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

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

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

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

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.

misplacedperson.wordpress.com
dinnerwiththeomnivore.wordpress.com

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.

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

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

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!

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).

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

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

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.

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.

Looking For Sam, March 10-11, 2010

Caroline Schlenker instructs the acting class for students in the English department at Stendhal. She talks to Grenoble Life about staging plays with her students, teaching English through drama, and this year’s production, Looking For Sam, March 10-11.

Grenoble Life: What is your role in the Stendhal English department theatre workshop?

Caroline Schlenker: I am the instructor of this course. I teach the core acting class as part of the English Licence Degree for second year students, as an alternative class to the conversation module. I teach diction, pronunciation, basic drama techniques, and stage the students’ production each year. The workshop meets every week for two hours (but there are additional rehearsals for the play). 

GL: How often does the department put on a play?

Caroline: Last year, we exceptionally put on two plays (Once Upon A Time In A Screen/Stage Audience, a project between cinema and theatre, in partnership with the cinema le Club in Grenoble; and Macbeth, staged by third year students). This year, however, we will only put on the play Looking For Sam, although the third year students will present a short extract of their own work as a (surprise) opening to the Sam Shepard play. It is a play they have written (!) and staged. 

GL: What kinds of plays and themes do you normally tackle?

Caroline: It varies. We put on Harold Pinter sketches thanks to the chance meeting of Susan Blattes, then head of the English Department, and the actor/director Patrick Seyer at a Pinter play. Their encounter led to the idea of a joint venture on Pinter with the English Department. The project was then to work on Pinter through the specificity and rhythm of his language and the relationship between the characters that this language thus establishes. The students worked on the texts through the drama in the English class I was teaching, and shaped their characters through the staging by the professional director Mr Seyer.

This partnership was so interesting and stimulating in fact it led us to work together again on a project on cinema, Once Upon a time in a Screen/Stage audience, which I directed whilst he did the actor training (in English!). For this project, the idea of working on the different spaces of theatre and cinema was an idea I always wanted to tackle. Cinema has always fascinated me. 

The Macbeth project was an idea of the students, who asked to work on Shakespeare and studied the staging of The Winter’s Tale at the MC2 in Grenoble. This year we are working on Sam Shepard as a way to explore the sound and musicality of American English – a way for us to approach language differently, once again. Working with a musician helped me to have yet another approach to the language, and to the text!

GL: Who chooses the script?

Caroline: Setting aside the Pinter and the Macbeth projects, I choose the script!

GL: How long does it take to prepare and rehearse for one play? Tell us a little about what it involves.

Caroline: We have some basic drama classes between September and December (where we work on literary classics such as Pygmalion or the works of Oscar Wilde, or some other types of classics such as Monty Python and Rowan Atkinson’s stand up comedy drills) in order to practice pronunciation and intonation and learn some basic conversational techniques, such as how to make a point, or how to make the other person react in some way with words. We also learn voice and body integration, and we explore imagination through the English language (the only language spoken in class!).

When working on a text, we learn to think about a character’s goals, tactics, his relationship with the other characters and we write his curriculum vitae. In January, we get our texts for the final production (I write the transitions for our scenes, and our rehearsals start). Each group rehearses about four hours a week (each scene constitutes a group – there are four scenes). So I see them about 10 hours a week (two hours are with the whole class during our actual class time). We perform in March. A lot of commitment and motivation is involved in this process!

GL: Tell us more about this year’s production.

Caroline: It’s an exploration into Sam Shepard’s work. You see, Sam Shepard once told an interviewer: “I preferred a character that was constantly unidentifiable, shifting through the actor, so that the actor could play almost anything, and the audience was never expected to identify with the characters,” With his shifting vision of identity, the way in which he portrayed the characters in his plays, Shepard was giving away a bit of himself.

Our question then was: who is this Sam Shepard, and is he as a writer shying away from revealing his true self? Another component of his character that intrigued us was his love for music, and his failure to become a musician. Through the play Looking For Sam, we decided to make an imaginary investigation into how Sam Shepard wrote his plays. With the collaboration of a local songwriter/ singer Noel Belmondo, we invented the musical (and linguistic) scenery for the text. 

It is our fantasy, through the influences of rhythm and music we found in the language, of how the text came to be. We hope the audience will be driven to the special space created by an artist at work! The play includes excerpts of some of his most famous plays: True West, Curse of the Starving Class, La Turista (which is about, as its name so aptly suggests, Turista!) and Buried Child. The play is free of course and will be performed at 7.30pm on March 10^th and 11^th, 2010, at the Amphidice, the theatre in Stendhal University.

GL: Tell us about some highlights from previous years.

Caroline: All the projects and moments we shared in the drama workshop were equally wonderful thanks to the incredible involvement of the students – it’d be hard for me to pick!

GL: Tell us a little about your background and how you came to be involved with the Stendhal English department theatre workshop?

Caroline: I got hired as a Maître de Langue just as Mr Seyer got hired to work on his project – and it just happened that Ms Blattes, then head of the department, knew I had some background in acting. I accepted to take the workshop, which had been closed since the departure (retirement) of the last professor in charge of the workshop: Mr. Derioz.

GL: How effective are theatre and acting as a way to learn English?

Caroline: It is incredible. The students start off reluctant to speak English and end up speaking English to each other in the corridor – what can I add? Some no longer notice they’re switching between languages by the time we get to the final performance! Their confidence in their ability to speak is what impresses me most. They feel they are able to be actor of their world in another language. It would be too long to explain – why don’t you come to our Colloquium on the subject at the University on March 5th? It’s also at Amphidice!

GL: Tell us about your audience and some of the feedback you’ve had.

Caroline: We’ve had a large audience, ranging from acting professionals to families of the actors, fellow students, Cité Internationale teachers and students, and the English department professors (and other professors from the Drama and Languages departments!) and staff of course. Everyone is impressed with just how much the students get involved in this project, and it is so important for the students to have them there!

GL: How can we get tickets for the play?

Caroline: For any information or for reservations, please contact the service Culture de l’Université Stendhal: Tél: 04 76 82 41 05. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday : 10 am–12 am and 2pm – 4pm/ or by email: caroline.schlenker (at) u-grenoble3.fr

Radio. photo: morberg

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 7 English Talk Radio show took place at The Bookworm Café in St Laurent, Grenoble. Listen to the full show here:

p'tit vélo dans la tete on campus - photo: www.ptitvelo.net

Are you a student or a new arrival and want to know how to live in Grenoble on a budget? Expatriated Brit John Lubbock has learnt the hard way, and has kindly agreed to share his tips and experience with Grenoble Life readers.  

