

Vince: To be honest, I’ve never really listened to much French music or bands. I’ve always been more attentive and influenced by British or American bands since adolescence. That’s probably why I get on so well with Gareth and Calumn, as our common language is the music which I feel very at home with.

GL: Are there any other local bands that you can recommend to Grenoble Life readers?

Gareth: There are a few authentic Anglophone things like Barefoot Iano, an Australian multi-talent, and a guy called Neil Dixon from Chambery, that sound excellent, that Grenoble Life readers should try to check out.

Vince: Huh? No – just Garvin [laughs]! In fact, I’m not very aware about the local scene in Grenoble. I know there are many bands and quite a few good ones out there, but there are not many places to see band play…

GL: Any plans to record a full length CD or EP?

Calumn: Absolutely.

Gareth: Yes (sigh) – we are very productive so it’s hard to keep up with the creativity level in the studio, and completely finish everything – we have enough songs for at least three or four full albums already; all at different stages of completion. Vince hit on the idea recently of producing multiple mini-albums that we can continue to produce and sell at gigs or elsewhere. We have also a six-song CD recorded live in session at Radio Campus for English Talk Radio and Le Son de Garage programmes – this is one of the mini-albums.

GL: Where can we see you play next?

Gareth: We’re pretty busy all through June and July – more gigs coming in every week, so best to checkout the events section on our MySpace site or our facebook page if you’re that way inclined.

Vince: We’re doing three or four private concerts/fêtes that aren’t open to the general public in June, but we’ll be at Zélées Bar (Grenoble) on Thursday 17th June, and on the 21st we headline at Tullins for the music festival. Also, on July 1st we’re playing at the Magellan Bar (Voiron).

Garvin

Hoping to relocate to France?

Sylvie Leroux is account manager at ETC Logos, a company specialising in relocating foreign employees to the Grenoble area. Here are some of her top tips for successful relocation.

That’s it, your management has made the decision!  

THEY need YOU in Grenoble, to exchange your skills with the French team … 

You might have a sense of mixed feelings and certainly a whole load of questions left unanswered by your company (at home or in France). 

Well, here are a few basic tips … 

First, you need to decide wether you want to be helped or not. You can get a relocation agent, someone who knows the town, the area; a local company being better than an international group. They will advise you on the right place to live according to your criteria and they know the right people, which might be just as important as having the right documents. They have good contacts with real estate agents, bank managers or French administration staff and with a phone call,  they can settle any problem which would be trivial at home but can become huge when abroad. 

“We, at ETC Logos, have been working in Grenoble for more than 15 years and we’ve got a very good network,” says Isabelle Callard, Relocation Manager. ‘”When I came back from the USA in 1986, I started with the concept of relocation, people didn’t really know what it meant, today, it’s easier as we are well recognised in this field.” 

Second, be patient! Immigration process: 3–4 months; house search: 2–4 weeks; getting a plumber to come and fix a leak: from 2 hours to up to five days! 

The concept of time and priorities is different all over the world and France tends to be very slow on some issues. 

Again, the person who deals with your relocation will follow up these issues and make things easier for you. You can get down to work and they’ll think about calling the plumber one more time! 

A third piece of advice I would give is that you need to be prepared to face a different culture. 

Although we’re living in a global village, the concept of culture is engrained deeply in each one of us, often without us being aware of it. 

France is in Europe, France is a developed country, France is part of the G20, but France and French people have their own social and working habits which you’ll need to get used to. Grenoble even has its own culture, being a very cosmopolitan, expensive and provincial town. 

The relocation agent can understand those differences and try to work with you on them by providing cross-cultural seminars. 

But beware, a number of people call themselves consultants in relocation or relocation agencies … so make sure you or your company selects one that has a comprehensive range of services, starting from the immigration process before the move to getting someone who will accompany you during your stay and assist you when the assignment is over. 

These people will be the ones you put all your trust in: they will get you to sign official documents in French – of which you may not speak a word – for your house, your immigration file, your bank account. 

Now you can still decide to do it all by yourself, but remember that it might be the recipe for a disastrous relocation.

L'art Qui Parle

Elizabeth Stone Matho is an American psychotherapist and art therapist with a private practice in Grenoble. She talks to Grenoble Life about an art therapy exhibit of the artwork of cancer patients she has organised for June 10–27.

Grenoble Life: What is the theme of this exhibition and who has organised it?

Elizabeth Stone Matho: The exhibit theme is L’Art Qui Parle, and it’s the artwork of cancer patients in art therapy with me at the CHU Grenoble or in an outreach program in St Ismier. 

It will take place at Ancien Musée de Peinture, Place de Verdun, Grenoble, June 10–27. To coincide with the exhibition there will also be a conference and discussion on art therapy, June 18. More details at the bottom of this article.

GL: What kind of illnesses have the artists involved had to cope with and how did this artistic process help them cope?

Elizabeth: All of the artists have had to cope with cancer. You’re asking such a great question when you ask how the artistic process helped them cope. I think that the answers to that question will become so much clearer than I could explain here in a few words, when you see the exhibit.

Each piece of artwork has a text or title, written by the artist, to help the viewer understand something about the internal processes involving the confluence of creativity, illness, experimentation, personal expression, hopes, fears, wishes and so much more.

Each patient in art therapy experiences the creative/therapeutic process a little differently. For some, it helps to bring solace, for others, it helps to forget, for yet others, it helps to recover one’s identity, femininity, integrate the body image that’s been ravaged by illness and its treatment so that one emerges stronger, more aware of one’s own needs, with more insight about oneself.

First and foremost, the artistic process is non-judgmental, without expectations of an aesthetic nature. It follows the path that seems to be right for each patient, each individual, whether in terms of materials used, content of imagery, form, personal themes expressed. I think that most patients emerge from the very first sessions feeling that in spite of the destructive forces of the illness and its often aggressive treatment, they tap into a vitality that is very much there, very much alive.

GL: In what different media are the artworks?

Elizabeth: Primarily, gouache, clay, and a variety of drawing materials such as pastels, oil pastels, colored pencils and the like comprise the basic materials we use. However, other materials can be added, depending upon what is requested by the patient, as their creative/therapeutic evolution unfolds. I have to add that AGARO (Association Grenobloise d’Aide à la Recherche en Oncologie) has been very generous in providing me with all the high quality materials I requested. 

GL: In what context where the artworks made: did you facilitate them?

Elizabeth: To answer your question, both yes and no. Yes, in the sens that I was always present, offering a climate of freedom and respect, with an understanding of the therapeutic and artistic processes that would be involved. I offer a broad spectrum of possible ways of working, whether from imagination or from even a postcard, which stimulates feelings and thoughts that are also present and need to be voiced.

At the same time, I have to say no in the sense that I usually don’t tell people what to draw or even start with a general theme. I resist the idea that what I might suggest will be correct for them; rather, I prefer that as they get to know the materials, they will generate their own creative and therapeutic processes.

I also believe that in spite of a climate of freedom, people have the right to defend against important feelings and unconscious material. Not every feeling or experience should be brought to light at once because people are often not yet ready psychologically. 

GL: Were any of the artists involved initially resistant to using art as a therapeutic process?

Elizabeth: Yes, in the sense that they didn’t imagine themselves using art as a therapeutic tool, however, generally they had a certain sense of curiosity about the process which mitigated their resistance, or, for some, a feeling that they had tried everything else (medically) so far to treat their cancer and that now, maybe art therapy could be of some help to them. 

GL: Are the artworks all very centred on the artists’ experience or are some more representational or abstract?

Elizabeth: There are all types of artwork, from personal feelings, representational, abstract, with meaning emerging in various ways. Some started out to express something specific; sometimes the result was that expression, or sometimes it changed. Sometimes the meaning emerged only afterwards. Sometimes the meaning of an earlier work became clearer only after other work was done. And, some were even created to forget. I don’t push people, but we do talk together about what the process was like, what the final result might say to them.

————————————————————————————————————————————————-

Art therapy exhibit of the artwork of cancel patients: L’Art Qui Parle
Ancien Musée de Peinture (Place de Verdun, Grenoble)
June 10th to 27th • Wednesdays through Sundays • 1pm–7pm
Association Grenobloise d’Aide à la Recherche en Oncologie (AGARO)
Elizabeth Stone Matho, art therapist, psychoanalyst

Conference and discussion on art therapy: Art therapy: As a discipline in and of itself, and its role in cancer treatment. 
June 18th, 2010, 5pm
La Plateforme (Bibliothèque), Ancien Musée de Peinture (Place de Verdun, Grenoble)
Elizabeth Stone Matho, art therapist, psychoanalyst
Fabrice Chardon, music therapist
Seating limited to 100 people – reservations suggested:
06.12.17.27.11 or 04.76.87.17.60

Helen McEwan (left) with children joining in on English Talk Radio

The May 21 English Talk Radio show features Helen McEwan of ABC Anglais, and took place at Les Petits Bilingues, Grenoble.

Listen to the show: here

English Talk Radio is a talk show in English on 90.8 Radio Campus Grenoble. We talk about film, theatre, finance, restaurants, travel, and have a variety of topical guests. There are four presenters: Kristine Minski talks about finance, Christina Menez talks about China, Mary Zaccai talks about student issues, and Vivian Draper – animatrice/rédactrice – hosts the show. Every Sunday at 12.30pm, and every Wednesday at 7pm on 90.8, Radio Campus Grenoble and live on www.campusgrenoble.org – and also here on Grenoble Life.

A map to Association Babel

Claire Bryars is President of Babel, a language and cultural exchange association in the centre of Grenoble. She tells us about the organisation, its activities and its history.

Babel is an association founded in 1978 by a handful of people who wanted to develop and promote language teaching and cultural exchanges in France and abroad.  

I was one of the founding members and have been President since 2003. As a teacher I have also organised intensive English courses and accompanied groups to England and Wales.

When we started we were extremely fortunate to be provided with a room in the heart of Grenoble, next to the Couvent des Minimes where we have been ever since.

The activities have been very varied over the years but from the very beginning we have given language lessons (English, French for foreigners, German, Italian, Japanese, Russian, Spanish) and had conversation groups.

We have also organised seminars, intensive adult courses, children’s classes, teacher training sessions, trips to England, Wales and Italy, had play readings, cultural evenings and produced a monthly newspaper (The Newssheet) which eventually became Breakaway.

For a few months we also presented a weekly radio programme. There is also of course the Library, an important part of our association. It was created in 2000 with the aid of Alliance Grenoble Oxford and Open House and is housed in Babel.

All the above activities are available to members and their friends who may also attend the cultural evenings. We have an Open Day in September and a yearly Christmas party. A monthly letter informs members of the coming events and a website has recently been set up.

Coming up next at Babel there is an inter-cultural evening (Italian/Spanish) on the 27th May followed by a trip to Italy. The Open Day is the 11th September (14h–18h) and Babel will participate in the Journées Européennes du Patrimoine on the 18th and 19th September with other associations housed in the Quartier du Vieux Temple. We hope to see you there!

A permanent member of staff is present on Tuesdays (12h15–13h45) during the library opening hours. Otherwise anyone wishing to join can leave a telephone message (04 76 42 43 91) or send an e-mail (association.babel@ laposte.net).

Photo: BimiB

Felicity Lodge is a Grenoble-based financial planner with The Spectrum IFA Group, offering independent financial planning advice for expatriates in the Alps region. Here is her guide to life insurance in France.  

Benjamin Franklin said, “in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes“.  

There is not a great deal you can do about either. Taxes have to be paid, although you can make sure that you are not paying more than you need to, and no matter how hard scientists try, death will come sooner or later. 

How long are you going to live for?  

Few people can confidently answer this question and the aim of financial planning is to have the means of providing for yourself and your family whatever happens. Very few people can say that they die at just the right time and the main situations we try to cover are that you die too early, which can leave your family with financial difficulties, or you die too late and run the risk of having to live on a reduced income. 

Both of these situations can be covered using different forms of life insurance. There are many forms of life insurance which can be confusing. The two most commonly used in France are assurance vie (life insurance bond) which is a long-term savings policy, and assurance décès (term life insurance) which provides payment in the case of death. By saving money now in an assurance vie, you can build up a lump sum for expected or unexpected expenses in the future, or to fund your retirement. By taking out assurance décès, you will pay a small monthly sum to the insurance company, who will then pay out a lump sum on the death of the insured. 

Assurance vie 

Many of you will have heard of assurance vie, however, most expats will not realise how widely used and tax-efficient these policies are in France.  It is a form of savings where you put money into the policy, then within the policy a number of different investments are available depending on the particular assurance vie you chose.  Many French people save for their retirement using an assurance vie rather than a personal pension because of its superior flexibility. Since you can take the proceeds at any age and maximum tax efficiency is after only eight years, an assurance vie can also be used to save for any future expenses such as university expenses, weddings, or even for the holiday of a lifetime. 

I have discussed the details of assurance vie in a little more detail in my article Arranging your finances in France – an overview but please feel free to contact me if you want any further information. 

Assurance décès 

Assurance décès (temporaire), which pays a lump sum upon the death of the insured, is a very valuable but much underused insurance. It is invaluable for people with young children, but for a number of reasons most families are under-insured and many families are at risk of financial hardship should the worst happen. For some people the death of a spouse is not something they like to think about, others do not like to pay for something they consider unlikely and sometimes people assume that they will be provided for by the state or by family. What you have to remember is that the monthly payment you make is usually relatively small compared to the benefit you receive should you have to claim and provides a huge peace of mind. 

This type of insurance will already be held by most of you with mortgages to cover all or part of the outstanding loan. You may also have a small amount provided by your employer, but you should bear in mind that this will cease when you stop working for that employer. Even if you already have these insurances, it is not usually enough to maintain your standard of living. 

To work out how much cover you need, you have to work out how much money you need to cover your living expenses (including holidays, future expenses such as education and any extras), and how much income you would have available (I can help you for no charge if you send me an email).  If you do this, remember the extra childcare costs. Many people forget to insure a non-working spouse because she does not have an income. In fact, if you were to have to pay someone to look after your children, clean your house and do your washing, particularly if you work long hours, there are significant costs involved!  Being an expat you would also have to consider whether you would want to return to your own country, which would incur further costs. 

Sometimes it is necessary to compromise between how much insurance you need and how much you can afford. Again, I can help you to find the best balance. 

Overview 

Assurance vie and assurance décès are essential financial planning tools, making sure your family is financially secure whatever happens. 

Assurance vie is a way of saving money for the future. It is very flexible and tax efficient and with the right policy you will have a lifelong structure to manage your investments, enabling you to tailor your portfolio as your circumstances evolve. 

Assurance décès is the one thing you pay for but hope you will never receive any benefit. Thankfully it is rare that you have to claim, but in the event that you do the benefit to your family is immense.

Felicity Lodge, based in Grenoble, is a financial planner with The Spectrum IFA Group. For a free, no-obligation consultation please contact felicity.lodge (at) spectrum-ifa.com.

Le Créarc - international theatre in Grenoble

The May 7 English Talk Radio show features Anne-Laure Dubois and Marco Andrello of Le Créarc – Centre de Création de Recherche et des Cultures - talking about international theatre in Grenoble.

Listen to the show: here

English Talk Radio is a talk show in English on 90.8 Radio Campus Grenoble. We talk about film, theatre, finance, restaurants, travel, and have a variety of topical guests. There are four presenters: Kristine Minski talks about finance, Christina Menez talks about China, Mary Zaccai talks about student issues, and Vivian Draper – animatrice/rédactrice – hosts the show. Every Sunday at 12.30pm, and every Wednesday at 7pm on 90.8, Radio Campus Grenoble and live on www.campusgrenoble.org – and also here on Grenoble Life.

URSSAF - another elegant French acronym

Patrick Owen shares his experience starting an English teaching business, becoming an Auto-entrepreneur and dealing with France’s particular administrative complexity and love of acronyms.  

So as I come to the end of my ACCRE, I’ve contacted the URSSAF who told me to contact the APCE.  I also contacted the RSI and the CIPAV but had no response.  Therefore I sent an email to the CNAVPL.  I must, also, remember to send my annual report to the DRTEPF.  If all of this sounds like double Dutch, welcome to my world, since I started my own business.  I knew the French administration loved acronyms having lived in France for eight years, dealing with the CAF, EDF, GDF, etc.  However, when I set up my own company I entered a whole new ball game. 

After working in various language schools I decided to work for myself.  Everyone warned me against it; “It’s really complicated,” and, “The charges are really high,” were just two of the comments I heard.  It is amazing that France has so many small businesses, when you hear all the negative reactions.  In the beginning, I wasn’t sure what type of business to create with various projects in mind.  However, I soon discovered that in France, once you have trained to do one thing changing direction is not easy. Changing careers involves financial and time investments that I did not have.  I therefore decided to set up a language teaching business, since this was what I knew best. 

Now, it might be useful to explain why I had decided to set up my own business.  Many language schools will employ teachers on freelance contracts, as I had discovered during my first year in France.  The problem is that to work for a business school or university, where the better pay rates are, you need a principal employer.  In addition, for a reason that I can only speculate at, few employers are willing to sign the paper agreeing to be your principal employer.  There are two solutions: one is to use a société de portage, the other is to be your own employer.  The société de portage acts as your employer, in the sense that they take care of all the administrative paperwork, of course for this service they take a fee.  My feeling was that the fee charged didn’t really justify the work involved,  I therefore decided to set up for myself. 

I attended an event held by my local Chamber of Commerce, which didn’t turn out to be much help.  I was unable to get answers to my questions and, as I was not setting up a commercial activity, they were not the right people to ask.  In the end, it was internet forums that proved to be the most help.  I typed my questions into Google and sifted through the responses.  It was here that I learnt I would have to see the URSSAF.  They seem to be the organisation that catches the companies who are not commercial or tradesmen.  I also discovered that provided I didn’t earn too much and didn’t employ anyone else, the process was fairly simple. 

I printed a form on the internet and headed for the URSSAF.  I had been told I didn’t need an appointment.  This worried me slightly, as I had experienced the queues at the Social Security and the Prefecture.  I was pleasantly surprised to be received within ten minutes of my arrival by a pleasant and helpful adviser.  She rapidly entered my details and answered my questions, in less than an hour I was in business, literally.  She offered me a free appointment with an accountant and, best of all, showed me I was eligible for a dispensation of social taxes for one year.  I left the URSSAF with a whole different image of the French administration. 

The dispensation for one year is important and a big helping hand.  Normally a company’s charges are fixed for the first and second years.  Then the third year’s charges are calculated on the real income of the second year.  The problem is that, although, the first year’s charges are relatively light, in the second they double and this kills a lot of small businesses.  Now, certain categories of business creators, the unemployed for example, can ask for a first year free of charges.  I qualified because, although I resigned, I had been looking after my kids one day a week and received income support.  This taught me that you have to read everything because there is often an advantageous exception which you may not always be told about. 

While surfing the internet, I also discovered that if I wanted to teach in companies I would need to make a déclaration d’activité with the DRTEFP (Direction Régionale du Travail, de l’Emploi et de la Formation Professionnelle).  In France, companies are obliged to pay a tax towards the training of their employees.  This tax is often collected by organisations which manage the training funds.  These organisations will only accept training courses run by companies who have made the declaration.  Many people wrongly refer to it as an agreement, however the DRTEFP are very strict in their literature that it is not an agreement from the state, merely a declaration.  

I discovered that with the right documentation, a curriculum vitae, a casier judiciaire vierge (a document you can order online showing you have never committed a crime), and your first training contract the procedure was straightforward.  It is the contract which can be a little complicated, if you haven’t got a declaration number how can you sign a contract?  I got around this problem by noting that my declaration was being processed, and offering my first client a clause whereby if I didn’t get the number the contract was null and void. 

I treated starting my business rather as a challenge and as time went on it became a puzzle, for which I was never sure I had all the pieces.  To be honest I enjoyed pitting myself against the French administration and proving those who said it would be hard to do wrong.  It must be said that I chose the simplest possible structure and being a teacher, who teaches in companies, I have very few overheads. 

It is worth mentioning in conclusion that a law was passed in 2008 making it even easier for freelance teachers.  The status of Auto-entrepreneur is designed for people who may have multiple employers as well as working for themselves.  The process of setting up is very simple and can even be done online.  The real boost however comes in terms of charges and tax.  The Auto-entrepreneur can choose to declare his turnover each month or trimester.  The social charges and tax are calculated based on what he declares and paid immediately.  This avoids the nasty bills arriving one year after a good year.  It also means that if you have a month with no income you pay nothing.  This regime is much more sensible for someone like me. 

Unfortunately, and here is the downside of my experience, getting information about this new status has been hard.  I have read the law and the Auto-entrepreneur’s handbook.  As a sole trader I can ask to benefit from the same regime, and I have done so which brings us back to the beginning of the article.  The acronyms are all the people I have contacted to ask for help changing my status.  

On the whole my experience has been positive; the principal problem has been people.  Everything one needs to know is on the internet.  When dealing with employees of the various administrations it is a case of pot luck.  The first person I saw was excellent, others have been less so.  I once made the mistake of phoning on the day of a strike, my call was answered after prolonged ringing by a harassed and unhelpful lady.  I blame myself for this one, though, after three years in France I should have known you don’t phone the public service on strike days, I was lucky someone answered.  My advice is to be determined, do your research and treat the experience as fun, and you will be fine. 

Patrick Owen
www.englishcoach38.com
letter-from-france.blogspot.com

A filled blackboard. Photo: Rainer Ebert

In response to criticism of the education system on Grenoble Life and from the Anglophone community in France, Iain Smears mounts a passionate defence of French schooling.

Many people in the Anglophone community in Grenoble will come into contact with the French education system either through their studies or those of their family members. There are aspects about it which seem to draw criticism from a considerable proportion of the English-speaking community.

In this article, I would like to depict how my own experience of doing maternelle, primaire, collège and lycée in Grenoble, then of going to university in the UK, has shown me the many benefits of the education on offer here. In fact, it is precisely some of those aspects of the system which are often criticised which I would argue have been of value to me in my university studies. I will focus on secondary education, or more specifically the Bac Général, as I have only glimpses and second hand experience of French higher education and cannot claim to know much about the other paths in secondary education.

A major concern for some is the long hours of schooling throughout collège and lycée. I did the Bac Scientifique with the OIB (L’option internationale du baccalauréat), and I’m the first to admit that it was demanding. On a few occasions, I’ve been asked by parents with children about to embark on this path if it’s true that I did 50 hours of work a week. Their frowns of anguish are of little surprise to me when I place a finger on my lip, recollect, then declare that it was probably a dozen or so hours more than that.

I do see the sense in many of the objections to long school days and I will readily concede that perhaps the content of lessons from 5-6 pm isn’t what I remember the best – however, little is said of the end result of French schooling: how does it influence one’s experiences in higher education and after that?

I chose to study mathematics in the UK. Bit by bit, I noticed how my fellow students were finding the course more trying than I was – some would find it hard to do their work on time, others found it hard to get out of bed, some needed vast amounts of caffeine or chocolate to feel ready to take on their work. Someone put my thoughts into words by calling it a “great big hangover for having partied for the previous 18 years.”

For my part, I continued at my usual rhythm inherited from Terminale by learning my lectures as well as I could and doing my homework sooner rather than later. I think that strong discipline not only leads to successfully acquiring the material, but also helps to explore the subject to its fullest, satisfy one’s curiosity and therefore enjoy one’s studies.

The extensive testing and harsh grading schemes in French education also attract criticism. Yet I believe that it is instead very beneficial to get substantial practice of long examinations. Being able to focus and to stay sharp under pressure is an important part of exam technique and I am glad I was able to get practice in this before end-of-year exams at university.

As for the unforgiving grading, it made those good grades well deserved – something in which I found satisfaction. I found that for me and other pupils at school, it encouraged a determined attitude towards trying one’s upmost. Compare this to the comments I have heard of several students in the UK about how they were “spoon-fed just to pass exams” and “weren’t proving [their] own ability, but that of [their] teacher”, which has not helped them find self-confidence and belief in their ability. I think that learning that someone can indeed rise up to a challenge is important for him to value and appreciate his work and also helps in face of future challenges.

It is true that some people can find the difficult grading scheme discouraging. But even though grades matter for later progression, it should be remembered that what is learnt matters most. Whether someone gets a B or C on an A-level or roughly equivalently [i] a 10 on the Bac, what they have gained from school will likely be the same. When that person goes onto university, it is what that person has acquired that will be key. I know of some who struggled in a subject throughout lycée, then needed that knowledge to some extent in their later studies, and have told me since that they felt they were at an advantage against others in their group.

However if there is a clear-cut problem with the grading system, it is that it puts at a disadvantage French students who wish to study abroad, e.g. the UK. This is because admissions tutors might not be aware of the discrepancies between the systems and take estimated grades for the Baccalaureate at face value – i.e. they would assume, say, that an A is worth 16 on the Bac. Things are made worse by the fact that high numbers of UK students get the top mark: according to wikipedia [ii], 43.7% of students taking an A-level in Mathematics got an A in 2007. And unlike A-levels, Baccalaureate students cannot retake exams to improve their grades. This can result in disproportionately demanding offers for Baccalaureate pupils.

A final advantage of the French education system, which is not immediately apparent to those still undertaking it, is that it offers flexibility in later choices. Of those who did the Bac Scientifique in my class, some have gone into media relations, politics, languages, nursing… Some feel that the schooling did not suit them, but what they have done enables them to embark on a wide range of paths afterwards.

In conclusion, even though the French secondary education system has its faults, I hope it will not be forgotten that the overall result of the extensive schooling is threefold. First, it is an opening to numerous topics – it showcases vast bodies of knowledge and works to stimulate the pupil’s mind in all forms. Second, it helps to equip its pupils with the attitude, determination, self-confidence and ethos which are important in all walks of life. Third, it aims to keep as many doors open as possible all the way until the end of the Baccalaureate. Combined, I think these three aspects allow the education system to offer what one generally wants: the freedom to choose one’s way through an opening to the world.

Place Grenette, c.1900

In the second part of John Lubbock’s brief history of Grenoble he finds himself scratching beneath the surface of the city and discovering a ”post-apocalyptic 19th century parallel universe,” among other things.

I had long been puzzled by an impressive fortification system which stands near my house on one side of Parc Paul Mistral, completely hidden by trees and currently hosting a bmx/mountainbike track on one side. I had to telephone the resident historian of the Maison de Tourisme to find any information about this structure, which turns out to have been constructed in 1813 by the celebrated military engineer Générale Haxo (who also later reconstructed the Bastille) to protect against a possible southern invasion of France by the Austrian Empire.

The Austrians indeed eventually invaded the same year and were repulsed by the city defences, but returned to occupy Grenoble in 1814 and again in 1815. These walls, or enceintes, as they say in French, (the same word is used for pregnant as well as for hi-fi speakers, which is clearly intended to confuse and frustrate learners of French) were later demolished to make way for roads like Boulevard Jean Pain, leaving them an impressive ruin overrun by trees that makes you feel like you are in some post-apocalyptic 19th century parallel universe.

In the 19th century, modernity finally arrived in Grenoble with the construction of the railways. Aristide Bergès, a paper manufacturer, installed a modern paper factory in the Grenoble valley in 1867, where he invented the first hydro-electric motor to power the factory’s turbines. He called this new source of electricity Houille Blanche, or White Oil, which is still used in French to refer to hydroelectricity.

As I said, there is no statue to mark Bergès’s achievement in Grenoble, except for some ugly student housing and a CROUS named after him. However, one look the disservice done to his memory by the invention of photography will tell you that he’s not nearly as sexy as how French romantics imagined Bayard to look. I mean, he doesn’t even have an English language Wikipedia page, which is actually more of a damning criticism of his historical importance.

Bergès, and Bayard. No comparison.

And so to bring us up to the most important century, being that in which most of us were born: the 20th. Since all history is inevitably self-centred, why not congratulate ourselves for being born in the best century – that is if centuries are judged on some kind of Tarantino-esque scale of awarding points for most limbs severed or ears sliced off.

Exposition Internationale de la Houille Blanche et du Tourisme

After the First World War, Mayor Paul Mistral began various social and cultural projects, including the 1925 Exposition Internationale de la Houille Blanche et du Tourisme. Though what these two subjects have in common is something of a mystery; perhaps they couldn’t drum up enough interest in either one by itself. For the occasion, architect Auguste Perret constructed the Tour Perret in Parc Mistral, whose blue lights can be seen from miles around, shining as a beacon to the ability of architects to create Freudian symbols of power.

It is the sole remaining construction from this exhibition, and was used at the time to transmit radio emissions throughout the whole of France, though probably not with much success considering analog transmissions find mountains to be rather a hurdle to overcome. The tower was classed a historic monument in 1998, and a restoration plan is currently à l’étude.

There was a large wave of Italian immigration into Grenoble after the Second World War to help provide workers for the new factories. They stayed after discovering that the French loved eating cheese and bread, but had never thought of combining them inside an oven.

At the outbreak of the Second World War, the Nazi invasion was stopped in the south at the Battle of The Alps, though Grenoble was occupied by the Italian army in 1942-3 after they heard how easy it was to get good pizza there. Unfortunately, the Nazis found the Italians to be a little too laissez-faire about rounding up Jews and resistance fighters in Grenoble, and decided to occupy it themselves in 1943, escalating resistance activities, the most spectacular of which was the destruction of the Bonne barracks and arsenal in December 1943.

American tanks in Grenoble, 1944.

After the war, Grenoble rebounded economically by marketing itself as a winter sports destination, aided by the construction of some hideous new brutalist buildings and ski resorts like Chamrousse for the 1968 Winter Olympic Games.

The last half of the 20th century saw the arrival of new immigrants from North Africa and the realization of the globalized and multiethnic modern character of Grenoble.

Well, there you go. That’s as far as Wikipedia will take us, so I suggest you stop procrastinating on your computer and go outside and make some more history, or else there won’t be anything else to write about, will there? Go on, outside, now …  shoo!

The crèche: in safe hands

Grenoble Life editor James Dalrymple blogs on his experience with French childcare in Grenoble and the difficulties getting that all-important place at a crèche.

Handing over your baby to complete strangers is not first on our list of desirable experiences but it is an everyday reality for working parents. France has a relatively high proportion of working mothers and an enviably fertile population, but a surprisingly short basic maternity leave. These are just some of the contributing factors that necessitate widely available and affordable childcare, which in turn do their bit to help get the balance right between being a parent and having a career.

The scolaire system

Getting a place at a municipal crèche, however, is notoriously difficult in Grenoble (and probably elsewhere in France). The largest intake of babies is in September when toddlers doff their mortar boards and graduate to Ecole Maternelle (nursery school), freeing up space for the newbies. Thus, unless you are confident of conceiving in accordance with the demands of l’année scolaire, you may find yourself out of luck when your congé de maternité or parental comes to an end. (For your info, nine months of pregnancy added to around three months of post-natal maternity leave - give or take – would make this September a good time to conceive in order for your baby to get into the crèche in September 2011 – you know what to do!).

Such crèches are subsidised by the Mairie, but parents still pay the bill depending on their means: making them affordable to all. The charges are subject deductions from the CAF before you see them, so that there is none of the time-consuming reimbursement admin which affects visits to many doctors. For my wife and I, it amounts to about two euro an hour. What’s more, thereafter, you can declare this expense against your annual income tax obligations (impôts) which sees this figure drop by a further 50%. In short, the piggy bank can be left intact for the time being.

In my experience the crèches are clean, well-equipped and staffed, with fresh meals prepared on the premises and bubbly personnel. At the end of each day I am given a detailed report on my daughter’s food intake, sleep time and number of nappies (couches) filled with unnerving precision. I am always reassured she is in safe hands, free to explore a terrain filled with ludic objects to peruse, which makes a change from her reordering my CD collection or trying to rewire a wall socket chez moi. 

The nanny state

The alternative is a crèche familiale: effectively smaller groups of children cared for at somebody’s home. This is billed as a municipal service and thus subsidised but is closer in spirit to having a private nanny. In our case, we were desperate for the lively atmosphere of the crèche for our daughter, with the different carers and larger number of children. Whereas many people appreciate the crèche familiale, we didn’t feel comfortable leaving our daughter with only one person: a person who wields such an enormous influence in a child’s life yet does so largely away from the scrutiny from her peers.

Although I’m sure the majority of women who work at crèches familiales are professional, I have heard of instances in which they were not. And if you refuse the woman the Mairie offers you, they immediately blacklist you and you have no chance of getting subsidised municipal childcare. It seemed that if we accepted this process, it was a big step into the unknown. Private nannies were also scarce at the time, and among those we met who weren’t fully booked there were some who didn’t seem to even particularly like children. These individuals were also unwilling to accept temporary terms with us while we waited for a place at the crèche to become available, as they wanted a longer commitment.