Grenoble is not a bad place to be poor. But, like a tramp with a favourite patch, you have to know your environment; or like a foraging bear, where the best pickings are to be had. You may need to change some of your bad, foreign influenced habits to make the most of your insertion into French culture (beer is expensive apart from Stella, which isn’t one of the best things about French gastronomy, is it?). 

Tourists, as we all know, are naive sponges who deserve to be squeezed dry, so try not to seem like one. People will often poorly attempt to converse with you in English when they realise you are not a native, but insist, “Je suis en France, il faut que je parle en français“, and they won’t despise you as much for usurping their language as the world’s Lingua Franca. It is mostly from lack of better information that tourists agree to pay higher prices, so I intend to give you some information to help you make better spending choices.

Accommodation

If you do not want to spend your first month in France on a sofa or in a hostel, it pays to research accommodation before you arrive. There is an association called OSE Club which you can join for €30 which will find apartments for you in a designated area of the city, if you want to be near to a university. Then there are websites such as www.appartager.com and www.vivastreet.com, which have petites annonces for flats, but these are generally only useful if you pay the €10 fee to see the telephone numbers of the advertisers and call them up directly as they don’t answer messages on the site.

Watch the French film L’Auberge Espagnole before you go to get an exaggerated idea of being interviewed by your future flatmates and the kinds of hilarious European stereotypes you are likely to be cohabiting with. If you are not a student, it is even more important to find a flat quickly, because without a rental agreement, you will not be able to get a French bank account or contract telephone, and will thus be considered a SDF (Sans Domicile Fixe) by the French. This will mean that you are forced to become a baba cool (hippy) and sit in the street with your dogs holding out a frying pan to ask for spare change.  

N.B. If you are staying for less than a year, it is worthwhile getting a contract phone, which will be cheaper than pay as you go, the phone will be nicer, and there’s little they can do about it when you tell them that you’re leaving the country before the contract finishes and close your bank account. But don’t tell anyone I told you.  

If you have never lived in the socialist paradise that is France, you may not be aware of the kinds of social benefits available to people living there. The CAF’s housing benefit system could pay for some of your rent if you are a student or living on a low wage, although like most bureaucratic systems in France it takes about six weeks to get anywhere with it, and since these forms are all in French, it is more like a test of your reading comprehension which you need to pass to gain entry to French society.  

Learning French

If you are (un)lucky enough to be a political refugee, asking at the Préfecture (a big administrative building which makes you feel like Josef K from Kafka’s The Trial, wondering if you’ll ever be told what you’ve done wrong in order to end up there) or at the Conseil Général can get you free French lessons, which can otherwise be obtained by calling the ADATE organisation. I am not sure if you can get lessons with them without being a refugee, but I am considering telling them that I have been forced to flee from the UK as a result of the impending government takeover by a bunch of Tories with accents so posh and annoying that they constitute a form of social oppression. If you have to go to the Préfecture for any annoying bureaucratic reason, like to obtain a carte de séjour, don’t ask anyone which ‘queue’ you should stand in. The French for queue is pronounced like ‘que’, while saying ‘queue’ sounds like the French word for something rude.  

Transport  

When it comes to transport, if you are poor, the bicycle/vélo will become like your husband or wife, or perhaps the god to whom you pray for benevolence. If it works well, you love it and praise it, and if not you curse it. There are three main places I know of to obtain bikes cheaply. Firstly: on the street. I found three bikes lying in crumpled heaps on pavements in the first month I was here. The problem then is to take them to somewhere you can repair them. So either have a bike repair kit (Decathlon, around €15), or go to the second place to get cheap bikes – Un P’tit Vélo Dans La Tete meaning something like ‘A little bit biked in the head’.

This atelier (workshop) sells bikes that have been repaired for between €15-60, or you can go there to fix your own by paying a €15 abonnement (subscription). It is a good place to practice your French, as there are lots of guys who can help you to fix your bike, and they have a handy board on the wall with a picture of a bike and the French names for every part of it indicated. However, fixing bikes takes time, and if you have a second hand bike, or one you bought at P’tit Velo, it will break down roughly every two weeks. On the plus side, you will get very good at repairing bikes. The third option is Métrovélo, who will give you a generic yellow bike for €75 for six months (plus €50 deposit) and repair it for you if it breaks down.  

Of course, you can always chance a free ride on the tram, but getting caught by the officials will land you with a €65 fine, unless you can pretend to be a totally clueless foreigner. The tram tariff is €24 a month for students, but Grenoble is the flattest city centre in France, and waiting for a tram and slumming it with Joe Public are hidden costs not worth paying in my opinion. That’s why liberté comes before egalité and fraternité: because it’s more important.  

If you want to go further that the city limits, go to www.covoiturage.fr and find someone who is making the same journey as you to go with. It will be far cheaper than any other method of transport, and the people I’ve met doing it have all been nice.  

Food  

Although many people come to France for the food, as an impoverished young person, this will likely be one of the areas in which you sacrifice quality in order to live within your means. To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, a man who lives within his means has no imagination; but you will likely be finding your culinary options limited by the exigencies of having little money to spend. Ed is a cheap supermarket, and it happens to bear the name of some of my friends, although since the name Edward doesn’t exist in French, they call it “Ee-de”, which sounds much more corporate and less friendly. It is worth taking a notebook around to the supermarkets to write down prices of items you buy regularly, because while vegetables may be cheaper in Ed, Géant may have cheaper milk, for example. Unfortunately, I have just been informed by my collocataire that Ed is closing down – evidently the world of modern commerce is too cruel for such friendly-named businesses – but Lidl is almost identical in that it has hardly any choice of products and brands you have never heard of, but they are all usually cheaper than the Géant/Casino equivalent.  

Yet if one just bought the budget Casino brand pasta/rice/couscous to eat with with vegetables every day, you might end up wanting to kill yourself. So for the minimum luxury of not cooking the food yourself, you can go to a CROUS canteen, near the gare, or in Domaine Universitaire. These are supposed to be for students, but you can just pay the €2.90 it costs for a meal there in cash without showing any student card as well. You get bread, salad or cheese, a main meal of canteen standard chips/pasta/vegetables/etc. and some meat served with customary indifference and a bad attitude by people who look deeply unhappy about serving ungrateful students who could pay their wages with their tuition fees (those who go to an École supérieure anyway).  

Working  

Of course, if you really want to make things easier on yourself financially, you could get a job. “A job? What’s that?” I hear you cry. “I am a student – they don’t work. Then I wouldn’t have time for all the drinking and Facebook which the energy I consume from crisps and Red Bulls goes into”. Well, you could work part time. If you are a native English speaker, you could get employed by a soutien scolaire company, telling kids what they did wrong with their homework. Believe me, it’s satisfying to be on the other end of this after receiving homework corrected in red-teacher-ballpoint ink for 10 or more years. Don’t be put off if you don’t have a TEFL or CELTA qualification, I didn’t find this a hindrance, though it may help to say you have experience of private teaching even if you haven’t.

If there’s one thing I learned looking for jobs here it’s that it doesn’t pay to be honest: always tell them you are available to work, always tell them you have the experience. It took me a while of offering my services to language companies (Grenoble Life already has a useful list here), universities and other places like the Chamber of Commerce and Rectorat before I was employed, but once you have your foot in the door, you will hear about other teaching  jobs that are advertised within teaching circles.  

The Pôle jeunesse on Avenue Agutte Sembat has a useful wall full of job and accommodation offers. But if you have a degree, they will tell you that they can’t help hoity-toity types like you and that you should go instead to AFIJ who have an office at 29 Avenue Felix Viallet near Cour Jean Jaurès. These guys mostly have offers for internships or well paid jobs, so if you are just looking for a petit boulot, the Pôle jeunesse might be more useful.

You could try working in a bar, but the French can be quite snooty if your linguistic skills aren’t up to scratch. This matters less when applying to one of the studenty bars like London Pub or Sun Valley, but you will invariably have to call a Frenchman ‘boss’ (and thereby lose all the nationalistic self-respect you have built up living in your own great land), and traipse around the campus putting up flyers just for the pleasure of sacrificing most of your evenings for €9 an hour. There are also lots of agencies you can work for who hire waiters and other restauration workers for company or other private functions, but I personally found them somewhat useless, though Adecco is worth a try. Then you can try the listings in Pôle Emploi, which is like the JobCentre in the UK, but with more paperwork.  

Of course one of the reasons why you came to Grenoble is to ski, so if you are a student, join the École de Glisse, and try to obtain some cheap equipment from one of the second hand ski places like Boite aux Skis. There is no way of getting around that skiing is expensive however you do it, but hopefully you will have saved enough money in other areas to afford the silly ski-pass prices. And if you injure yourself, just remember to have your European Health Card handy. Good luck, mes amis.

Mas du Bruchet, Meylan

Anne-Marie Ferguson and her husband run the Le Mas du Bruchet Bed & Breakfast in Meylan. Here is their story of how they set about restoring the building and its original vineyards. 

“In the upper reaches of Meylan, close to the slope of the mountain, there was a small white cottage, surrounded with vineyards and gardens, from where there is a plunging view on the Isère Valley”*, thus spoke Berlioz about this place in his memoirs. 

This is also how my parents discovered, when they bought the property in 1957, that they were the lucky owners of a very special place. When my husband Michael and myself took the place over from my family, the house and its adjacent barn were surrounded by five hectares of land covered with a thick forest. We found an old picture in the Archives of Meylan, showing the white house, surrounded by vineyards. It then went through our mind that we would rather have a view on a vineyard than a forest. And so started our adventure. 

To begin with, Michael took a correspondence course with the Wine School of Beaune in Burgundy, which he completed within two years. The academic part done, the land needed preparation. We hired a landscape company that spent three weeks cutting the trees, digging stumps out and burning them (we had a huge fire going on for all that time). He then levelled the land which was on a 14° slope, and finished preparing it for plantation. 

We then gathered a bunch of devoted friends over one weekend and in spring 1998, planted the first plot of 3,600 wine plants. That lesson learned, for the next plantation of 9,700 plants, we hired professionals, who spent three full days at their task. Michael chose the Verdesse grape varietal, a traditional and local plant that had nearly vanished, as it was considered as a capricious and irregular plant. Michael was convinced that this varietal had qualities that could be the basis for a great wine and set out to prove it. 

The first small harvest being scheduled for three years later, we had time to organize a cellar. We bought a second-hand wine press, a pump, and stainless steel vats from Teisseire in Bernin, from which emanated lovely lemon sirop flagrances! We have since invested in wooden barrels where our vintage is kept for 18 months. 

In 2003, we restored the adjacent barn and built a traditional vaulted wine cellar on its subterranean part. Above, we created four rooms that we turned into a Bed & Breakfast we named Le Mas du Bruchet. We welcome businessmen and travellers from around the world and if they happen to be with us during the harvest and fermentation time, they have the privilege of enjoying the sweet smell of fermenting must as they enter the building! 

In 2004 and again in 2009, our efforts were rewarded as our Verdesse won the gold and silver prize, at the concours des vins de l’Y grenoblois. We surprised many locals, who predicted that we could produce nothing extraordinary with the local grapes and terroir. We have now a regular following of people who come to our cellar on the property, and proudly introduce a bottle of Verdesse wine from Meylan on their table or counter!

* Translation © 2004-2010 Monir Tayeb and Michel Austin. All rights reserved. See the full text here.

Bread! Photo: Denis Morel

New from our partner Captiv Magazine, this authoritative article about the history of that precious French cultural commodity, bread, covers the history of le pain through to its place in modern French eating habits and ever-evolving baking methods. Read the full article at www.captiv-magazine.fr

Dials. Photo: ericcomando89

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 January 22 English Talk Radio show features Trudi Penkler, psychologist and inter-cultural coach and trainer, talking about teenagers and moving. Listen to the full show here.

Les Nouvelles de Grenoble

In the latest post in his blog The Franco-American Daily Deconstructionist; History and Culture in Everyday Life,  John Hess leafs through the City of Grenoble Magazine Les Nouvelles de Grenoble. Here’s what he has to say about it.

Many of you who have the good fortune to live in Grenoble, wait breathlessly for the end of each month, because that means a small portion of your tax payments will be returned to you a hundred-fold, in the form of Les Nouvelles de Grenoble, “the city informational magazine.”

For those of you who do not have this good fortune : the magazine is a glossy, super-sized A4 format affair, arriving free in residents’ mailboxes each month. It is published by the municipal government, at taxpayer expense, and purports to provide helpful information about happenings in Grenoble, especially of a political, social, or cultural nature.

Perhaps you enjoy reading Les Nouvelles: it’s professionally produced, there are lots of color pictures, the articles are short and easy to digest, and it’s all so refreshingly upbeat. When I read Les Nouvelles de Grenoble, I realize that I am living in the world’s most wonderful city. Perhaps I have even died and gone to the urbanists’ paradise. Well, then I go out my door, and harsh reality sets in; but o the illusion, however fleeting, is delightful!

But have you ever wondered about the content of the magazine? For it clearly is not just the neutral statement of city-related current facts and goings-on that you would expect from a publicly-funded publication. There is, of course, the natural phenomenon of editorial selection: the magazine is strangely silent about the crimes, mishaps, and dysfunctionalities that weigh on city life; we hear only about the good stuff. The temptation to intellectual dishonesty seems to be too great, however, for the editors to stop there. What they do report on has to be qualified with glowingly positive adjectives.