In my local quartier, the municipal crèche is situated ideally at two minutes walk from our flat, and would have stood as a mocking reminder of what we had missed if we hadn’t got a place there. Finally we resolved to make an arrangement whereby our daughter attended the halte garderie, which is effectively the same as the crèche but only for up to two days maximum. Normally this is organised on an ad hoc basis or, as in our case, with temporary rolling contracts. Luckily we were able to make other arrangements for the remaining hours that we needed but it allowed us to ingratiate ourselves a little with the staff there and secure our position on the waiting list until a place made itself available. This happened in three months.

Baby betrayal

At first our daughter was crestfallen upon being left at the crèche, acting as if having befallen an enormous betrayal. Traitor! she seemed to cry upon being passed to the crèche staff. There is an integration system by which you can leave your child at the crèche for a couple of hours at a time, gradually building up to full days, but babies are an unpredictable bunch. One day you feel a guilty tingle of satisfaction when your baby cries on being handed over to a carer: yes, my baby still loves me best! The next day your child will cry when you come to pick her up. Traitor! you seethe in silence. In the parental logic, the latter is just the baby ‘releasing tension’ at the end of the day.

The inevitable inconvenience to all this contact with other children is what has seemed like an endless loop of spectacular illnesses. The first time you see a baby projectile-vomit (à la L’exorciste), it is terrifying, but it is impressive what one can become inured to. The winter just past has been a hard one: with the somewhat false alarm of swine flu providing unwelcome distraction from the lurid retinue of tummy bugs and gastros doing the rounds. At the crèche, there is no escape from the steep curve towards stronger immune systems, but this has to happen at some point.

The three days a week my daughter spends at the crèche currently provide most of her contact with French, despite the efforts of certain staff members to speak English to me. As my wife and I speak English at home we hope this will be an effective path towards her obtaining bilingualism; but it is interesting to see the different phonemes she manages in her babillage. Among the distinctly Anglophone syllables we have started to identify some impressively rolled Rs. Once she yelled what was clearly a resounding Merde!, but I’m sure she didn’t learn that down at the crèche.

If you want my advice, persistence is key. Where there is will there is a way.

Grenoble in 1944

Want to impress your friends with your knowledge of Grenoble’s past? John Lubbock has condensed the history of the city into two short blogs so that you can show off about how much you know.

While the French are justly proud of the things their culture does well throughout the country, such as cheese, ignoring things that aren’t their business, and electro-pop, they’re not so fond of regional particularism, and perhaps this feeds into the lack of promotion of Grenoble’s interesting historical buildings and cultural heritage. Have you ever walked past an old building and thought ‘what is that thing?’, or been inside an unassuming bookshop in the centre of town, only to be confronted by a medieval-looking interior? Perhaps it’s just that Grenoble is a city so obsessed with the future that it doesn’t have too much time for the relics of the past.

Well, I for one am a big fan of relics of the past, and if there was a facebook page for relics of the past, I would be lining up to be their cheerleader.  So, Anglophones with a passing interest in ‘istoire, I know you’re busy people, so we’ll see if we can’t cover 2000 years of Grenoble history in the space of just two short blog posts. Ready? Let’s start with those good old Romans then.

Grenoble is at the crossroads of three valleys, and has been a garrison town since it became part of the Roman Empire in 43BC, when it was called Cularo. The omniscient deity, wikipedia, tells us that the penultimate Emperor of the whole Roman Empire, Gratian, was so touched by the welcome of the people of Cularo that he elevated it to the level of a Roman ‘City’ and began constructing walls to protect it.  Cularo was renamed Gratianopolis in 381 in honour of the Emperor. This name transformed over the next millennia to Graignovol and, after its incorporation into the kingdom of France, changed to its modern pronunciation through association with the word ‘noble’ in reference to the King.

After the fall of the Empire, the city was involved in a game of Merovingian pass the parcel, as it became part of the Burgundian Kingdom, Middle Francia, Lotharingia, and was also pillaged by the Lombards in the sixth century, and by the Ummayid Saracens in the eighth and ninth century. In 1030 it became part of Arelat, territory of the Counts of Albon (later Dauphins de Viennois), a protectorate of the Holy Roman Empire. The appellation Dauphin appears to be a noble title of no more meaning than ‘Compte’, due to the medieval belief that dolphins were the kings of the fishes. Modern anthropology carelessly forgot to tell them that Dolphins are not fishes, and one look at the coat of arms of the Dauphiné will tell you that its creator never saw a water-dwelling creature larger than a pike in his life.

The Coat of Arms of the Dauphiné

No doubt the Dark Ages of Grenoble history were full of peasants shouting ‘Help, Help, I’m being repressed’ for many centuries (see Monty Python and the Holy Grail for illustration) without making so much as a stain on the pages of history, and thus we are left with a dull list of the names of royal managers which resembles the Roll of Honour in the boardroom of a third division football team that nobody cares about. But worry not, for with the arrival of feudalism, interesting things were about to happen to Grenoble that would forever be commemorated by histrionic statues of romantic chevaliers.

In 1349, the last Dauphin, Humbert II, negotiated the “transportation” of Dauphiné to France. An ‘ambitious spendthrift’, Humbert supported several religious foundations, founded the University of Grenoble and sponsored a rich court. He went on Crusade and came back bankrupted, his wife and son having died during his leave. Having run out of luck at the medieval casino, he decided to cash in his chips, sell the Dauphiné to the King of France and retire to a monastery which he presumably pimped out and invited MTV over to try the indoor waterslide in his new ‘crib’.

In 1515, King Francis I appointed Bayard, the “fearless and blameless knight” Lieutenant-General of Dauphiné. Pierre Terrail, lord of Bayard, was born in Pontcharra, near Grenoble in 1476. He fought very bravely during the Italian wars, and Francis I asked Bayard to knight him on the battlefield of Marignan (1515). In a brilliant piece of Quixotic irony, Bayard was killed in 1526 by bullet from an early gunpowder weapon. Modernity – 1, Chivalry – 0.

Despite this exciting tale, Grenoble suffered heavily during this period as the city was burdened with having to support a large military presence, and the plague killed many people. A romantic nineteenth century statue of Bayard stands in Place St. Andre, giving encouragement to all the young Frenchmen who aspire to feats of arms such as combat contre neuf Espanyols and laying siege to Naples. As far as I can tell, there doesn’t seem to be a statue to the Grenoblois who invented hydroelectricity, but then that’s just not as sexy as a guy with a sword who excelled at killing foreigners.

In the sixteenth century, the Wars of Religion saw Grenoble caught in the middle of a sectarian struggle about which it is difficult to make many jokes, so we’ll keep it short. The Dauphiné was an important settlement for Protestants influenced by the Calvinist theology emanating from Geneva. The Huguenot leader, the Baron des Adrets, pillaged the Cathedral of Grenoble, destroying the tombs of former Dauphins in one of many acts of iconoclasm.

In 1575, Lesdiguières became the new leader of the Protestants and allied himself with the pragmatic King Henry IV (who converted from Protestantism to Catholicism to gain the throne, quipping “Paris is well worth a Mass”). However, a Catholic movement, the Ligue, took Grenoble in 1590, refusing to make peace. After months of assaults, Lesdiguières defeated the Ligue and took back Grenoble (which he starved into submission), becoming the leader of the entire province.

Lesdiguières served as lieutenant-general of the Dauphiné until 1626 and began the construction of the Bastille in order to protect the city. He also ordered the construction of new walls and constructed the Hôtel Lesdiguières, which faces the river on one side of the Jardin de Ville. But the religious trouble was not over, and when Louis XIV started oppressing Protestants again in the seventeenth century, the emigration of Huguenot gantiers left Grenoble’s glove industry with no competition, and it became the main industry of the city. One can only imagine that the number of duels skyrocketed as aristocrats always found themselves within a few inches of a glove with which to slap the face of a rival who had questioned the honour of their mistress.  

Prior to the French Revolution, Grenoble was the scene of popular unrest due to financial hardship from the economic and financial crises. The famous Journée des Tuiles (1788) in Grenoble is seen as one of the first popular revolts that started the revolution. The government sent troops to put down a meeting of the Estates of Dauphiné which had convened in Grenoble. The people of Grenoble climbed onto the roofs, where they threw down tiles onto the troops, thus giving the incident its name.

Rue Raoul Blanchard, painted by Debelle a century after the event, and today.

These events influenced two prominent Grenoblois, Barnave and Mounier, who represented Dauphiné in the in the Estates General in Paris. Both sought to stabilize the rapidly shifting political ground, and both became suspected of supporting the Ancien Regime, for which Barnave was executed and Mounier forced to flee to Swizerland. During the revolution, the Bastille was renamed in support of the storming of the Bastille in Paris. Grenoble itself was renamed Grelibre, though they wisely changed it back when Napoleon was crowned Emperor, in recognition of the fact that nobody had become any freer, and that the name itself was rather silly.

Since you will undoubtedly be feeling jet-lagged by such a rapid fast-forward through 1800 years of Grenoble history, we will save the last 200 years for a second blog post, and thus leave you desperate to know how the story ends (spoiler alert: Napoleon meets his Waterloo).

LEROY & SCARPA: neutral-toned, softly-chic faux-fur throws and pillows

Nearly one year on from their first meeting, Grenoble Life catches up with Kris Leroy, the American founder of Grenoble-based soft furnishings design company LEROY & SCARPA, France, previously Chic Throws.  

Grenoble Life: Why the name change? 

Kris Leroy: As Axelle and I are now associates, both managing the company and aiming to launch a luxury brand, we definitely needed to change the name for a fresh start. Chic Throws was also impossible to pronounce in French! I had originally had a direct e-commerce strategy for the business in place but realized that it was best to focus on my designs, our originality and leave the B2C to others more specialized. 

As most designers, it is important to keep your name in the frontlines and not hide behind a meaningless company name. We have invested in our new name/logo which I think reflects a more luxurious brand. 

GL: Who is Axelle? 

Kris: Axelle Scarpa and I used to work together at Ericsson Hewlett-Packard Telecommunications (EHPT) over 10 years ago. We have remained friends ever since and over lunch I’d told her my dream associate would be someone like her, an expert in supply chain management and purchasing. She was just finishing her tenth year at HP and was ready for a serious change in environment as well as an entrepreneurial challenge and quality of life improvement. She said, why don’t I come to work with you and I’d thought she’d had a bit too much wine at lunch …

Since April we’ve combined forces, and mutually thank each other for ‘our new life’. It’s great as we prioritize family time (i.e. working four days a week) however often meet online after hours to achieve our goals. We have moved our offices to a business park where our communications agency was located. It’s only 100m away from our last office but we have much better natural light (so I don’t have to go out on the roof to see the true fabric colors) and air conditioning! 

Kris Leroy and Axelle Scarpa

GL: What is there to do now that you’ve joined forces? 

Kris: We need to basically start all the business filings again in SARL format with the Chamber of Commerce and choose partners with whom we want to launch our new brand. (accountant, notaire, fabric suppliers, communications agency, etc.) You are only as good as your partners.

I am working on the new Winter 2010 collection for the first professional fair in Annecy in June. This will be the test for the B2B market where originality should prime over the traditional ‘mountain décor’ suppliers to ski areas in France, Switzerland and Italy. We are really targeting the chic boutiques in the ski areas in Megève, Chamonix, Courchevel, etc. and hope to ‘wow’ them with our new collection, for their international clients. I have spared no expense on the fabrics that come from top and unknown designers in France, Italy and the UK for the Courchevel Chic collection. 

Since the crise clients are craving color and that is what we will bring them as well as neutral-toned, softly-chic faux-fur throws and pillows (see top image).

GL: So you are ready to hit the market now? 

Kris: Now that Axelle is on board, I finally can focus on my added value which is sales and marketing. This past year has been spent getting our supply chain in place and prospecting both the B2B and B2C markets. I literally haven’t had a chance to really hit the pavement running with our collections. All sales have truly been through word of mouth. 

We just need to finish the website, the catalogue and the samples for each collection, photograph all and then I’m set to meet clients and take orders … Now that production is confirmed and we have about a two week lead time on production (better than our competitors who are importing from abroad), we can really stand out. 

Also, we need to perfect photography which is difficult to capture a large throw on a thumbnail-size photo and is quite a challenge for our internet resellers. We are currently testing photographers and have a great photo shoot in place that should all come together in May.

Leroy & Scarpa

GL: In terms of design are you comfortable in this new market? 

Kris: Axelle and I just came back from London where we attended the Kelly Hoppen school of design. This program really helped me fine-tune what I was designing to be in harmony with Kelly Hoppen’s style which caters to the same clientele. I have finally overcome my fear of neutral linens and can expertly decipher the difference in taupe and sand tones.

We have also joined forces with our communications agency and www.ateliermartinberger.com to create www.cocotte-design.com, which is a blog for girls who like to talk about girls in design. We are having loads of fun with this project that just launched last weekend and are meeting a lot of interesting people in design. 

GL: What has inspired the new collection? 

Kris: I have found three new fabric designers that are really in tune with my style and blend well with what we have already. I have also found a sculpture-designer that can make the buttons that I’ve been trying to find worldwide as a final touch to the collection. We will also be designing our own buttons as finishing touches with our new logo. 

As we are actively targeting the ski areas, we are using a lot of faux-fur in bright colors and neutral tones. We only use French and Belgian top-quality fabric and the result is an ultra-soft, emotional / sensual product. It’s not just a throw! 

We are also launching some furniture at the fair in June: plush, patchwork chairs and cube tables. 

We have been lucky as the press has sought us out and especially the new magazine ‘Cosy Mountain’ which is the first ski-area magazine for contemporary design. Once our packaging is complete with the new logo, we should have a four-page spread in their fall issue. 

GL: And then what? 

Kris: Once summer arrives, I need to start designing the Spring Collection for 2011 which will include outdoor fabrics (pillows, lounge covers, poufs, plush chairs). We also have lighter throws planned for cool evenings and brightly colored pillows to match. 

I am also working with a graffiti artist to design some eclectic throws for artsy and adolescent clients. I am inspired by Banksy’s wall art in the UK and hope to transfer others artists’ designs onto throws, headboards, etc. 

We are working on our first chic-boutique deal in London and then who know where outside of France … For the moment we will focus on our home-base and slowly branch out to Switzerland, Italy and other foreign markets. 

We do want to maintain a ‘boutique-brand’ and not sell to large department stores. The idea is to remain exclusive and maintain a smaller, very happy clientele.

Garvin at the Radio Campus studio

The April 25 English Talk Radio show features Garvin: a Franco-Welsh-Scots rock band from Grenoble.  After only a little over a year together and they are already finishing the recording of their first album. A mix of English pop-rock, progressive and folk, they play two songs live in the studio for you!

Listen to the full show: here

English Talk Radio is a talk show in English on 90.8 Radio Campus Grenoble. We talk about film, theatre, finance, restaurants, travel, and have a variety of topical guests. There are four presenters: Kristine Minski talks about finance, Christina Menez talks about China, Mary Zaccai talks about student issues, and Vivian Draper – animatrice/rédactrice – hosts the show. Every Sunday at 12.30pm, and every Wednesday at 7pm on 90.8, Radio Campus Grenoble and live on www.campusgrenoble.org – and also here on Grenoble Life.

'Retour à Grenoble'. Photo: Loin des yeux

Without wireless in Grenoble? Don’t want to use an internet café or pay to buy a clé USB from SFR or Orange? Read on for sites of reliable and free internet access at various points throughout the city. 

By Anne S.

Pain et Cie
1 bis, rue de Lafayette
Tram: Sainte-Claire les Halles (B)

Pain et Cie is located very close to Place Notre Dame and is a great brunch/lunch/breakfast place. It’s a casual, relaxed spot with long wooden tables and a nice outdoor terrace as well. They have a bunch of tartines and jus de fruits bio and an incontournable spread of brunch items – it’s usually packed on Sunday mornings with everyone from students to families to young couples. They have a good free wireless network (although one or two times it didn’t work for me) and the big tables are excellent working spaces.

Pros: I’ve seen quite a few people working on computers there and the food is really good and reasonably priced. The restaurant as a whole has a nice atmosphere and the people who work there are also very friendly. Definitely my favorite wifi spot in Grenoble proper (excluding the university).

Cons: Pigeons sometimes fly in and out, which is alarming, but has nothing to do with computers. Also, there are only a few outlets, so bring your computer fully charged. 

Université de Grenoble
Saint Martin d’Hères campus
Tram: Bibliothèques Universitares (B/C)

This was my preferred point of Internet connectivity in Grenoble, as I was a part-time student at the university. The Bibliothèque Universitaire has plenty of tables, plugs, and excellent connectivity, as do a number of other sites on campus. The Fac also offers an opportunity for connection that is not a coffee shop or eating establishment, so it is theoretically one of the few “free” hotspots on this list.