So does issue n° 131, October 2009, tell us on the front page that in matters of sustainable development, “Grenoble is keeping its promises”, even though this is a self-evidently worthless statement. If one wants to know if promises are being kept, one generally has the sense not to ask the promise-maker, which is sort of like asking the accused if he’s guilty or not–and basing the verdict on the answer.

On page six of the same issue, we find out that the city-engineered renovation of St Bruno Square has “restored its soul as the lively and convivial heart of the neighborhood.” Well, I hadn’t noticed, but if the city engineers say so, then that’s good enough for me!

On page seven, we find out that there is not just a new crèche in that same neighborhood, but a “spanking brand-new” crèche, which is somehow different from a new crèche, though I suppose appropriate for child-rearing disciplinary purposes.

On page eight, we find out that the Philippeville Square crèche is “new, beautiful and environmentally-friendly”, which will certainly be a relief to parents concerned that their children’s day care was aggravating global climate change, though they may regret that the newness is not spanking in this case; and while some local residents find the crèche “butt-ugly”, they were apparently not interviewed for this article.

On page fourteen, we have another “spanking brand new” building, this time a library in the Teisseire quarter, also qualified as “magnificent.” (If the Teisseire library is already “magnificent”, then what adjective remains to us to describe, say, The New York Public Library, or the Great Library of Alexandria ?) It goes on and on, upbeat snippets about all the wonderful and progressive developments in Grenoble, directly or indirectly thanks to the actions of the city government, culminating in the municipal self-love-fest about sustainable development from page 18 onwards.

How can this sort of thing be possible ? Well, in a country where the press is expected to be partisan and indeed captive of a particular interest group or ideology, and where the state likes to pose as the benefactor to all (and never mind where the money comes from), it is not just possible, but considered quite normal. And this is the problem !

But why do I complain ? You know, in fact, the business model of Les Nouvelles de Grenoble magazine has inspired me. Watch this space, as Grenoble Life becomes John Hess Life, full of interesting articles about how wonderful, nay, ineffably divine, John Hess is, all written in breathless prose by John Hess. You will, of course, pay a monthly subscription fee for the privilege.

Hélène Aubry

Hélène Aubry is a property finder specialised in helping potential home buyers in the purchasing process. She talks to us about her services, the housing market in the Grenoble area, her expat background and how she came to set up her own business.

I have created Adequacium, a property finding company whose main objective is to provide a complete and high-quality service to the real estate client.

The role of a Property Finder is to search your dream home, guide you through the purchasing process, help you with the paperwork and price negotiations, and provide you with all the services you need to settle down.  
Unlike a real estate agency, a Property Finder does not sell anything; we represent the buyer and work towards the client’s goal.

This kind of business has existed for over 15 years in Northern Europe and in the US, but it is still relatively unexplored in France. According to French law, being a Property Finder requires the same accreditations as real estate agents, such as a degree in law and real-estate studies or professional experience, an authorization from the police prefecture, and financial guarantees and insurance. I myself graduated in finance and real estate management from Grenoble University in 2007.

The main advantage of the Property Finding service is that by hiring a Property Finder, you will save time, secure the purchase process, save money in the negotiation, and overall undergo much less pressure. The service is for many different kinds of people, be it someone searching for a family home, a holiday residence, a plot of land, an off-plan investment or even a professional looking for commercial premises. Living far away is not an issue, as someone is working for you in your future home town. Another advantage is that a Property Finder investigates the whole market process for you: real-estate agencies, private owners, notaries, property developers and their own private network.

In order to better explain what I offer to my clients, here is a step-by-step description of the process:

• During a private interview with the client, I get their detailed requirements and wishes: what kind of home are they looking for, where, and what their budget is.
• I search the ads on the internet, in newspapers, and make use of my network, process and tools in order to find the house or apartment that fits as closely as possible the buyers’ requirements.
• I shortlist to a pre-selection, visit the properties and produce a detailed report with photos,  positive and negative points about the property, and send it by email to the client. I also check the property’s area, for items such as shops, schools, communication facilities, etc.
• When the client has selected some of the properties presented to them, I plan and organize the visits.
• Finally, once a decision to buy has been taken, I negotiate the price with the vendor.
• I will then accompany the buyer during the whole process until he signs the deed of sale before the notary.
• I can also provide other services in order to help the customer and his or her family settle down.
• I have been building my website, and you will be able to find more information on it soon, before the end of February I hope.

The reason why I have created such a business is mainly because I had been an expat in California for about five years, and I know how difficult it can be to find a house for your family when you arrive in a new country. You don’t know where the nice, friendly places to live are, the market and price levels, the real estate agencies and their reputations, consumer-protecting laws, the process to purchase or to rent and the rules that may apply. Having a professional and local guide for all these tasks and questions really is a great relief.

I have lived in the Grenoble area for more than 30 years, mainly working as a project manager for a consulting company. From this first professional experience, I had the opportunity to collaborate with multinational companies in the Rhône Alpes region. This allowed me to create a good professional and personal network. I decided to create a new business on my own in 2005, and took classes at Grenoble University in finance and real estate. I graduated in 2007, started a business as a finance advisor in 2008 and then Adequacium in 2009.

The real estate field is not in very good shape compared to the period 2000–2007, but I would say recovery is around the corner. Prices rose too high during the boom (more than 100% for some properties) and the speculation kept going. The market needed to slow down. I do not believe that prices have stabilised yet, as there are still some properties that are overpriced. Vendors have been waiting to sell and buyers are still waiting to see prices go down. However, for those who need to change home, it is possible to find some good opportunities; we have negotiated prices down by 12% in some cases, something which was not possible even one year ago. It is also a good time to buy due to mortgage interest rates being fairly low with a risk of them climbing within a few months. We can say that the situation has been improving, so let’s be positive and start great projects in this year 2010.

Telephone: 06 42 58 09 08

Now that the snow in Grenoble has almost melted (insert a “boo!” or “hurray!” here, depending on your proclivity), here is a reminder of what you may or may not now be missing - some magical photos of the city under the snow from our resident photographer Suzanne Bonnefond.

The French Paper website

Michael Streeter, Editor of theFrenchPaper, talks to Vivian Draper of English Talk Radio, 90.8 Radio Campus Grenoble. Read the full interview here.

Vivian Draper: Hello Michael and welcome to Grenoble, even if only in print. It is eight months since we last spoke about theFrenchPaper, what has happened in those last eight months?