Pros: The majority of campus buildings are wireless, and the Internet is fast and reliable.

Cons: You must be enrolled at the university to gain access to the network, if I’m not mistaken. It’s locked unless you have a login from their registrar. 

French Coffee Shop
3 place Claveyson
Tram: Sainte-Clare les Halles (B) or Maison de Tourisme (A/B)

This coffee shop is actually a chain with a number of locations around France. I got the impression that it is modeled after an American-style coffee shop (think Starbucks, Peet’s Coffee, or Tully’s), with blended ice drinks, smoothies, and muffins. It attracts a relatively young clientele, including a considerable amount of foreign (mostly American) students. The wireless network here was secure (password protected) and very reliable, and there are also a number of outlets to plug a power cord.

Pros: Outlets! Comfortable couches! And if you’re not in the mood for pastries, excellent chocolate muffins!

Cons: Do you really want to spend all your days at a place called French Coffee Shop?

Le 5 (Musée de Grenoble)
5 place de Lavalette
Tram: Musée de Grenoble (B)

Le 5 is the restaurant attached to the Musée but, of course, you can eat there with out paying admission to the museum. I’ve sat in there some afternoons with a coffee or a tea doing work on my computer and it’s a nice, quiet place. 

Pros: Quiet place to get things done, nice tables. At the Musée which is a nice change of pace from the average internet cafe. 

Cons: Like all museum restaurants, prices are a little higher. I also felt a little weird using my computer in the restaurant, but in the afternoon (around 4ish) when things were slow and I was lounging around with an espresso it seemed to be fine. 

Casino Géant
76 avenue Gabriel Péri, Saint Martin d’Hères
Tram: Neyrpic Belledone (C)

I’ve never actually tried this one out but I’ve been told that the shopping center here has free wifi. Where you’d use it in a grocery store is beyond me, but that’s that.

Around town

The ville de Grenoble has launched a public wireless access campaign, which gives users access in a variety of public spaces around the centre ville. Right now these spots include Parc Paul Mistral, Place Grenette, Place Saint-Andre, Place Victor Hugo, le Jardin de Ville, and le Jardin des plantes. The network (wifigrenoble or Ville-de-Grenoble) is somewhat reliable, with varying degrees of connectivity depending on where you are, but last time I checked the wifi in Parc Paul Mistral did not allow access to various media sharing sites such as Facebook, Youtube, Hulu.

Pros: Internet is accessible almost anywhere in the centre ville, including cafes or restaurants near the hotspots. I never lived in centre-ville proper, so I wouldn’t know if it is accessible if you live there, but maybe someone else can answer that question.

Cons: Checking your e-mail in Parc Paul Mistral? Really? It’s kind of awkward. Also, I have never seen anyone using a computer in that park, and when it’s sunny you get that whole problem of not being able to see the screen. You’d also run a higher risk of getting your computer stolen as it’s pretty open public place. More information here.

Also, I was told last spring that the Bibliothèque in centre ville was getting wifi, but am not sure if that has happened yet. Can anyone confirm this?

Resident Grenoble Life photographer Suzanne Bonnefond presents another idea for a short expedition from Grenoble: “I suggest a trip to ‘Indiana Jones land’, just near the city, les Gorges du Furon in Sassenage. Visitors are always impressed by the beauty of the place”.

Speaker Grill. Photo: Chase Houston

The April 11 English Talk Radio show features Trudi Penkler, a psychologist, psychotherapist and ‘Intercultural Consultant’ with her own practice, Active Adaptation Counselling, in downtown Grenoble. The discussion is about third culture kids, particularly teenagers …

English Talk Radio is a talk show in English on 90.8 Radio Campus Grenoble. We talk about film, theatre, finance, restaurants, travel, and have a variety of topical guests. There are four presenters: Kristine Minski talks about finance, Christina Menez talks about China, Mary Zaccai talks about student issues, and Vivian Draper – animatrice/rédactrice – hosts the show. Every Sunday at 12.30pm, and every Wednesday at 7pm on 90.8, Radio Campus Grenoble and live on www.campusgrenoble.org – and also here on Grenoble Life.

Listen to the show: here

Still searching for the right path in Grenoble?

Grenoble Life’s Shonah Kennedy shares her experience of coming to the city on the “coat-tails” of her husband and discovering she was not the only woman in Grenoble who had temporarily placed their life on hold to be with the man of their dreams.

Heading back to Grenoble after a mini-break in Switzerland I wondered why I felt a little apprehensive. Then it hit me. I was going back to Grenoble AND going back to work! That is right – after what seemed like a formidably long time – I have a job! So, on the return journey to Grenoble, and inevitably to work, my thoughts were consumed by the metaphorical journey I took to get to where I was … it felt like a round-the-world trip, with multiple stopovers!

Until I had coffee with a lovely American girl, I felt that I was on the aforementioned sojourn alone – I imagined I had been the only one ever to have temporarily placed my life on hold to be with the man of my dreams, to live his dreams for a while, as mine simmered on some distant stove-top. However, as we chatted it emerged that she had decided to take a slight detour from the road she was traveling on when her husband received a job offer here. I felt relieved – even though she had been through many of the bureaucratic and emotional ups and downs that I had had to endure – as I was not alone anymore. Actually I would come to learn that the round-the-world was almost over-booked!

Even though my dear husband was very supportive and really encouraged me to get “out there” and look for the job I now have, and be able to write about it here, I really felt as if I had started this metaphorical travel with no preparation – I hadn’t purchased the latest guide book, I didn’t know the sites to see and I didn’t even think to take a language course … so when I ended up on the road, I felt as nervous as if I was going to hitchhike solo the whole way, and just hope that I arrived at the destination I was intended for.

After the coffee with my, now, dear American friend I started thinking there must be others out there like me, wandering around in the wilderness of a round-the-world which wasn’t entirely self motivated. In fact, I found a conglomerate of women living lives they would otherwise not have expected.

Now I have a job, in a profession I adore, and feel a somewhat useful part of society my lost days are few and far between. However, I have spoken to some women who still feel lost, after many years of being here. The decision was not entirely theirs in the first instance, to move to Grenoble, they “followed” – for want of a better word – their husbands here and have never really found their Grenoble feet. These women left good jobs, independence and a place where they felt at home to be with the one they love, but sadly the love of the town has never found them.

Then there are the women who have had a wonderful transition (are these the ones who acquired an upgrade to first class on their round-the-world, I wonder?!) and have not felt as if they have given up their path in lieu of their partner’s, but more taken a segue for a limited period and see many positives in the entirety of the adventure – new place, new language, new friends and an experience they would not otherwise have had.

After speaking to many women (and I know I keep mentioning women, it is not that I assume this situation only happens to women, but during my discussions on the topic of partners following partners, I only heard two separate rumours about men who came to Grenoble because their wives had jobs here) being in Grenoble for many different reasons – marriage, husband’s job, husband’s contract, boyfriend’s research etc. – I came to the conclusion that even though we are all on the same metaphorical journey we will all come home with different travel stories. Some may suffer from travel sickness, while others don’t. Some are in first class, while there are many of us in an overcrowded economy. Some get the interactive TV screens, while for some it is offline for a while, and they must wait for it to be reset. Whatever the situation the journey itself is seemingly memorable.

I would like to thank all the women who shared their stories with me, and I would like to make you aware that each of you has enhanced my round-the-world more than you will know!

Need advice on giving constructive criticism? photo: rocksee

The Working Women’s Network of Grenoble (WWNG) will hold a Personal and Professional Development Seminar entitled “The Power of Feedback: Using Criticism Constructively” on Saturday, June 5, 2010 at Grenoble’s Mercure President hotel.

The seminar comes on the heels of the successful March 2010 “Personal Branding through Social Media” workshop facilitated by WinSoft International Social Networks Manager Kelly Rigotti. The WWNG seminar series provides unique opportunities to benefit from the insights of high-level international professionals. The June 2010 seminar will be facilitated by international trainer, facilitator, and certified coach Marie-José Astre-Démoulin, who works for a leading NGO in Geneva and who delivers workshops for private clients on an exceptional basis.

Turing criticism into opportunities in the workplace

Have you ever had to tell an employee that they must make improvements in their work? It’s hard to tell someone they are not meeting expectations – and yet all managers should know how to do this. Have you ever had a negative performance appraisal yourself? It’s not enough to defend yourself well – you also need to hear what’s behind the criticism and address the underlying issues. Have you ever had a customer vocally dissatisfied with your services? Hearing negative feedback is one of the most difficult communication issues that professionals face.

This full-day, hands-on seminar given in English will provide you with effective tools to handle these difficult situations with grace and turn them to your professional advantage. Trainer Astre-Démoulin will take participants step-by-step through a proven feedback process designed to reduce tension and increase cooperation in the workplace.  

Space is limited to 24 participants, and the seminar program will be customized to meet participant needs based on a personal questionnaire. Translation company owner Sara Freitas-Maltaverne, who attended this seminar in 2009, explains, “Going into the seminar, I was getting ready to ‘let go’ of a client due to increasingly tense relations. Marie-José presented a process that helped me turn the relationship around. A year later not only am I still working with the client, but our relationship has deepened and we have even developed new business opportunities together.”

Registration for the WWNG Seminar is open to the public. Registration is €85 for WWNG members and €105 for non-members. The registration fee includes the full-day seminar, lunch with the group, and two coffee breaks. For more information or to register, visit the website.

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.

Radio. Photo: stigwaage

The March 28 English Talk Radio show features guest Kate Daligault of Banque Rhône-Alpes in Grenoble talking about banking in France, and Mary Zaccai interviews Kristine Minski and Vivian Draper about five years doing the show.

English Talk Radio is a talk show in English on 90.8 Radio Campus Grenoble. We talk about film, theatre, finance, restaurants, travel, and have a variety of topical guests. We are four presenters: Kristine Minski talks about finance, Christina Menez talks about China, Mary Zaccai talks about student issues, and Vivian Draper – animatrice/rédactrice – hosts the show. Every Sunday at 12.30pm, and every Wednesday at 7pm on 90.8, Radio Campus Grenoble and live on www.campusgrenoble.org – and also here on Grenoble Life.

Listen to the full show: here

Upstage 2010

Grenoble Life’s Camille Bromley was in the audience at Ste-Marie-d’en-Bas for this year’s Upstage theatre production: Joe Orton’s Loot and Harold Pinter’s Mountain Language. Here’s what she has to say.  

Grenoble is home to a plethora of theaters running shows every night of the week, but not many of those are performed in English.  Luckily we have Upstage productions to step up to the task; every year Upstage puts on a six-day running of English language theater, performed by high school students at the Cité Internationale.  This year producer and director David Simpson presented a double-bill, Joe Orton’s Loot and Harold Pinter’s Mountain Language.  

Those expecting “High School Musical” should look elsewhere.  Although the team of actors is made up of high school students, the plays chosen confronted difficult and provocative issues. The group emphasizes that its shows are professional productions aimed for all mature audiences, and challenging plays are chosen to reflect this.  

First on the bill was the short but intense Mountain Language, a serious political play about the imprisonment and torture of an ethnic minority group and their loss of culture and identity as a result of the forced suppression of their language.  The play was written after writer Harold Pinter became aware of the treatment of Kurds in Turkey, but the play’s setting is non-specific.  Heavy subject matter and a demanding script, which the actors handled with deliberate subtlety, making the events on stage resonate even more.  

Loot, a subversive black comedy recounting a funeral, a bank robbery on the same day, and the consequent mayhem, is full of lively, sharp characters and witty one-liners.  The actor playing Nurse Fay got the character’s prim voice and maligning saunter down pat, while Inspector Truscot and Hal got through their bits with perfect comic delivery, including a Clouseau-ish French detective impression that won the house over.  

In both plays gender roles were not strictly kept to, with girls playing male roles to balance out the distribution.  To make the small number of roles available to more actors, two actors playing each role alternated nights.   

The play ran from Monday to Saturday the week before last.  Thursday night opened to a full house in the Ste-Marie-d’en-Bas, a small theatre with plenty of ambience just off of the place Notre Dame.  Many Anglophones were audible in the audience, but a good mix of Francophones was present as well.  

An impressive show, by an impressive group of bilingual students.  I look forward to next year’s.  

Upstage 2010 poster

Odyssey Intercultural

Michelle Mielly is MSc Marketing Program Director at Grenoble Graduate School of Business. She talks to Grenoble Life about her background, adapting to life in France and Odyssey Intercultural, the training consultancy she founded.

Grenoble Life: What is Odyssey Intercultural and who is it for?

Michelle Mielly: Odyssey Intercultural is a brand I created four years ago in my work as a consultant with Act’Rmc here in Grenoble. Its name reflects the long and multi-faceted journey that one experiences when working and living interculturally.

The training I have developed targets individuals, teams, and organizations wishing to acquire greater intercultural competency. They may be involved in an acculturation/expatriation process, working in a multicultural team environment, experiencing the ins and outs of a corporate merger or international joint venture, or managing any form of diversity in an organization. Any of these common situations requires intercultural competency.

GL: What are some of the dangers of poor intercultural understanding and management?

Michelle: Stated simply, failure is the biggest danger. Failure in business ventures is often attributed to incompatibilities in strategy, business models, operational technicalities, or management styles. However, when one looks at some of the most spectacular failures in international business, the hidden dimension of culture is often the origin.

The examples are multiple: Disney’s implantation strategy in France and in Hong Kong, the Daimler-Chrysler merger, Lucent-Alcatel’s missed mission, Schneider Electric’s difficulties with a number of its foreign subsidiaries, and many more. Some of these examples illustrate that cultural issues create great obstacles, but the good news is that you can overcome them with hard work and the investment of time.

Another danger is missed opportunities. Creating a bad first impression takes a long time to correct, so it’s better to go into international business with an open mind and conscientious preparation. Many opportunities are lost due to individual cultural differences that inhibited the establishment of a long lasting and productive relationship.

When people don’t feel respected, if they perceive a lack of interest on the part of the other, if they lack the fundamental trust at the foundations of the relationship, or if they think they are being stereotyped negatively, they go into defensive mode. Most of the time they actually start behaving in ways that may confirm the other’s stereotypes!

It must be stressed that in speaking of cultural differences in the corporate context, we are often talking about corporate, and not national or regional cultures. There are dozens of examples of mergers or acquisitions between the same national cultures, but the corporate cultures involved were profoundly imprinted and elusive to change.

GL: Odyssey Intercultural specializes in European-North American relations. Could you elaborate on how these relations can be complicated or sensitive and why Grenoble in particular might require such a service?

Michelle: Cultural differences exist between any two cultures: just looking at Western Europe’s dazzling diversity is overwhelming! Statistically speaking along national cultural dimensions, there are much greater differences between France and Denmark for example than there are between France and the US.

So why train people to work better with North Americans (Canadians and US)? Precisely because there is an incorrect perception, due to excessive and sustained commercial and popular culture exposure, that these cultures are familiar, superficial, and that there is not much more to know about them.

Upon closer examination, however, one finds differences of deep and significant import. It is one thing to watch American sitcoms, eat at McDonald’s, study the English language, visit Toronto or the Grand Canyon for two weeks. It is absolutely another to work, communicate, and negotiate with North Americans on a daily basis.

One example: the perception of time. First, is time a disposable resource? What is an acceptable turnaround time in responding to an email (reactivity levels)? What is the best way to organize time allocation for a project, or just for a meeting? How does one divide one’s personal time from professional time and is this necessary? Should people be available during vacation periods? How much vacation is necessary? What are the expected working hours in companies?

Grenoble’s high tech economy provides a stunning example of how globalization has simultaneously simplified and complicated our work environment. And this environment has an impact on our personal lives as well (increased travel, the need to work odd hours to accommodate conf calls internationally, etc.).

Managers now have teams working 24/7 on their global projects, so deep integration through collaborative technology is a reality today. An industrial project, for example, involves teams in multiple time zones with multiple local environments that contrast sharply from one site to another.

While technically we have the means to run long and short term projects across the globe, on a personal individual level, we often simply do not have the intercultural tools at our disposal to sustainably manage the complexity of the different cultural realities that each site and international counterpart presents throughout the project lifetime.

Partnerships in many forms between Grenoble-based organizations and North American organizations are extremely common and new ones are forming constantly. Due to the perceived similarity of our cultures, most of my clients do not see a need for my services at the start of the project, but usually begin to perceive the need once the challenges have begun to appear.