Michael Streeter: It’s been busy! In addition to the main paper we’ve produced a number of supplements to go with it, including one on sport and another on winter sports. We have also been hard at work trying to promote the paper in various places. Obviously as your readers know France is a big country and targeting our audience of English-speakers is not always as easy at it might seem, so this has taken up a lot of time and will continue to, I’m sure.

The main thing, however, is that we’ve been trying to maintain and improve our editorial quality. Our aim has always been to produce a quality newspaper about what’s going on in France with a design and feel that can compete with, for example, the best of British national newspapers. That’s the level we’re aiming for and we spend a lot of time on getting it right. Obviously nobody’s perfect, but I’d like to think we’re moving in the right direction. Certainly the feedback we’ve got from readers has been fantastic. I think they can see that a lot of effort and thought goes into each edition. Above all they seem to find us a grownup and enjoyable read, which is great – that’s what we’re aiming for!

Vivian: Printing newspapers has changed vastly in the last 30 years, no more inky fingers?

Michael: Yes, things have certainly changed since I first started in Fleet Street many years ago. Back then you needed to wear gloves if you were handling bundles of paper. The quality of the presses and inks has improved so much – as has the ability to price good quality colour pages. When you compare newspapers of today with those of 30 years ago they are so much bigger, more colourful and, I would argue, much better value for money.

Vivian: Where is theFrenchPaper published?

Michael: It’s published in London by the printers of The Guardian and Observer, though we have no editorial or other link with them. Why there? Not for any chauvinistic reasons, it’s simply that not many presses can currently print the Berliner format we use (it’s half way between a tabloid and broadsheet in size).

Vivian: Is distribution of theFrenchPaper going smoothly?

Michael: Don’t get me started on distribution! Much as I love France there are still some things that baffle and frustrate me here and newspaper distribution is definitely one of them. Let’s just say it’s a ‘challenge’ getting the right number of copies to where we want them to go each month … and if people find it hard to get hold of a copy at their nearest outlet please do let us know. Things are getting better, but it’s a slow process.

Vivian: What is your average day like?

Michael: The first thing is to keep on top of the news. I’ll always listen to the radio news bulletins in the morning (France Inter usually) and then catch up on the Agence France Presse wire service. I also read news websites, newspapers and the weekly magazines such as L’Express and Nouvel Obs. Much of my day is spent coming up with ideas, commissioning and briefing reporters, editing stories and where necessary sending them back to be re-written! The final week before we go to press is obviously the most hectic, and the working day is rarely under 12 hours. There are pages to proofread, headlines to rewrite, captions to check, all the time making sure we aren’t missing anything major.

Vivian: Not only French news in English, you have broadened your scope to include many other areas?

Michael: I think these days a newspaper has to offer more than ‘just’ the news. As a monthly paper we both have a round up of key stories that have affected France in the previous weeks and offer analysis and commentary on those stories we think really help tell the reader something about France and how it works. On top of that there are features, real life stories, lifestyle, travel, motoring, sport, puzzles and crosswords, commentary, advice pages, financial information, pages with advice for small businesses, food, gardening, nature … it’s quite a full list! I see our mission as being to entertain and stimulate as well as to inform.

Vivian: Such a variety of articles too, does each newspaper have a theme?

Michael: To an extent yes, especially if it’s linked to a time of year, such as Christmas, or the summer holidays or the start of the skiing season. However it’s also important that we cover a broad range of what’s going and we need to appeal to a wide range of people so I don’t like to get too tied down to one theme.

Vivian: What has surprised you most about theFrenchPaper since the first issue?

Michael: One has been the reaction of many readers. I did expect people to like the paper as it’s something different, but I have been amazed just how much some people say they love it. It’s not for everyone of course and some people have complained that there’s ‘too much about France in it’. Fair enough, you can’t please all the people all the time, I guess. Another surprise has been how popular we are with some French people – I really hadn’t expected that.

Vivian: Talk about the technology used in editing a newspaper in 2010

Michael: Where would we be without the internet and email? Information gathering is so much easier now because of websites, searchable databases and libraries and so on, though I still prefer to speak to people directly for information if possible – you always get more like that. In terms of the page layout and design process, it’s simply a question of using a publishing software package and having the skills to use it properly to produce the pages. These are all laid out and designed by our great design team, including the photos, and once we’re happy with the pages they are simply emailed to the printers ready for printing. It’s that straightforward, though of course you need the right skill to be able to make the pages look good (that’s down to Nadia, our art editor, not me I hasten to add). With an internet connection you could edit the paper from the top of a mountain!

Vivian: Who is reading theFrenchPaper?

Michael: As I’ve just mentioned quite a few French people! But of course our main readership is among Britons and Americans living in France or coming here on holiday or to visit their second home, as well as Irish residents, Australians, New Zealanders, South Africans and other nationalities who prefer to read in English rather than in French. As for age groups and profiles … very varied. Lots of pensioners read us, but then so too do young working families with children. I think the common theme among readers, though, is that they are all interested in life in France, rather than just life as a foreigner in France, if you see what I mean. They are people who like to look outside the ‘expat bubble’ and want to know what France is doing and what French people are thinking and saying.

Vivian: Your articles on Work & Money are most interesting; also The Eco Worrier, which can be quite funny, in an English sort of way.

Michael: The Work & Money section is very important for us – we want to give readers advice on running their business, on saving money or even what benefits they can legitimately claim here. As for Eco Worrier’s English wit … Graeme is Scottish so I’m not sure how he’ll take that!

Vivian: The small Ads and KidsPaper are lively too – do children really write theFrenchPaper KidsPaper?

Michael: Yes they do, though naturally they get a helping hand from adults too. It’s a section that’s gone down really, really well with young families, including young French families.

Vivian: Recipes, gardening, and giveaways – talk about the giveaways, please

Michael: Well, food and gardening are part of those lifestyle things that many people associate with their life in France so they are very important subjects for us. As for giveaways, many of our readers come from Britain where they are used to their newspaper offering them a variety of promotions, free goods, cut-price deals on so on. So it’s simply part of the mix, something that readers expect. We all like the chance to win a little treat, don’t we?

Vivian: You also have a part of theFrenchPaper called Real Living; I’m thinking of the article about sheep and shepherds, which was so interesting

Michael: Yes I loved that story. France has such a varied landscape and people, and the aim of our real life stories is to bring to life the many characters who have amazing and fascinating lives here – whether French or not.

Vivian: As Editor of theFrenchPaper, you have final say on what goes out in each issue – does it keep you awake at night?

Michael: As an editor you do get used to that kind of decision-making. To be honest, I have always enjoyed that kind of pressure as an editor. I think the toughest thing for me is that theFrenchPaper is a monthly. On a daily paper, which I’m used to, if you felt you’d under or overplayed a subject one day, you had an immediate opportunity to put it right the next day. With a monthly you have to live with your decisions for quite a while!