GL: Why and how did you set it up?

Michelle: I set up this activity to be able to develop trainings that had begun to be requested by local companies to whom I had been referred. As in any activity, a couple of companies ‘took a chance’ with me and offered me a first opportunity to develop a training on French-American intercultural communication.

Thanks to their confidence, I was able to get my grounding in this fascinating field and to develop and test my trainings on people directly working in the corporate environment. My work with people on both the French and American sites of these organizations has helped me see the importance of working with people on both sides of the fence.

GL: Tell us a little about your background

Michelle: Ethnographically speaking I fully identify myself as a southerner: born and raised in Texas to parents from Louisiana and Oklahoma. I grew up in a small town outside of Houston, where I spent a great deal of my time riding my horses and learning the value of simplicity and the happiness of being outdoors.

I started learning French when I was about 15 and then switched from the rodeo circuit to the international summer exchange circuit. I worked my way through undergraduate studies, three graduate programs including Pennsylvania State U and Harvard, and in between got some great experience working in the field.

Trained in linguistics, foreign language pedagogy, intercultural studies and anthropology, I’m politically progressive but culturally conservative. I am proud of my roots and the values I received from them and encourage my students and clients to never lose sight of those values, no matter how much adaptation they must do internationally.

GL: You’ve also worked in Africa and Central America, can you tell us a little about this and how it influenced your thinking.

Michelle: In my 20s I spent a lot of my time backpacking—Europe, Latin America, SE Asia, Africa. Studying comparative literature with a focus on contemporary Central American writers led me to Costa Rica where I had an exceptional experience. I wrote for the local English speaking paper in San José, translated the poetry of Ana Istaru, and had the chance to manage an ecotourism outfitter in the Northwestern pacific region of Guanacaste with 14 employees. This experience made it clear to me that development work was for me.

When I went on to study for the Ph.D. at Harvard, I focused on Francophone African civilizations with a focus on modern day cultural producers and how they contribute to economic and cultural development. I got to live and work with the extraordinary artist Werewere Liking in the Ki Yi Village, Ivory Coast.

These experiences involved huge amounts of negotiation, adaptation, and exhausting reappraisals of my priorities. I initiated as a part of my doctoral thesis for example a US tour of seven African artists in the US in 2004 involving 10 universities across the US, from New York all the way to Ohio.

I began to recognize that I had a certain ease in working with very different cultures and in coordinating among diverse partners in complex situations, constantly negotiating for the best compromise for all. I had in fact through these experiences developed my own working philosophy and own tools, but not until my work in intercultural management had I actually started thinking about them in terms of knowledge transmission.

GL: Concerning European-North American relations – as I’m British, where do I fit in? Do your clients ask for intercultural training on British working and cultural habits? How are we often perceived by others (wrongly or rightly)?

Michelle: Well, you and I have a lot in common in terms of cultural heritage. The US could be considered to simply be the most successful colony of the Commonwealth! And yes, I have actually been asked for help in companies working with the British, but I always involve a British colleague or graduate student in order to legitimize my work on that culture, to provide the most authentic training possible.

In terms of perceptions, the French have the perception that the British are not as trustworthy as the Americans. I think both cultures (French and English) perceive the other as ‘perfidious’, as traditionally both sides of the Channel have portrayed the other as capable of treason. Idiomatic expressions such as filer à l’anglais or ‘to take French leave’ illustrate the mistrust. And who can blame either? There is a lot of water under that bridge of collective memory.

Another perception that the French have is that the British have a more complex communication style with more ‘code’ and irony. And that is one that I fully agree with!

GL: What are some of the difficulties you have faced adapting to life in France and how have you overcome them?

Michelle: In terms of my greatest difficulties to adapting to France in particular, I think most of them were due to differing communication styles and my own unrealistic expectations. These created great obstacles for me here, and it took me some time to have close French friends.

I had learned from my southern American upbringing and values, what we call southern gentility, that there are certain things you just cannot do, for example:

It is impolite to confront or challenge others’ ideas in public, particularly if you do not know the person well. It is impolite to say provocative things about another country or civilization in front of the person representing that country. It is not kind to interrupt someone when they are speaking. It is not good manners to correct another person’s accent or pronunciation if they are learning your language. Finally, outside of communication issues, it is extremely rude to jump in front of someone in a line (or a queue as you say in the UK).

I progressively discovered to my astonishment that all of these behaviors were common in France, part of the way people operate here generally. It is perfectly fine to criticize others in order to spark a debate or discussion, to see whether you are capable of holding your own when it comes to rhetorical skills (of which the French have plenty).

It’s part of their philosophical heritage to critique other civilizations and to look upon the outside world as less attractive than France, but they actually want you to convince them otherwise. That’s why they provoke heated discussions which are in no way unfriendly. A sign of a strong relationship between two people here is to be able to argue heatedly and passionately with each other, often in public.

Frequent interruptions in France are normal and common in discussions, formal and informal. Correcting someone’s French is the only way to help that person avoid sounding ridiculous to others, and having someone else correct them later.

Last but not least, if you do not have a strong territorial strategy for defending your place in a queue, people will simply cut in front of you. It was me who needed to adapt my behaviors and expectations to this new environment, to shift from passive to active mode.

GL: Could you give Grenoble Life readers some tips on adapting to life in France?

Michelle: I think the above description could suffice: it’s all about changing your expectations and recognizing your cultural limitations in order to move on. If French people seem strange, rude, or complicated to you, they may be thinking the exact thing of you! You have to be a lot more flexible in another country than you are at home, you have to tolerate a lot more discomfort and sense of displacement.

It can really be frustrating at times and often discouraging. The movement from one place to another, literally translatio, requires a self-reflexive capacity for adapting to the new environment and to those with whom you are in contact. Yet more important than any of this is having a strong dose of empathy. In other words, forcing oneself into the uneasy position of the other, and trying at all times to imagine things from their perspective.

See www.odysseyintercultural.com for more info.

Trudi Penkler: Active Adaptation Counselling

Trudi Penkler is a psychologist, psychotherapist and ‘Intercultural Consultant’ with her own practice, Active Adaptation Counselling, in Grenoble. In the second of a two-part interview, she talks to Grenoble Life about the experiences families can have adapting to life in France.

Grenoble Life: What kind of difficulties can families have adapting to life in a new culture?

A lot has been written about culture shock, but in my experience few difficulties in adapting to a new culture can be attributed to this alone. Certainly there are some very real challenges to be faced in making our lives work in unfamiliar surroundings. Actually living day-to-day in a new country is very different from a holiday visit. Sometimes we can feel completely ‘outside’ of what is happening around us, disconnected, as if we’ll never understand or be part of where we are. There can be a sense of loss when nothing seems to be as it was before.

Although we have risen to the challenge of relocating to a new country and find the differences we encounter interesting and stimulating, we may not identify with anything within the culture around us to begin with and may feel that we are having to live in isolation, surrounded by a world we have no part in. The social support network of family, friends and people who shared our way of life before, is very much missed and it takes time to recreate this again.

We may feel robbed of the roles that gave meaning to our lives and defined our social identity before. Generally this proves to be temporary as we start forming new habits and patterns, new friendships and connections which bring meaningful structure to our lives again and also when we realize that the previous chapters of our lives are still important. If, however, sustained helplessness, anger or resignation emerge, with continued feelings of anxiety, disorientation, confusion and depression, this requires attention.

When we establish our homes in a new environment, we’ve stepped out of the rut of our own ‘normality’ for a while. Any day-to-day challenge we would have managed in familiar circumstances will require more of us in unfamiliar ones – more concentration, more energy more time. Being prepared for this and accepting it upfront as part of the adaptation process, rather than resisting it and hoping for things to feel the same as before, is helpful.

We also need to be aware that we take ‘ourselves’ with us wherever we go. This means that pre-existent problem areas like fragile marital situations or wobbly self esteem, parenting difficulties or dependency issues will not go away or magically be ‘fixed’ in the new situation. Not only will they re-emerge, but they will be amplified by the stresses of moving. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes being brought face-to-face with difficulties that we’ve been carrying with us for years, but can no longer ignore, pushes us to address them.

Education is usually a very important priority for globally mobile families and whereas younger children generally adapt relatively easily, moving older children may be more difficult. Adolescence is of itself a time of change during which young people begin identifying more with their peers than their parents. Resentment, disengagement, helplessness and unhappiness can set in, if these young people feel they have been uprooted against their will and they will need empathetic understanding rather than motivational lectures from their parents. It is important to keep communication lines with teenagers and younger children open, especially about choices concerning them, at all stages of the relocation process.

When couples move, one partner’s career has often been favoured and the other may have renounced their own professional development and feel that they have lost too much, particularly if they are unable to resume a professional activity in the new country, because of language, legal or family constraints.

Leaving parents who are aging or in ill health behind in our home countries may be difficult.

GL: What other advice would you give families considering making a move to a new culture?

We don’t only take our weakness with us when we move across cultures, we also take our strengths, sometimes strengths we didn’t even know we had. We all have the resources within us to adapt to change, if the conditions are there to allow access to those resources …

But we do need to be very clear on the reasons for a move like this. Each individual family member may not be equally enthusiastic or benefit as much from the change, but each will be happier to be part of it all if the reasons have been clearly discussed and they makes sense.  

When we’re going to embark on an adventure like this, preparation is indispensible, not only in terms of the logistics of the move, but in familiarising ourselves with information about the new culture. Knowing more about the documented “do’s and taboos” of another culture is not going to prevent us from encountering obstacles and making mistakes anyway though.

A very important aspect of good preparation will involve also thinking about how we’re going to deal with change. Our emotional reactions and personal experience of a new situation are so much more positive when we’ve considered this beforehand and are consciously prepared to develop a tolerance for difference and uncertainty.

Things will be new and exciting, but the ease with which we did things in a familiar environment will not be there to begin with, especially if acquisition of another language is part of the equation. Simple tasks that we did without thinking before will take more time and effort. Although this may be frustrating, this doesn’t mean we’ve become less effective.

Coming to grips with the language of the country we’ll be living in will be essential, but there is no rule book as to how best or how quickly this should happen – we shouldn’t allow ourselves to be bullied into feeling inferior, while we’re actively learning and not yet proficient in a new language. Adapting to a new culture is not an end-point or a destination. It is a process, a learning process. We’re on the path and we are continuously progressing as long as we keep going. The pace of our own individual progress should not be measured or dictated by self-appointed ‘experts’ we may meet.

We’ll need to be gentle with ourselves, set realistic (yet ambitious) goals and respect the values and protocols of our host culture, without compromising our own. For a while our judgement will be a little cloudy while we’re learning about a new culture. It is important to consciously switch on the ‘data gathering radar’ in our minds, observing curiously all the time and verifying our conclusions by asking questions, rather than assuming we’ve understood what we’ve experienced. Most people will not find our questions bothersome and on the contrary, will enjoy being considered wise enough to be consulted.

Everything is easier when we feel stronger, so looking after ourselves health-wise should be a priority. Children should be kept informed of family decisions all the way (they’ll the need reassurance that their parents are ok, if a little lost and confused, still ok and still in charge).

We shouldn’t give up on the things we love or do well, music or painting, football or throwing a frisbee, but we’ll need to put effort into finding how to continue these activities in a different way. We also shouldn’t push ourselves to do things we don’t really want to, even though everyone else seems to be doing them. Some people really don’t like skiing or really aren’t interested in discovering the wonderful French wines here – and that’s just fine!

Keeping regular and ongoing contact with faraway loved ones will be very important too. You won’t have ‘betrayed’ them by coming to France and the more part of your experience they remain, the easier the separation will be for everyone.

And we’ll need to take the time to have fun and enjoy being where we are. This is not a test of endurance but an adventure and an “Adventure is worthwhile in itself.” (Amelia Earhart)  

                   ————————————————————————

Please do not hesitate to contact me. My office is at 2 Rue de la République, in downtown Grenoble, just off of Place Grenette opposite Haagen-Dazs.

Tel: 04 76 98 93 85 e-mail: trudi@aac-intercultural.com website: www.aac-intercultural.com

Gratin dauphinois. Photo: Marylise Doctrinal

It’s a no-brainer really. Grenoble Life wants your comments about favourite things to see, do, eat and drink in Grenoble and its surroundings.

I have been asked by French Entrée to write a post on what to do and see in Grenoble. Upon tackling this in earnest I found myself baulking at the task. An increasingly poorly written list began with a walk to the Bastille, continuing through the various museums to barely legible mentions of the more attractive squares in the old town. Then, I thought, rather than regurgitating the generic Grenoble itinerary, I thought I would solicit a more idiosyncratic list of Grenoblois pleasures, open to suggestions from YOU. What and where do you like to eat, where do you drink and people-watch? Tell me about your favourite local walks, markets, parks, neighbourhoods.

Here is my idiosyncratic inventory of Grenoble favourites, a by-no-means-comprehensive list of reasons to be cheerful. I’m sorry if this heralds few surprises and all seems a bit generic … please use the comments box for your personal lists below.

• ‘Glacier Gonzales’ (Rue Servan). As good as ice cream gets, in my view.
• Driving along the Voie Sur Berge, with its colourful diaporama of the Quai opposite, reminds me of the climax of The Italian Job, even if my Citroën Saxo is not a Mini Cooper and I’m in the wrong country.
• Cycling the banks of the Isère, with its generous network of lanes.
• The crazy geometric paving stones on the University campus. Far out!
• The crumbling beauty of the St Laurent district.
• Drinking kirs and people watching on Place St André (aka Place du Trib) in the summer.
• Sitting on the sofas at the musée de Grenoble when it’s quiet, which it usually is.
• Tartes and hot chocolate at ‘Tarteline’ (Grande Rue).
• Fromage blanc at the dairy farm at Charmant Som, with bilberry coulis.
• Fondue at ‘A Confesse’ in St Laurent
• Parmigiana at ‘Ciao a Te’ (Rue de la Paix)
• Pizza in general. But if I am to be perfectly honest, my favourite pizzas come from a camionette in Montbonnot rather than one of the many along the Quai or elsewhere in Grenoble itself. However, it is my contention that you can find a good pizza more easily in Grenoble than in the tourist hot-spots in Italy itself.
• The tram. Being on the tram makes me happy, even it doesn’t go anywhere near my home. Watching it glide onto campus or snake through the old town makes me misty-eyed with pride and affection for my adopted home town.
• Bastille Day fireworks at Parc Paul Mistral.
• Being able to watch a football match at the Stade des Alpes and then stroll back into town for a beer. Even if the standard of football from the home side has been appalling this season.
• La Nef and Le Club. Old school cinemas with dependable art house programmes.
• Gratin dauphinois when it is freshly made (i.e., not resurrected after deep-freeze hibernation). To my memory, the best I’ve had in a restaurant was at the ‘Café des Alpes’ on the way up to Le Sappey ski resort.
• La Fête de la Musique. A nationwide event, admittedly, but one that impressed upon me something about the French. In England such an event could not happen without copious amounts of drink and drugs, and thus a heavy police presence – a sentiment echoed in Lucy Wadham’s The Secret Life of France (a book well worth reading by the way).
• The old town. I was surprised when I came to Grenoble how many French people – Grenoblois or not – were dismissive about the city, saying it wasn’t beautiful. It may not have great monuments of individual interest but I like the character of the old town and its attractive squares. You can give me this over the British high street, with its identikit shopping precincts, any day.
• The white-capped Belledonne massif, providing its luminous theatre scenery to the city.

Ok, your turn …

Trudi Penkler

Trudi Penkler is a psychologist, psychotherapist and ‘Intercultural Consultant’ with her own practice, Active Adaptation Counselling, in Grenoble. In the first of a two-part interview, she talks to Grenoble Life about helping foreigners adapt to life in a new culture, going professional in France, and being a Ghostbuster!

Grenoble Life: What is an Intercultural Consultant?

Trudi Penkler: Our professions, education and social interactions are becoming more and more ‘globalised’. We can be based ‘at home’ but work with teams and organisations all over the world. We can also find ourselves living, learning and working in different cultural environments from the ones we’ve spent most of our lives in, sometimes for a short while, sometimes longer. This can mean trying to ‘belong’ in more than one place, or having children who do.

Intercultural consulting aims to provide information, awareness and skills, to help people be more effective in their work, pursue their research or studies comfortably and manage the demands of their daily lives with competence, in unfamiliar cultural contexts.

Active Adaptation Counselling was founded to serve this objective in 1998.  My work is about finding and emphasizing what works well in intercultural or multicultural situations, not what doesn’t. It’s about focusing on commonalities and strengths rather than differences and weaknesses. It’s about building bridges across the ravines that we imagine separate us from each other in terms of communication, understanding and interacting constructively. The experience of relocating across unfamiliar cultures myself provided the opportunity of looking closely into how to deal with diversity and developing expertise in this field, while continuing to practise as the psychologist and psychotherapist I was to begin with. 

Perhaps the best description of what I do was given to me by a young man of twelve who had come to see me, struggling to accept and settle into a new school system that at first seemed most alien to him and who was finally feeling more at ease … “You know what you are?” he said “you’re a ghostbuster.” I decided to keep the title!

GL: Tell us a little about your background

Trudi: Born in South Africa of parents and grandparents who were also born there, I never imagined living anywhere else. During the worst of the Apartheid years however, conditions became increasingly unbearable. It was inconceivable then, that Nelson Mandela would ever become the first president democratically elected by all the people of that country. ‘Broadening our horizons’ and trying to make our lives ‘elsewhere’ as parents of a young family, was a choice we felt constrained to make. Discovering a new culture and language were high on the ‘pro’ list when choosing to come to France. These were indeed to become great advantages, but naively we could not have imagined how hard won they would be!

Before coming to Grenoble, I had studied to work in both nursing and teaching biology, but a natural ability to deal well with crisis situations and to identify and redirect negative thinking and behaviour patterns towards more constructive ones, motivated more specific qualification in psychology, guidance and counselling. Experience in emergency situations with the South African Red Cross and responsibility for adolescent counselling in schools reinforced this choice.

GL: Why did you decide to develop a counselling service focusing on families moving to a new culture?

Trudi: The English speaking community was a lot smaller when I first came to Grenoble in 1986. Was it really more than two decades ago now?! Very little at the time, apart from house-hunting services and French lessons, was being provided by the companies and organisations that were relocating their employees, or students, even political refugees to the area. Interacting with other expatriates, I began to observe that wherever we’d come from, whatever the reasons for us being here, there seemed to be a pattern of common challenges and ways of coping with these – or not. It appeared that while some individuals embraced diversity and change easily, flourishing in a new cultural context and dealing well with situations and experiences very different from what they had known before, others managed less comfortably, sometimes very much less so.

What began as random observation and informal, voluntary help where appropriate, led to an avid interest in intercultural adaptation mechanisms, a need to understand these better and to establish the environment within which to contribute professionally. I spent a number of years reading and researching the thinking and behaviour patterns involved in cross-cultural adaptation, as well as studying the methodologies in cultural awareness training before beginning to work in this field.

GL: What challenges did you face in transferring your professional skills to France and set up your own practice here?

Trudi: Deciding to do something in France is one thing. Identifying the appropriate administrative processes and getting the paperwork right is another! Until I learned that “Non Madame, ce n’est pas possible,” were merely the opening words to further discussion, I would return defeated from the various offices that apply the regulations that govern self employment (trying to register my professional activity) or from the university (trying to obtain recognition of my qualifications).

Often when we’ve come from elsewhere, what we are trying to do in France doesn’t fit into any of the ‘boxes’ on the forms to fill in and much time is wasted in finding an alternative or solution. There is a cultural phenomenon that can work in one’s favour though and this is that unlike in our ‘bottom line’ Anglo Saxon cultures, negotiation can be a possibility, as long as one accepts the status quo to begin with and then looks at ways around obstacles from there.

Beginning almost as a ‘freelance consultant’, then establishing a practice and a small company concurrently, required carefully familiarising oneself with the details of ‘how things work’ officially, especially as in my case there are two distinct categories of services provided – i.e., Consulting in professional contexts as well as psychotherapy and counselling.

Balancing overhead costs and incoming revenue when we first start building up a client base can be daunting. I had the good fortune of sharing offices for financial reasons at first, with four wonderful French therapists, two of whom worked part-time for the government in judicial and social placement cases and also independently as therapists. Their input in terms of ideas, information and support was invaluable.

GL: What services do you offer?

Trudi: Although the services provided by Active Adaptation Counselling are two-fold – i.e., consulting in professional environments and personal counselling or therapy – the premise underlying both, is that active intervention can improve or repair our experience of a situation or event.

Intercultural consulting can involve any of the following: individual, management and team coaching; mediation and facilitation, which can be motivational, goal-directed or problem-solving; cultural awareness training programmes; workshops and lectures or presentations on specific topics or themes; independent screening for potential relocation; expatriation preparation, not only for those coming to France, but also for French expatriates moving elsewhere; preview visit interviews and ‘welcome’ talks; performance review and interview preparation; and repatriation or reintegration preparation for returnees.

Psychotherapy and counselling is provided for adults, adolescents and children, for couples and families. Problems and difficulties are addressed, but also aspirations and self development. What happens to us, as well as how we think and do things, all have an effect on how we personally experience of our lives, our work and our relationships. Psychotherapy and counselling can be useful when we are experiencing stress, emotional difficulties, psychological obstacles to learning, relationship problems, difficulties in adaptation to change, substance dependency, crisis situations, grief, difficulties in coping with physical difficulties or illness, post traumatic incident syndrome or simply when we need tools for going forward positively or improving a process rather than being stuck.

Lastly, my experience in the medical field has made it possible to provide medical interpreting services – i.e. the presence of an interpreter and counsellor during medical visits or hospitalisation.

GL: You work with international companies in the region – why do they approach you?

Trudi: Three main scenarios lead to requests for consulting to companies: Firstly, when intercultural awareness is important for individuals or teams working in multicultural or geographically diverse contexts and coaching, training programmes or workshops are required.

The second is when communication or motivation in multicultural teams needs to be stimulated and again, coaching services or workshops would be useful.

Thirdly, when cultural misunderstandings have led to errors in judgement or paralysis of a situation and external mediation or facilitation would get things moving forward again.

Smooth carrying forward of objectives can be hampered at various levels of management, by miscommunication or simple lack of awareness. This potentially becomes all the more complicated in diverse teams whose cultural filters are not all based in the same values and traditions. When we take the time to identify and focus on commonalities and the strengths to be drawn from diversity rather than differences and weaknesses – the most gridlocked of situations can gain momentum again.

Rarely, help can be required to defuse or get through a crisis situation, either the personal situation of an employee or group becoming critical in the workplace, or an external incident like a business travel accident, or hostage taking, which would require emergency support in handling the situation itself and for the employee’s family if necessary.

GL: What do your therapy sessions typically involve? (i.e., do you work with families, or in one-to-one sessions?)

Trudi: We find it appropriate to take responsibility for our own physical health. My sessions are about taking responsibility for our mental and emotional health too. Every case is different. Although most counselling is individual and face-to-face, couple, family or group counselling is often appropriate and constructive. Telephone counselling is also common for those living further afield and I’ve come to use this more often since consulting regularly by telephone for a company in America supporting French expatriates living there.

When the step of seeking help is taken, it is because something in our lives is not serving us well. As my clients often have to continue functioning effectively and in a ‘foreign’ environment to boot, my aim is always to actively begin the process of movement, from the present situation towards a more positively perceived one. When we look at our responses to others, to what happens to us, even to our own thoughts and fears, we also start reclaiming responsibility for ourselves and our own wellbeing, whatever the situation.

Endless digging about in the past without a clear intention or purpose does not make sense to me. Understanding where a difficulty may have its source is certainly important, but identifying and acting on what can be done about it from there, allows us to start leaving behind the ‘victim status’ we may be stuck in and become central actors in our own life stories again. This is what I help people do, through a structured method, like putting together the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. I hold up a mirror of what I have gathered from what is expressed. This brings a life situation into perspective or provides a different angle of seeing things, which can affirm and reassure, provoke reaction or even motivate change.

Therapy is always an interactive process. It is not a random one however and requires structure and direction. Although Jungian and existentialist at heart, I draw on both CBT – Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and NLP – Neuro-linguistic Programming methods.

It is essential to me that those who work with me, leave every session more fortified and have access to the strategies and tools we’ve explored together, that will help them to be able to cope better, even if only a little each time, with the demands their lives are making on them.

GL: Are there cases where you find you cannot help?

Trudi: There are severe pathologies and difficulties, that I would be neither qualified nor capable of taking on and in these cases I would suggest referral to medical professionals who would be better suited to the problem, accompanying the client all the way if necessary though.

In recent years, more English-speaking medical and paramedical professionals have set up in Grenoble and I have instigated an English Speaking Therapy Forum so that we are in contact with each other, share information and are better able to serve the needs of the community. The WWNG (Working Women’s Network of Grenoble) has also been most important in facilitating the exchange of information so that professionals in the field get to know about each other, what is available and how to find it.

In part II, coming soon, Trudi will be talking about the difficulties familes can face when moving to a new culture and offering some advice on how to manage this adaptation.

Upstage website

The March 10 English Talk Radio show was recorded at the Cité Scolaire Internationale de Grenoble, and includes an interview with the director, the cast and the crew of Upstage, which is putting on two plays: Loot by Joe Orton and Mountain Language by Harold Pinter, performing March 22–27 at 7:30 pm at the Théâtre Ste-Marie-d’en-Bas.

English Talk Radio is a talk show in English on 90.8 Radio Campus Grenoble. We talk about film, theatre, finance, restaurants, travel, and have a variety of topical guests. We are four presenters: Kristine Minski talks about finance, Christina Menez talks about China, Mary Zaccai talks about student issues, and Vivian Draper – animatrice/rédactrice – hosts the show. Every Sunday at 12.30pm, and every Wednesday at 7pm on 90.8, Radio Campus Grenoble and live on www.campusgrenoble.org – and also here on Grenoble Life.

Listen to the full show: here

Just landed in Grenoble? Don't worry, there's a club for you. Photo: Guillaume Brialon

Just landed in Grenoble? Grenoble Life editor James Dalrymple gives his rough guide to Grenoble’s expat clubs and Anglophone businesses and services.

I have been asked by the French Entrée website to write a post with general advice for expats in Grenoble and the surrounding area, including relevant clubs and associations to join. Where to begin? Maybe you have already heard claims that Grenoble has one of the biggest Anglophone communities of any French city. I’m not sure of the real stats, and I will resist the temptation to invent some here, but suffice to say you stand a good chance of meeting other English-speakers whether you wish to or not.

It can be a bone of contention. Some people get defensive about the expat thing, saying something along the lines of, “I didn’t come to France to meet other [insert relevant English-speaking nationality here], I came to meet French people etc.” I don’t really subscribe to this view. When I lived in the UK, I always gravitated towards people who were very international in their outlook, and counted many cultures among those I called my friends. Just because I came to live in France, doesn’t mean that I should only spend time with French people just to feel good about myself. Among the expat groups and associations listed below, one may find many Anglo-French couples, so-called ‘third culture kids’, and all manner of general pan-European activity that belies the widely held view of what expat communities are.

Most new English-speaking Grenoble residents, particularly those with families, are likely to encounter Open House, the city’s long-established and possibly largest expat association. Among the activities Open House organizes are children’s parties, excursions, wine tastings, lunches, outdoor activities, book groups, coffee meetings and French-English language exchange.

The more student-orientated Happy People 38 organizes intercultural social events and language exchanges. Meanwhile, Celtic Connection promotes Irish and Scottish culture and sport in Grenoble and hosts Hallowe’en and St Patrick’s parties, a Burns’ supper, and summer picnics. Scottish expats and a host of other nationals can also be found at a weekly Knitting Bee at Café Leyritz, Place Vaucanson, every Tuesday afternoon at 2pm.

Although not Anglophone I feel duty-bound to make you aware of the lovely people at Le Club Danemark – Rhône Alpes, who are known to organise Glögg parties, Danish lessons and excursions, including cross country skiing. For more info contact: danemark-rhonealpes@live.com

English Talk Radio, presented by Vivian Draper, is a bi-monthly show on 90.8 Radio Campus Grenoble.  The show talks about film, theatre, finance, restaurants and travel, and has a variety of topical local guests; every Sunday at 12.30pm, and every Wednesday at 7pm on 90.8, Radio Campus Grenoble.

For those expats who want their young children to have plenty of contact with the English language, there are some associations which can help with this, including Communication Café and ABC Anglais. Alternatively, French language classes for adults can be obtained from a variety of institutions and associations outlined in depth here.

If you are looking for American or British style cakes there is The Cake Shop and Bookworm Café. The latter also hosts book and poetry groups, language classes, local artists’ exhibitions and occasional musical performances. They also buy and sell second-hand English books, and have English newspapers and magazines to peruse. Furthermore, if you meet French friends yet to be convinced of the potential merits of American cuisine, Pumpkins might be wise place to convert them.

If you can’t find the book you are looking for at Bookworm Café there are two Anglophone libraries, La Bibliotèque Anglophone de Meylan and the English Library at Babel, which also runs book groups for teenagers and adults. Many municipal libraries also have English-language selections, particularly the International Public Library.

Given the dubious French proclivity for dubbing foreign language films into la langue maternelle, you may want to exercise caution when going to the cinema. Le Club (rue du Phalanstère) and La Nef (boulevard Edouard-Rey) are two theatres with dependably interesting programmes, all in version originale. For more info on the city’s movie theatres and film festivals, check out this comprehensive guide.

For church-goers, members from about 10 different denominations and 15 nationalities are welcome to attend The English Speaking Church of Grenoble, which also has a programme of social activities including dances, crafts nights, family evenings, visits to local attractions and walks.

In terms of professional development, the most dynamic and active association is the Working Women’s Network of Grenoble, which organizes networking lunches, workshops and seminars, and is run by a very helpful and efficient body of women. For opportunities to do volunteer work there is VSArt, an association that brings cultural opportunities to disadvantaged and elderly people. The Grenoble chapter was set up and is run by American Meredith Charreyron.

Grenoble also has a number of amateur English-speaking theatre groups. Students of different ages from Cité Internationale Scolaire de Grenoble participate in an annual pantomime and Upstage, respectively. The latter puts on very high quality plays every year at Ste-Marie-d’en-Bas, a 166-seat theatre off Place Notre Dame. Likewise, students of the English department at Stendhal University put on productions on campus every year. English-speakers are also invited to join a new Grenoble English Theatre Group, run by Nathalie Joshua. Novices welcome. For more information contact her at nathaliejoshua@hotmail.com

For health and well-being, Anglo-style therapeutic massage and aromatherapy can be obtained from Amy Cannata (waterfallwellness@me.com) and Shiatsu massage from Rebecca Skillman.

Finally, of course, I mustn’t forget to mention your very own Grenoble Life, which has articles and practical info for English speaking residents past, present and future. It also includes photo sharing, free classified ads and interviews with prominent members of the Anglophone community.

If I have forgotten any essential clubs or organizations, please use the comments box below to add to the list.

Managing Your Professional “Brand” through Social Media

Mickey Farrance, President of the Working Women’s Network of Grenoble, announces a seminar on Saturday, March 20 at the Grenoble École de Management called Face-to-face to FaceBook: Managing Your Professional “Brand” through Social Media. Find out more here.

“‘To google’ is now a verb, and it doesn’t just refer to looking up information about things, it also means looking up information about people.  That means you, me, the next person applying for a job, or somebody I might consider working with.”  — Kelly Rigotti, blog, marketing and web presence consultant.

What do you find when you google yourself?  For professional people—entrepreneurs, business owners, consultants, job seekers, or anyone with a career in progress—this is an important question.

A professional image means conducting business professionally, dressing professionally, networking professionally— today, a professional image also includes what is out there about you on the Web.

What does that set of links returned by Google say about your professional image?   And how do you “manage” that information?  It’s random, isn’t it?

Not quite.  In fact it’s possible to manage your professional image— and not as hard to do as it might sound— through the appropriate use of social media:  LinkedIn, Viadeo, Facebook, Twitter, and more.

Here’s an opportunity to find out what this means and how to do it, at a half-day professional development Seminar, in English:  Personal Branding:  Manage Your Image through New Media, presented by the Working Women’s Network of Grenoble on Saturday, March 20 at the Grenoble École de Management.

It’s open to anyone (men as well as women) in the Grenoble area interested in learning how to develop a “Personal Brand” (a good reputation) and manage that online image using the new social media. 

Grenoble Life readers are a tech-savvy bunch, but it seems there’s always something new to discover.  If you are not sure what this “new media” is all about, or how to manage the increasing flow of incoming and outgoing social media communications, this seminar is for you too.  Bring your expertise along, as it’s also an excellent opportunity to share.

To sign up, download the registration form here.