Vivian: Lindsey Partos on food prices in your January issue was most informative, can we expect more articles like this?

Michael: Definitely. Lindsey has a good track record in food industry journalism and I’m very keen that we do more of this type of consumer story.

Vivian: Ma Belle France is a great read in The French Paper, also the idea that we use more lipstick when the financial outlook is bleak – how about free lipsticks for your great giveaways?

Michael: Lipstick isn’t my speciality subject but I will definitely mention this to one of my better-informed colleagues!

Vivian: The Big Quiz is a super idea in theFrenchPaper – we can feel really well informed, or if we are not, we can sneak a peek at the answers, right?

Michael: Of course – it’s just a bit of fun! That said, it is also a good source of snippets of information, as well as being a lot of work!

Vivian: Of course you don’t work alone, how many permanent staff does theFrenchPaper employ?

Michael: There are two of us who oversee most of the editorial, with another two who look after the design, sourcing photos and so on. Then there are regular freelancers who work on sub-editing, proofreading, columns and other parts of the paper. The vast majority of the content is written by freelance contributors under our guidance. Then there’s the ad and marketing teams.

Vivian: What is next for theFrenchPaper?

Michael: In the paper, we’ll be seeing more supplements and specials on subjects of particular interest to our readers. Essentially my aim is to maintain the quality and reputation we have established and build from there. A key issue is marketing – getting the paper better known. Having launched in June last year I’m sure that the majority of our target audience still doesn’t know we exist. We have to put that right. Another key area is our news website – it’s under construction and we’ll let you know when that’s ready.

Vivian: How about some contact information?

Michael: Well we do have a marketing website at www.thefrenchpaper.com. Here you can subscribe from as little as €29.47 for 14 issues. And on the newsstands we are just €2.50 an issue – which I hope people agree is pretty good value for money. If anyone wants to contact me they are very welcome to email me at: editorial@thefrenchpapaper.com

Vivian: Michael thanks for this interview and we look forward to the next issue of theFrenchPaper

Michael: Thanks for letting me talk about a subject I love – newspapers!

Freebox: Photo Martin Menu

Grenoble Life editor James Dalrymple has one piece of advice for readers hoping to set up an internet connection in France: don’t use Free. Here’s why.

One of the first considerations when setting up home in a new country is getting an internet connection, nowadays almost as essential a utility as gas, electricity and water. When I arrived, one company dominated combined phone and internet packages: Free - seemingly the only good value alternative to France Telecom at the time. Now there are better value options on the market, but extricating yourself from your contract with Free is not as simple as it should be, to say the least.

Customer service in France often leaves a lot to be desired, but Free goes beyond the normal depersonalised call centre experience to seemingly deliberate efforts to overcharge and stonewall customers that have spawned large internet communities of unhappy punters and consumer associations, but has not apparently done enough to make Free contemplate their reputation.

A Free account is relatively easy to set up, but when you want to cancel your contract, they require you to return the Freebox router by post. All very well, except for the fact that – in our case, and that of many others – receipt of the box is not acknowledged, even if you have paid for a registered delivery service which enables you to track the package by internet to its destination. Free don’t receive the boxes themselves, but subcontract this task to a logistics company.

When Free disputed receipt of the box, our enquiries at the Post office were met with the response (or something to this effect) “Free do this all the time.” Angry consumers in numerous web forums support this, as does the existence of an association named Freeks, dedicated to helping customers untangle themselves from unpleasant disputes with Free, among other internet companies, and who list ‘mediation’ with Free as one of their services. This leads one to suspect Free are quite aware of the situation many of its customers find themselves in, and it is not just a case of logistical inefficiency.

Having claimed that they never received the box, Free then demand that you send them proof of dispatch (i.e., the receipt for registered post) by fax. That’s right, an internet service provider who communicate by fax - everybody’s favourite  21st century means of contact. It gets worse. There is evidently only one fax machine, apparently located at a call centre in Eastern Europe, which is engaged for large periods of the day. As if people don’t have better things to do than spend entire working days trying to send the equivalent of cyber bog roll to the other side of the continent.

Further still, the company insist that you call them within two hours of having sent the fax (assuming you have been able to get through), on a premium rate number. Finally, when we reached the call centre by phone, the operator was both vague and reluctant as to whether they had received the fax – maybe try again tomorrow? (another day loitering by the fax machine, more premium rate numbers). Only on being pressed did the unhelpful operator admit to receiving all the pages of the fax, but claimed it was illegible. Of course it’s illegible, it’s a fax! … we wanted to scream.

It’s a Catch-22, for if we hadn’t rung the bank to halt the direct debit we would probably still be in some daily fax-rage limbo while we almost certainly continued to pay for a service that we are not receiving, and have no wish to receive. We have written to complain to Free’s Customer Services, a postal-only service in France, and they have accepted the end of the contract, but not receipt of the box. They are demanding payment for a additional month’s subscription, and are still asking for the box back, which apparently costs around 400 euro.

Unfortunately you can fight with your principles but short of getting the consumer associations interested, you run the risk that Free will sell the debt on to debt-collection agencies, which really isn’t funny. It’s all over the web, from customers in the same situation as me, to those who never received the box in the first place, and have been paying for a product that was never delivered.

Thus, if you are a new arrival to the country hoping to choose an internet supplier, I strongly recommend that you opt for one of the alternatives. For example Numéricable, the optic fibre cable company, offer a faster connection and a basic telephone and internet package which costs around 20 euro a month, at the time of writing 10 euro less than Free. Numéricable at least have offices in Grenoble with human beings to whom you can speak face to face – which is reassuring – and send a technician to install and remove the router. I haven’t had the pleasure of having to close a Numéricable account, but it can’t be worse than my experience with Free.

Please use the comments box below to share your experiences, good and bad, with internet and phone providers. I hope that this word of warning might help other customers avoid falling into the same trap.

Mixer. Photo: Andrea 'Bau' Pinti

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 18 December 2009 English Talk Radio show took place at the Grenoble Graduate School of Business and featured GGSB’s Judith Bouvard, Dean and Director, and Mary Zaccai, International Press Officer. Listen to the show here

'Crise immobilière'. Photo: _02_

 Grenoble Life editor James Dalrymple shares his personal experience as a first-time home buyer in the Captial of the Alps – and is happy to report that it’s not all bad news!

Now that I am starting to see a flicker of light at the end of the rather dank and cavernous tunnel called home-buying, I feel compelled to share some of my observations. Whereas I can confirm its status as one of life’s more arduous experiences, it has not been worse than I had anticipated, for no-one ever said it would be a breezy walk in the park with a big piece of cake.