Microphone. Photo: hiddedevries

English Talk Radio is a talk show in English on 90.8 Radio Campus Grenoble. We talk about film, theatre, finance, restaurants, travel, and have a variety of topical guests. We are four presenters: Kristine Minski talks about finance, Christina Menez talks about China, Mary Zaccai talks about student issues, and Vivian Draper – animatrice/rédactrice – hosts the show. Every Sunday at 12.30pm, and every Wednesday at 7pm on 90.8, Radio Campus Grenoble and live on www.campusgrenoble.org – and also here on Grenoble Life.

The February 24 English Talk Radio show took place at Université Stendhal with Caroline Schlenker and students of the English department acting class.  Listen to the full show: here

Classroom. Photo: sfar

Gregg West is an American history and geography teacher at Cité Scolaire Internationale. He also handles the school pantomime, organic gardening club, interpersonal communication classes and music club.  In this explosive article for Grenoble Life, he describes his career-long efforts to change the education system in France.

It would be preposterous to assume that any education system in the world does its job correctly, when one observes the amount of poverty, crime, violence, drug addiction, alienation, loneliness, pollution, general unhappiness, and other symptoms of human foolishness, frailty, or limitations.  But one could just say, “Oh well, people do their best and one can’t ask more of them than that.” Nevertheless, when one is a teacher and has to face an educational system day in and day out with its many constraints, it can be very trying, for even if he or she sees many kids succeed and go on to brilliant careers and happy, if not totally unperturbed, lives, there are a lot of others who will live troubled existences.

Over the last 37 years, I have tried to learn to teach and have perpetrated my teaching upon unsuspecting people, both children and adults, in North America, Scotland and France, but I have also had these teaching systems (pardon my syntax) perpetrated upon me. The following observations about the French system are not at all intended to exonerate other systems from similar criticism.

More is better

Since settling permanently in France in 1983 I have witnessed a system which believes that more is better despite the famous saying of Montaigne (loosely translated) that a “well-made head is better than a full head.” Indeed, in the Connexion of February 2010, the minister of Higher Education, Ms. Valerie Pécresse went so far as to say to a journalist “you seem to be contradicting yourself when you cast doubt on the level of lycée students passing the Bac but then suggest reducing the number of hours.”  Really, Ms. Pécresse, this is a national disease, thinking that more is always better. So why not give children 16-hour school days? Children need time for other things than school work to become thinking, feeling, well-balanced individuals. I thought everyone knew that … hmmm.

A second aspect of the French system that is curious for those of us from English-speaking cultures is the belief held by many that school is only for instruction of specific subject matters, does not require a global education of children in terms of understanding their social and psychological context, learning to motivate them, inciting them to improving their citizenship, social relations, and so forth and that, therefore, teachers do not need to learn anything but their own subject matter at university. No interpersonal communication, no group dynamics, no pedagogical methods, no interdisciplinary knowledge to coordinate interdisciplinary projects … It apparently threatens many whose work status and contract only commits them to knowing their subject … even if inspectors put pressure on them to teach better … and the French government has just decided to shut down IUFM (teacher training institutes), something highly consistent with this view.

In this extremely cerebral environment, a third characteristic of the French system, at least insofar as it concerns university-bound students, is that they needn’t develop artistic, manual or day-to-day skills like typing, driving a car, first aid, or cooking at school. (Well, they DO learn road security, but only the theory … ) In short, learning does NOT involve doing things, except writing essays, carrying out a few carefully limited classroom experiments, doing research and other relatively abstract tasks. So these other skills surprisingly only get developed among a minority of people who have the money to do them outside of school or have families patient and qualified enough to help them learn these things. When I see high school kids pecking away with their fingers on a keyboard, when I have to fork out over 1000€ for driving classes, or when I see the beginnings of obesity among French young people like in my native America, I do wonder about these priorities.

Lip service

Finally, as with many other school systems, the French speak of democracy, but practice dictatorship, pay lip service to cooperation and solidarity but practice competition, praise acceptance of differences, but punish those who do not “fit in” with ridicule, humiliating grades, and other forms of social exclusion, lecture people about human rights while submitting high school students to 50 hour weeks (35 hours of class plus 15 hours of homework a week), claim to be ecological while using throw-away pens, producing millions of tons of new, bleached, non-recycled fibre paper waste that are not even recycled, and brag about their great cuisine while abandoning their children to canteens that serve poor quality, poorly balanced meals that contain pesticides, instead of making quality and organic food priorities.  What is the saying, “Do as I say, not as I do?” Problem is, it doesn’t work that way and, as Leonard Cohen said, “Everybody knows…” Kids’ strongest learning experiences stem from doing and from example.

In such an unnatural neurotic environment, is it any wonder then that many French kids suffer from depression, insomnia, smoke a lot of cigarettes, become fashion victims or anorexics, drop out due to a lack of motivation (around 10%), or decide not to care about politics or association activity, plunging into a life of semi-blind consumption as adults, with no personal artistic side that they can cultivate to express themselves healthily? Is it any wonder that they become recalcitrant at suggestions that they drive less (so little physical exercise during their childhood), watch less TV (when did they learn how to entertain themselves?), vote more (when did anyone ask their opinion anyway?), or think about important issues (weren’t they only supposed to give teachers the answers required?), or question notions the media and political elite expound as evident (nuclear energy and genetically modified organisms aren’t dangerous, are they, or THEY would tell us … like our teachers … wouldn’t they?) Once you’ve got people conditioned, it is very hard to change them. Some would even suggest that this conditioning has been done CONSCIOUSLY to preserve the privileges of elite, but I’m not much of a conspiracy theory advocate, so I’ll leave this idea aside. I think it’s just force of habit and past conditioning … an unwillingness to question what came before.

Unfamiliar future

At any rate, all that I have described is what one would call a SCHEMATIC, OVERDRAWN picture of the French Educational system. Of course, there are positive sides, but you all know those; France is one of the world’s leading countries in social programs, economic productivity, democratic freedoms, and so forth … well, for the moment at least … But is this preparing us for an oil-poor, resource-poor future in a world where company relocation to Newly Industrialized Countries may force us to reorganize a great deal of our economy and learn to share, be happy with less, and use our imagination to find new, workable ways of life?

But of course changing things is never easy. People are afraid of unfamiliar ways, they think that what they know is the only way, there are vested interests, it involves calling habits and training into question, it doesn’t suffice to throw money at problems, and even good ideas, if poorly or insufficiently applied will lead to failure. In short, it isn’t a technical impossibility, but it remains a political improbability.

Political debate

I decided in 1987 to try to do something about all this. I spent five years in a minor political party which seemed highly motivated to lead change in society as the chairman of their education commission, consulting hundreds of students, parents, teachers, and others involved in education, as well as union representatives and school directors. We worked out propositions to change school radically (more on what these were later) … something in line with the party’s desire to “create a cultural majority for change.”

I sent the propositions to the hundred or so representatives of various regions in the party’s governing committee a few months before it was scheduled for debate on the agenda. But the day of the debate, there were “more urgent matters” so debate was pushed back till the very end of a Sunday afternoon when one third had already left to take their trains, leaving only 10 minutes to debate a topic that concerns every single citizen of a democratic country. Of those remaining, fully half were teachers … and a plurality of these opposed all the measures which might require them to retrain to handle new functions. So without any guidelines on HOW to change our propositions, we were sent back to the commission to “work on the propositions some more…” Thoroughly disgusted, I resigned as commission chairman.

An alternative school

In the U.S., as a young teacher, I had already experienced the difficulties of even modifying one local system of education, so I reasoned that if what I considered the most progressive political party in France and its host of teachers were unable to be open towards real change, then there was little hope of changing such a huge system from within. I worked for the next seven years on the idea of creating an alternative school, parallel to the system, in hopes that an example outside the system might show people what is possible. But here too I was to be foiled. Among the enthusiastic parents supporting this idea, most were penniless; among the enthusiastic teachers supporting this idea, most, not surprisingly, wanted to be paid! Real estate was too expensive to rent in large towns, and small towns placed obstacles in our path, fearing we might lower already precarious enrolment figures, provoking the closing of their public schools. There were also dreamers who talked about “borrowing seven million francs” from a bank as if any bank would ever entertain such an idea. A subscription among political activists raised some 135,000 francs, but we were never able to establish a three year budget that promised any hope of surviving, even on minimum incomes, so we were obliged to abandon the plan and send people’s money back.

At this point I decided to give up. I had a good job in a public school and began trying to develop extracurricular activities to compensate for the unidimensional aspects of school. I created a music club and later a theater program where kids could learn self-management, cooperation, create, express themselves, develop their confidence, teamwork and self-esteem, associate with older students and adults as role models instead of submitting to age segregation, and receive recognition without grades from those around them.  I found no need to involve parents for the music club, but broke an additional taboo when I got parents involved heavily in the theater program … something few French school teachers like to see … parents in the school working with kids … perhaps because it threatens their own prerogatives to teach as they see fit … but this was only outside of class …

In my own classes, I developed a method of teaching involving considerable debate and discussion, with occasional projects and games, but the program was often so immense that time was always pressing us to return to a teacher-centered curriculum.

Moving the mammoth

I suppose this is why when I was approached by a sympathetic political activist, I accepted getting involved in an association whose goal, like mine, was to move the mammoth (change the educational system) even though I remained very sceptical about the possible success of such an effort.

Over a period of about three years, we developed a support group of some 300 people, including thirty to forty teachers and three school headmasters, and we elaborated propositions very similar to those the education commission I’d managed had put forth only to be rejected. We outlined a plan for creating special schools, particularly in the junior high years (collège), and hopefully one or two in each department, which would function differently and thus serve as an illustration of alternative approaches to education. The basic ideas behind these schools included:

• Only four hours of academic solids per day, so less Math, less French, less language, less science, less history and geography (oh dear!!!). Interdisciplinary projects as a way of exploring basic subjects.
• Groups for enrichment, remedial work and orientation for one hour a day.
• Workshops to learn practical subjects, develop artistic abilities, and physical education 1 hour a day.
• Collective expression and action a few hours a week to put democracy into practice.
• A severe limit on homework and no grading, but still evaluating and testing.

One can like or dislike these propositions, but the fact remains that they allow schools to handle a number of the objections mentioned above and the existence of a certain number of schools of this type in the Northern part of Europe tends to confirm that they can be a positive experience, developing well-rounded, independent, thinking students … if properly applied.

We sent a 10-page summary and a longer 40-page detailed version of the project to various people in positions to make decisions. We met with those in charge of education at City Hall and the Conseil Général, as well as the man in charge of innovation at the Rectorate and the Academic Inspector of Isère. All reacted favorably, saying the idea looked great. When we said we also had a list of teachers and an administrator to run the school though, the Rectorate and Academic Inspection suddenly began hemming and hawing about the fact that they would need to talk to unions about it, that they couldn’t name people on the basis of aptitude or motivation, but only on the basis of seniority points (meaning the death of the project) and that they would have to check with their hierarchy on whether this was all possible (i.e., if it wasn’t pursued, it wouldn’t be THEIR fault …) Despite attempts to get them to put this on paper, they refused and they began doing what bureaucrats do when they don’t want something to happen. They sat on it, refusing further meetings, correspondence or any other indication of their position, killing the project.

Things I can do

So, at age 57, tired of spending so much energy for nothing, I chose to devote myself instead to things I CAN do without political games and support from people higher up. I continued with my teaching job, interpersonal communication classes, the music club with its concerts and CDs, the theater program with up to five shows and 750 spectators per year (our headmaster even had a stage built for us … and other groups in the school to use.) And I created an organic gardening club in our school.

None of this however will make the changes I believe that France (and other countries) desperately need in their education systems if they want to create a vast majority of real human beings capable of adult behaviour, wisdom, commitment, values, and coherent behaviour emancipated from the manipulative, narrow channels that current systems carve for them.

Mary Veale, "Borders, technique", 2007. Cast glass/tissue. Photo: Jean Pierre Angei

Mary Veale is an Irish artist based in Grenoble. She talks to Grenoble Life’s James Dalrymple about her new exhibition Mutations. 

Grenoble Life: Could you tell us a bit about your background and how you came to live in Grenoble. 

Mary Veale: I was born in Kilkenny, Ireland; I trained as a nurse and midwife and in neurology initially. After a brief working period in nursing I began my artistic training and completed my diploma foundation studies in Exeter College of Art in 1983. After that I moved to the north of England and completed my BA in design of glass and ceramics at the University of Sunderland where I was fortunate to work with the master of Swedish design Goran Warff. 

After graduation I worked in the setting-up of one of the first artists’ co-operatives in Newcastle-upon-Tyne at 36 Lime Street, Ouseburn Warehouse Workshops. We got awarded the Prince’s Trust Award for innovation in 1987. 

After setting up my first workshop I returned to study for my Masters in Fine Arts at the University of Northumberland. The theme of my final Master’s show was based on the Cleveland child abuse crisis. My first daughter was born during this period. 

I came to live in Grenoble initially for a sabbatical year in 1991, returning with my husband Daniel Veale working in medical research and respiratory medicine. 

GL: You say on the Un certain detachement (UCD) website that your works are inspired in part by “what it means to move cultures,” could you elaborate on this?  

Mary: The lack of opportunity to show local artists’ work in Grenoble caused us to set up the co-operative Un certain detachement in 2005. This group was set up by myself, Claude Gazengel and Alain Quercia. Claude Gazengel wrote a text based on her history about living abroad and crossing cultures (she had lived in Barcelona for three years). The group began with the idea of a mobile gallery and hence the Vending Machine Project was born. Now we have 30 international artists from five different countries involved in this international art project; and are using three vending machines. The concept is to make multiples in art and distribute them via a vending machine. The machines can be moved and shown in a variety of places. 

My multiple was based on the idea of “displacement“, which could be seen as a mental, physical or metaphysical state. As one moves cultures one has, in certain respects, to become detached from one’s origins. 

The idea of glass cast tongues (being cut off or dismembered) may be symbolic of the language problems that I have experienced - notions of fragility and breakability are present in my work.  While taking on a new language and culture can be a very enriching experience, it can also be very unsettling; thus the idea of fragility or moulding of glass can be very poignant. When speaking in a foreign tongue sometimes words and meanings get lost or remain unsaid. I like the idea of working on the spaces within the silences. I call these ‘silent spaces” where words are lost or unsaid or become mutated. I have tried to use this idea of lost words or silent spaces in my glass books; which are a work in progress started when I first arrived in Grenoble. 

GL: On the UCD website you state that glass can distort and protect. Some of your works feature scrawled or warped messages, while others enclose seemingly organic, even visceral matter. There is a vulnerability to certain works, but the shell or flower-like formations are made from hard materials. Likewise, your artworks seem to be personal, even intimate, but themes of liberty, borders and social exclusion are recurrent. Could you talk about the political dimension to your work and how it relates to the personal? 

Mary: I have worked on various themes over the past few years and a lot of my works are through ideas which may have been inspired by literature, poetry, music and current affairs. 

I am particularly interested in issues based on being an artist and the role of an artist today in society. Being a mother of three daughters and woman has also marked my work. 

Glass is often my chosen material as I can explore so many concepts and ideas through this material. 

Of course a lot of my art work is personal and when I am concerned about a particular issue but as the work develops a universal meaning can be traced also, I hope. 

My first work made in Grenoble was with the Ecole De La Paix. I worked on the concept of a glass book about peace entitled the Livre des larmes. This was in 1998 to commemorate the signing of the peace agreement in Northern Ireland. Since this date I continue to add pages, so it’s like a work in progress – as are peace processes in lots of places in the world. 

Most of my work is installation-based and may have many diverse media, including paintings, sculpture, light works, video and books. 

The theme of liberty is one that I have worked on. I organised a debate on this subject at the Fort Du Murier during the weekend of the Journée nationale du patrimoine in 2007. I invited guest speakers, local politicians and historians and opened the debate to the general public. The theme was: What does the concept of Liberty mean today? This debate was recorded and a video was also made during the debate and I made specific works after this debate. 

GL: Tell us about your new show Mutations. 

Mary: I like this word mutation as it can be so large in its meaning and connotations. It suits my work. 

To explore mutation in my work I start with genetic changes that happen in the body, as I interpret scientific images or concepts such as ageing and memory into a visual language. 

Mutation is a natural phenomenon in the creative process as marks and gestures constantly alter and change, becoming exposed, hidden or unstable. 

Mutable, changeable, unsteady: many of these words find resonance in my work through the use of particular materials such as glass, wax and paint. Through the creative process I am constantly bringing change, instability and alternating form and content through a complex process of looking and seeing. 