Before deciding to buy a flat I’d had several friends trying to re-educate me on the value of renting for life; unconvinced by the merits of life-long debt and the likelihood of paying the price of one’s property several times over in interest. “Be cash rich and asset poor,” these savvy characters insisted, pointing to the lower home maintenance costs and fewer taxes for locataires (for example the annual taxe foncière is only levied upon owners, not tenants).

One fact of life as propriétaire in a co-property is that one can face hefty fees if the exterior of the entire building has to be repainted, or if there is a shared heating system to be replaced: neither a tenant’s problem. Owning one’s own home, though, is pretty much brainwashed into Brits as a rite of passage, even if we have to accept that we can’t necessarily afford what our incredibly lucky baby-boomer parents had. When my career is over, however, I would like to have paid for my home, and be able to subsist rent-free on whatever meagre pension I have accrued.

To quote a Grenoble Life contributor, Felicity Lodge – whose article Arranging your finances in France is well worth a read - ”buying a property in France is highly regulated”.  I concur, and there are some major pros and cons to the regulation. She goes on to say, “the amount you can borrow is controlled so loan payments and any other regular obligations cannot be more than 33% of your monthly income (net of social charges)”. This may seem strict but the French are a prudent people, and the banking culture befits a country less footloose with borrowing. The kinds of problems that led to the sub-prime crisis in the US couldn’t have originated in France. Likewise, credit is not as easily available as in the UK, and I have the impression that people are more sensible with their disposables.

The upside of a regulated home buying process is that there is less risk. Once you have agreed a price with a seller, you can engage the process via a specialised lawyer (a notaire) who manages the sale from then on. Once you have signed the pre-contract compromis de vente, there is little chance of being gazumped given that the seller would subject themselves to a significant fine if they chose to break it.

In Britain you stand the risk of having incurred legal and surveying costs only for the seller to pull out in the 11th hour to accept a better offer from a rival buyer. That this gazumping is allowed to stand in the UK is obscene, one feature of the county’s rather lunatic housing market. In France, however, the absence of risk comes at a cost: namely 6-8% of the sale price. This covers all legal, tax and surveying concerns, but certainly amounts to much more than the sum of those individual costs in Britain: and most of it goes directly to the government. This fact lends credence to the idea that renting is better value than buying – it is an enormous financial consideration to face on top of one’s downpayment, and a serious obstacle to owning a number of different properties in one’s life.

In the event our notaire was good value for money, something of a showman in fact. Having let his juniors take care of the preliminaries we were marched into his office for the final exchange of contracts. With well-honed comic timing and vigorous gesticulating, his beautifully flowing oration was magnificent to behold: condensing a summary of France’s unsurprisingly substantatial housing law into an hour-long address. Furthermore there were some last minute complications with the bank but he - a force of nature not to be meddled with - was by then sufficiently committed to our purchase to bang some heads together at the bank to keep the ball rolling.

Personally I could see no advantage in approaching an agence immobilière (estate agency). Assuming that you have an idea in which quartier you would like to buy, and the appropriate value for a property in that area, you can search for private sellers online on sites such as Paruvendu and Leboncoin. We negotiated directly with the seller, bypassing the middle man. Given that the notaire conducts a thorough survey of the property and that you can withdraw without charge at the signing of the compromis de vente, then the need to work with an agent did not make itself apparent to me.

If, like me, you are a first time buyer in France, you could be entitled to a zero per cent loan of up to around 30,000 euro. Such loans, and their duration, are defined by your means. We qualified for approximately half of the thirty, and it has to be repaid within the first six years of our mortgage.  However, we found ourselves in the slightly sticky position of having (for reasons too boring to explain here) to apply for this from a different bank to that from which we had agreed our principal mortgage. Of course, the bank from which we were requesting the zero per cent loan held us captive while they tried in vain to beat the mortgage we had secured from our other bank, and upon realising they couldn’t do it, saddled us with a rather inept trainee to administrate the loan.

Trying to get a bank to hurry up (necessary when deadlines have been imposed by the notaire) when there is essentially no profit in it for them is quite futile – more so when you’re main contact hasn’t a clue what he is doing. Amusingly, said bank tried to fob us off by saying something along the lines of “there’s so much admin involved in this loan that it’s hardly worth it”. That’s right, admin not worth potentially thousands of euros – I don’t think so! However, they almost had a point, the sheer quantity of justificatifs required would have impressed even the most hardened of fonctionnaires. Just the photocopying and stapling drew a Herculean effort from our trainee bank manager, who made a clerical task seem like Fort Boyard.

Anyway, now that the boxes that once dominated the flat start to empty and disappear, and life seems worth living again, we can look forward to the much fabled tax credit for first time buyers: apparently the interest we pay on our mortgage is deductible from our annual income tax bill for the first five years of repayment. Rumour has it that if the interest is greater than your obligations, the French government start mailing you cheques. I’ll let you know next September. These advantages put a little shine to the lie that renting is throwing you’re hard-earneds away to a landlord whereas paying a mortgage is like putting money in your own piggy bank. A mortgage is still (in my case) a 25-year burden, but on balance I think it’s worth it.

Building work at Chamrousse

New from our partner Captiv Magazine, this comprehensive article details the recent investments – to the tune of 13m euro – made at the Chamrousse ski resort near Grenoble. Find out what has been done and why at www.captiv-magazine.fr

Photo: meddygarnet

 Want to improve your French while in Grenoble but don’t know where to go? Grenoble Life’s Camille Bromley has done the research so that you don’t have to.

Need to work on your French? A look at French classes in Grenoble

by Camille Bromley

For those in Grenoble who need a little push – or a big kick – to get their French up to par: let’s get to it! After arriving in France to live last summer, I discovered that my confidence in my US-learned French was largely unfounded. Pressing ahead with self-motivation and grammar books, I found myself in foreign language quicksand – the more French I gained control of, the more I realized how far I had to go. I promptly researched language schools in Grenoble, settling on a CUEF (Centre Universitaire d’Études Françaises) course at the Université Stendhal, and received the kick start that I needed.

Although your French level will undoubtedly progress in the course of daily life, a language class will accelerate the process and draw your attention to vocabulary or grammar you may be still missing. A language class also introduces you to other foreigners in the community, many non-English speaking, many new to the area, with a similar level of communication to yours, a valuable resource to make friends and practice your French outside of class. Class teachers provide insights into French culture and local goings-on, and many courses organize activities outside of class.

Grenoble offers quite a few community French language classes and several official schools.

Language Schools

The language schools are run professionally and so offer a rigorous schedule, a higher quality of instruction, and more sophisticated materials. The downside is that tuition fees swallow a significant chunk of the wallet.