To be in a state of mutation is often felt by individuals who have become displaced or moved from their origins. Being outside one’s original culture could be a form of mutation particularly as one adapts and assumes another culture with its language and customs – as has been my experience. 

My works in this exhibition are from recent paintings and glass works and are based on the theme of mapping the inner body and “landscape”, or topography. I interpret the brain and its complex systems of neuronal pathways through looking and drawing, later to be defined into the language of paint or glass sculptures. The medical imagery I use as a starting point, which then leads to an exploration of wider issues to do with memory and loss. 

The philosophical dimension is also present as I try to understand our fears and emotions. The use of glass is a perfect metaphor for all that can be held within, frozen in time. The abstraction and reworking of medical imagery helps me to understand more about how our bodies work and how the inner landscape of our bodies is less of a mystery. 

Art can make visual many complex scientific concepts in a way which is less mysterious we as we understand the world around us through our actions emotions and reactions. Through this work I am not trying to show any answers but trying to understand for myself a little of how the body functions and changes in certain circumstances. 

I am interested in the idea of collaboration between different professions and therefore I worked in the Sleep Laboratories at the CHU Grenoble, looking at sleep studies and making a video recording of this procedure. Often the different areas of science and art have common grounds, especially in neurology. Medical imagery in recent times, such as the MRI scanner, brings a lot of new information to the scientist and also maybe to the artist. We as artists can contribute perhaps by having a different way of looking at a subject. I hope to commence a residency at the new neurological institute here in Grenoble working alongside scientists. 

I have works that explore the thought process, memory and memory loss, as my mother was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. 

GL: You talked earlier about the lack of opportunity to show local artists’ work in Grenoble. Could you talk more about this? 

Mary: A lot of artists in Grenoble never get to show their work in the city as it lacks any professional body to help organize a database. Just recently Entre ‘Arts got closed down and it used such a database over 10 years. 

The lack of space for artists led me to set up the vending machine project with my colleagues here in Grenoble. There are no studios for artists in Grenoble as was the case in Newcastle. Therefore, the city and local artists lack a cohesive structure to help them continue in their professional careers. 

As I was involved in the setting up one of the original co-operatives with other artists in Newcastle, I carry on this idea that artists cannot work in isolation and do need to have proper studios with low rent, as being an artist does not bring a regular income. 

I spent three years working on a proposal with a group of artists and architects here in Grenoble to set up studios and a set of workshops for international artists designed for the Le Petit Hall at Bouchayer Viallet. However, commerce won the day and art was not seen as economically viable. I see this as a huge mistake for the city as we see in Lyon how the Biennale D’art brought 165,000 visitors to the city thus bringing a lot of commerce. Therefore art can be an economic venture for a city. 

GL: Where can people go to see more of your work at that of your fellow artists? 

Mary: One of UCD’s vending machines is presently in-situ at the parliament party office of Genevieve Fioraso, 7 rue Voltaire. This exhibition continues until 15^th March. 

The recycled vending machine is beautifully reconditioned by our sculpture Vincent Gontier and our graphic artist Céline Charles. 

The machine contains artists’ multiples made in a variety of media (paintings, video, sculpture, photographs, which are signed unique works from 30 international artists. All the works can be purchased for a very reasonable price.

You must also visit Restaurant Du Petit Lac in St Egreve where Jac the owner has invited 24 or more artists from Grenoble to design a table. All the tables are on display can be eaten off and are really great. This is a project worth seeing  and I have a table also there.

Mutations – an exhibition of recent paintings and glass works by Mary Veale – continues at Moulin Villancourt, Pont de Claix, until 20^th March.

Quatre cafés. Photo: designwallah

Gill Baconnier has lived in France for over twenty years – seven of them in Grenoble. A former feature writer for an English regional magazine, her articles about life in France can now be found at her blog French Windows. She has kindly agreed to share this article about French cafés and bars with Grenoble Life.

There is a wonderful cartoon by the French cartoonist, Sempé, which depicts a man standing at one end of a café-lined boulevard with an anxious expression on his face. In the next frame, he has emerged at the far end of the boulevard, having slipped around the backstreets and avoided having to walk past all those people-watchers. Believe me, I know how he feels – it takes great courage. In fact, I recently tripped and fell headlong on the pavement in front of a dozen or so cappuccino-sipping café customers. I do believe they were mildly amused – after all, it’s not every day you see a plump middle-aged English woman perform a perfect flying tackle on a lamppost.

Taverns have been around forever but cafés were opened specifically to sell coffee. The first coffee house was opened in Constantinople in the fifteenth century. When the new drink arrived in France in the seventeenth century it quickly became fashionable and in 1686, the first French coffee house – or café – was opened in Paris. It was called the Procope after its Sicilian owner and soon became a meeting-place for writers, artists and philosophers such as Voltaire, Balzac and Victor Hugo. A second café – La Table Ronde – was opened in Grenoble in 1739. Situated opposite the law courts and the theatre, it has had its fair share of famous clientele: Jean-Jacques Rousseau came here, perhaps after one of his Solitary Walks and so did Choderlos de Laclos, possibly in search of a Liaison Dangereuse. Sarah Bernardt and Fernandel drank here as did Jacques Brel, Georges Brassens and a host of other actors and singers.

There is a café for everyone in France. If you are of a philosophical bent – like Sartre, for example, who spent most of his life in the Café de Flore in Paris – then the café-philo is for you. You don’t have to drink much but you do have to be able to spout a load of old rot about the meaning – or not – of life. My daughter went once and came back either drunk or extremely bewildered, I’m not sure – in any case, she was completely incoherent. She thought so…therefore, she was…or something like that.

Then there is the café littéraire where completely sober people stand up and recite poetry or prose and then talk about it over a drink or two. To be honest, I’ve never been to one of these – they remind me too much of Eng Lit lectures at University and when I go to a café, I want a drink and a good laugh – not an in-depth discussion of limping iambics.

The Irish pub has become very fashionable recently. Every French town has a Shannon Pub or a Shamrock Bar. These places are usually furnished with wooden benches and trestle tables while the walls are hung with anything remotely Celtic: Guinness adverts, pictures of Donegal, leprechauns, Aran jumpers etc. For some reason, Saint Patrick’s night is very popular in France and most Irish pubs will be holding events such as céilidhs to the accompaniment of fiddles, flutes and bearded bard. Sometimes they get it wrong, of course, and I personally know of two ‘Irish’ pubs called The Loch Ness and The Queen’s Head. Kilts, Celts – it’s all the same to them…

Another recent phenomenon was the chicha-café. They didn’t last long because of the anti-smoking law which defeated the object somewhat. They had names like ‘Oasis’ and ‘Le bar à Chicha’ and had exotic Arabian nights-type décor. Apparently (the information comes from my daughter, who is – as you may have guessed – a regular café-goer) one would lounge around on silken cushions, drinking mint tea and taking regular puffs of fruit- flavoured tobacco from a hookah pipe. In fact, my daughter’s birthday present to me a few years ago was an evening out in a chicha bar but I was afraid I would cramp her style somewhat – and I wasn’t completely sure I would be able to heave myself up off those cushions at the end of the evening, my knees being what they are. I settled for bath salts instead.

Then of course, there is the café de la gare: the station café. Seedy, moody, depressing plastic-table-topped-Gauloises-smoke-filled meeting places…the stuff obscure French films are made of, quoi … unfortunately, they are rapidly being replaced by cheap and cheerful American fast-food outlets – not half as romantic, I’m afraid, but just as seedy. And of course if you lit up a Gauloise you’d be thrown out.

The French bistrot is just a café with a name of obscure origin. A popular explanation is that it comes from the Russian word for ‘quick’ and originates from the period of the Russian occupation of Paris. However, this is much disputed and the true meaning remains a mystery. Who cares anyway? It’s just a café with a fancy name…

Bars – as far as I can gather – differ from cafés in that they cater for locals who just want a shot of pastis and a read of the newspaper – and perhaps a bet on the horses. The bar-PMU doubles as a betting shop and if you accidentally wander into one of these establishments you will be met with cold stares and frosty silence. There will always be a television in the corner broadcasting a horse race and a burly barman who will pointedly ignore you.

In all these places, you can sit at a table – either inside or out – and expect a waiter to come and serve you. This is the theory. In practice, you sometimes have to do a lot of coughing and finger-raising before you manage to catch his eye. And don’t be fooled: French waiters have phenomenal memories. You can give the most complicated order and they will have no trouble at all remembering it along with three or four other orders from other tables. They will also have no trouble at all remembering whether or not you gave a tip the first time – and treat you accordingly on your next visit. You have been warned…

Some Grenoble cafés you might like to visit:

Cafés-philo :

La Table Ronde (café philo-littéraire), 7 place St André

Le Tonneau de Diogène (café-philo), 6 place Notre Dame

Irish pubs:

The Druid’s Pub, 3 Rue Diodore Rahoult,

O’Callaghan Pub: 2 Place de Bérulle      

And if these are not to your taste, there are plenty more to choose from here.

Villeneuve d’Uriage

Rebecca Skillman talks to residents of the hamlet Villeneuve d’Uriage, near Grenoble. She shares with us her discoveries about issues of sustainability and community in Alpine village life.

Perched above the thermal spa town of Uriage, the idyllically located hamlet of Villeneuve d’Uriage is home to around 150 people. I was curious about what attracts people to live here; how people relate to each other in the village; and whether there is more to the hamlet than simply “Grenoble satellite”? 

I talked to three couples who have made the village their home. The interviews reveal the similarities and differences in how we view “nature”, our overall need to connect with each other and our search for sustainability in the 21^st century. 

Kelli (Project Manager, HP) and Olivier (Sales Manager, HP)  

Kelli: I was born and raised in Boise in the US. The decision to move to France wasn’t difficult – this was the right place to be at this time in our lives. What was hard was leaving family and friends. I told myself: part of my cost of living is getting back to the US as often as possible. That’s how I talked myself into making it work, and it has. 

People here have been very kind. At the same time I miss the feeling of community I had back home. In Boise, when you do something like running errands, you have a list of people you’re gonna do things for. You walk in and out your neighbours’ homes – you don’t knock – and it’s very informal. You garden together and you build your houses together. One time my mother’s basement was flooded and suddenly there’s a whole crowd of people fixing the problem and drinking beer, making a party out of it. If there’s an issue, you sort it but have a good time doing it. But here in the village it’s just the two of us. 

I’m very happy here but if I could change anything it would be the distance between Boise and France!  And, day to day, I wouldn’t choose again to work from home. Much as I love our place it’s one of the things that’s slowed me becoming part of the community. 

Olivier: I was looking for a balance between proximity to Grenoble, for my job, and a village that is really alive – people working here, farmers, tractors passing the house. Other mountain villages may be pretty but at 9am they are empty. When I see a tractor here, I’m happy. And it’s the first time in my life I feel content coming back home after work. 

Living in this area, I’m ideally placed for my outdoor passions. I love wild places and I like to spend my weekends rock climbing and skiing. What drives me is being challenged by nature, having the feeling that it’s stronger than me. The down side is that it means I’m rarely home at weekends, and that doesn’t help for integrating with the community. 

Pierre Yves (Research Scientist, CNRS) and Françoise (Research Engineer, CNRS) 

Françoise: My husband, Pierre Yves, discovered the village 15 years ago – and I wasn’t sure, because the road gets very iced up in winter. But the spirit of the village worked its charm on me – even though I didn’t know the place at that time – and I was captivated. 

What appeals to me is that the people who live here are very close to the natural elements, flora and fauna and this closeness expresses itself in the way they rear their animals, and gives the village a special kind of energy. I love being able to walk in the streets in the evening and having nothing but pleasant surprises, and smiles, in my encounters with the neighbours. 

With regard to village life, when we first lived here I was involved with a village association. We organised several events to help people meet each other. As time went by that stopped because we ran out of energy. But now something similar is happening around Alain and Yvette’s farm. 

The people who work on the farm have an attitude and philosophy that’s a little different from mainstream agriculture. For several years they have produced organic wheat using an ancient stone mill to create flour. From this they make bread, the main source of income. Around the farm, there is a small kernel of people who have created an association, Grains de beauté, whose main aim is to promote contact, and a meeting place in the widest sense of the word. This word “meeting” is a common theme in everything organised. For example, it could be a willow basket or bread-making workshop, or the regular choral events.

Pierre Yves: This hamlet is probably unique in the Grenoble area: it is small, isolated and surrounded by nature. The thing that struck me when I first arrived, well before I knew people here, was the timelessness of the place. When you go to Alain and Yvette’s farm, you enter another age; the place feels unchanged in centuries.

Referring to what Françoise said about how people relate to each other …  she mentioned that everyone is friendly. This didn’t happen as easily as that. What’s interesting to me is that on the one hand – of course – there are different factions. The other side of this coin is that there is no such thing as anonymity in the village. 

In Villeneuve there are three broad groups of people: those who have always been here (mostly former farmers), new arrivals such as us (one is a “new arrival” for a long time!), and farmers actively farming. The fact that most of the farming around the village is organic, and connected with nature, contributes to the atmosphere of the hamlet and the area around it. 

The smallness of the hamlet, surrounded by nature, resonates very strongly with me. We aren’t going to be able to forever extend the metropolitan areas; towns, in general, are located in the middle of the richest agricultural land. So at some point this urban expansion will have to stop. Villeneuve feels like a potential model of how we will need to live our lives in the future. 

The development of non-agricultural activities around the farm is, for me, very much linked with the question of how we make the transition to sustainable development. The farm, and the activities linked with it, represents a local approach that restores a sense of collaboration, whether material or artistic, on a human scale and in sync with the rhythms of nature. What happens around the farm seems to me to answer a need that isn’t met in the way we currently organise society in terms of how we connect with each other. It is one way in which people are trying to satisfy this need. 

Yvette (agricultrice) and Alain (agriculteur)

Yvette: I’ve always worked on the land and my life in Villeneuve began when I found a small farm to rent, way back when was 17. I arrived on my own and, at that time, there weren’t many women farming in that way. Suddenly everyone was giving me a helping hand. 

I started farming with some goats and, at the same time, Alain started the vegetable garden. From that, he developed into market gardening. Little by little, I wound down the goats and both of us worked in market gardening. We began to integrate ideas from bio-dynamic agriculture – an organic approach using an awareness of the energies that govern the land, the animals and nature in general. 

We lived through a period that was challenging, economically. At that time the local farmers were amused by our way of doing things. But, when we bought the house, that changed our relationship. They saw that we were managing to make a go of farming and we became the enemy by virtue of the fact that, as people working in agriculture, we blocked land that they wanted to develop. Overall, we had 10 years of good relations, 10 of bad and now we have had 10 years of neutrality – but at least no tension. Our closest links are with people who have moved here from elsewhere. 

In terms of the farm itself, there’s potentail for our level of activity to develop. My personal project is to develop animal rearing: in addition to the cows that we already have, introduce a few goats again, some hens and turkeys. 

Alain: This work may evolve through the support of the association ; it isn’t necessarily a profit-making activity. But you or I, or any of the people at Villeneuve realise that it’s important to have animals in a village and it’s also important to have people to look after them. That’s where I see the link between the farm association and the people of Villeneuve and around. People need to realise that animals bring a particular type of energy which helps us to live. It’s not just the responsibility of farm workers, it’s for all of us, for the future, to realise that we have a role and that it’s important to maintain farm animals. 

In today’s society 9 out of 10 people are doing a job that has nothing to do with our physical world. They live in a virtual world in terms of computers and IT, producing things that we don’t need. This may create employment but it isn’t real in the sense that if this work were to suddenly stop … where would we be? We’d still need to feed ourselves, somehow. This way of living and working leads us to completely disconnected lifestyles where we travel and lead our lives in a complex way when there is a far simpler way of nourishing ourselves. This “virtual world”, on the other hand, generates ridiculous ideas … like that it’s ok to take a plane to the other end of the world for 20 euros. For me that is completely unreal! People want to live in a “green” way but they think it’s ok to buy a plane ticket at such a low price?! There’s hard thinking is needed there.  

I believe people have a fundamental need to regenerate, to get together and do things with others. I see an alternative way forward that contacts what’s deeply important for all of us. I mean, what’s fundamental in order for society to develop. For this we need to make contact with each other, starting with those of us who are able to meet around a place and try to move towards something better, socially. 

I think that a farm is the ideal place to start rethinking how society can work. There’s already a structure, and a sense of birth and creativity – animals, the food we produce. From here we can begin, gradually, a project to develop our society.

For further information about the farm association, Grains de Beauté, and its activities, contact the association: beaute.des.graines (at) gmail.com