1. Centre Universitaire d’Études Françaises (CUEF)

I took CUEF’s intensive French language course this summer. It was 20 hours per week, duration four weeks. It cost 640 euros, which works out to eight euros per hour. A variety of courses are offered, general French language courses as well as courses targeted towards specific needs. For those of us with a day job, there is an evening course, eight hours per week.

The teaching materials used in my course were excellent. Audio equipment was available for intensive listening comprehension exercises, and visual materials such as video clips were used regularly. CUEF does not follow a textbook; the class curriculum is created according to teacher preference. Because CUEF is affiliated with University Stendhal, students of CUEF are eligible to perks such as free use of the language laboratory equipment and participation in weekend excursions.

I was satisfied with the course and I definitely saw improvement by the end. For more information see the website. 

2. Alliance Française

The Alliance Française, conveniently located in the center of town, offers intensive, semi-intensive, and specific-needs French courses. The fees work out to nine euros per hour. The organization of classes is similar to CUEF, but the facilities lack a language laboratory with audio equipment.

For more information see the website.

3. Association Babel

Babel, a language association and home to an English library, offers courses in several languages. The class size is smaller and the ambiance more intimate.  There is a French language course as well as a French/English conversation exchange group. At the moment, the course is not available but may resume in January 2010, upon request. The fee for the course is 265 euros per year. The fee for the exchange group is 50 euros per year.

2 rue Sainte Ursule, 38000 Grenoble
04 76 42 43 91
association.babel (at) laposte.net

Community Classes

Community classes are taught by French volunteers, at very low cost. They are more flexible and less demanding than the language schools, and may offer more opportunity for conversation practice and personal interaction. However, almost all the community classes are targeted for beginner to lower-intermediate level learners.

1. MJC Abbaye, Ateliers du Français

Held Mon, Tues, Thurs 2:00-4:00, Fri 9:00-11:00, 2:00-4:00
Fee: 25 euros/year
Level: beginner to low intermediate

2. ODTI

Held Mon and Tues 9:00-11:00
Fee: eight euros/year
Level: beginner to intermediate
Focus: vocabulary, cultural knowledge of France and Grenoble, grammar

3. Association AMAL

Held Tues, Fri 2:00-4:00
Fee: 10 euros/year
Level: intermediate
Focus: grammar, reading, listening
57 Avenue du Maréchal Randon, 38000 Grenoble
04 76 44 71 14

4. Association LEFOP

Fee: two euros/year
06 81 38 97 92

5. Association Préludes

Thurs, Fri 9:00-11:00
No fee
04 76 54 33 14
associationpreludes (at) hotmail.fr

6. MJC Villeneuve

Fee: five euros/year
04 76 09 18 29

7. Centre Social Teisseire, Association FACILE

Tues, Fri 9:00-11:00
Fee: three euros/trimester
04 76 25 49 63

8. Centre Social Vieux Temple

Tues, Thurs 8:45-11:45
Fee: three euros/year
04 76 54 67 53

9. Centre Social Vieux Temple, Communic’Action

Fee: three euros/year
04 76 54 67 53

10. Centre Social Prémol, Atelier Communication

Tues 2:00-4:00, 6:00-8:00; Thurs 9:00-11:00, 6:00-8:00
No fee
04 76 09 00 28

11. Centre Social Arlequin, Atelier de français

Tues, Wed, Thurs, Fri 9:00-11:00, Tues 2:00-4:00
No fee
04 76 22 42 20

Language Partner (Tandem)

If conversational or oral expression is what you need work on, it may be more useful to find a language partner. The idea is that two people meet regularly to practice each other’s native tongues, dividing time equally between the two languages. No fee is involved. This is a great way to make a new friend and learn about French culture and local events.

You can find demands for a language exchange on announcement boards in buildings at the Université Stendhal campus, especially at CUEF and the Maison de Langues. You can also post an announcement yourself.

Alternately, the student organization Integre Grenoble posts demands for Tandem on its website.

Café linguistique

Café linguistiques are open to foreigners looking to practice French and French people looking to practice a foreign language. They are typically held in the evenings in various pubs around the city. The location and date change each time, so you will have to follow the postings. Check Intregre, an organization for international students in Grenoble, and Happy People, an organization for introducing foreigners to locals and arranging language exchanges. Intregre is almost exclusively a young student crowd, while Happy People includes members of more diverse backgrounds.

Musée de Grenoble

The colors of Gaston Chaissac are brightening up the winter season here in Grenoble with the current exhibition at the Musée de Grenoble, Gaston Chaissac: poète rustique et peintre moderne. Camille Bromley of Grenoble Life explains.

by Camille Bromley

Chaissac was a self-taught French painter from the first half of the 20th century, a working class man who was eventually ‘discovered’ by a couple of established artists and introduced to the society of artists in Paris. Chaissac separated himself and his work from the intellectual elite, however, referring to his style as “modern rustic.” The description seems apt; his work is modern in form, in color, and rustic in its simple, even childlike crudeness. In addition to the drawings, paintings, and collages on display at the Musée de Grenoble are sculptures made out of common objects: a bucket, a basket, stones, a personified broom, endowed with Chaissac’s signature awkward smile.

Sans titre, 1957-59, huile

This is a perfect exhibition for children; certainly much of Chaissac’s work actually resembles children’s drawings, and the bright colors and unsteady shapes are immediately appealing. Chaissac’s world is highly personal and isolated as well; despite the rainbow of colors these figures aren’t openly joyous, their uneven eyes and crooked mouths seem to be hiding an inner something. You can imagine an emotional complexity being expressed with unsteady hands. The museum has set aside a room at the end of the exhibition for the Chaissac-inspired artworks done by local children. It is now quite full with colorful figures and bent smiles. There are collages on the wall, faces made with buckets, flower pots, colanders. One of my elementary school classes painted their own Chaissac portraits — what a wonderful way to introduce children to art!

The exhibition will run until January 31^st, 2010.

There’s much more to see than the Chaissac exhibition, however. The Musée de Grenoble is renowned across Europe for its permanent collection, especially that of the 20th century. The museum is over 200 years old (founded in 1798), making it the oldest museum of modern art in France. It houses Egyptian, Greek, and Etruscan antiquities, and a history of Western painting is organized chronologically from the Middle Ages to current day, including significant works by Matisse and Picasso. One of the most pleasantly surprising rooms features former artists from Grenoble and their breathtaking landscapes of the surrounding mountains.

For a small city of about 150,000 residents, Grenoble is home to a rather impressive art museum, and the entrance fee is next to nothing: 5 euro, or 3 euro reduced rate, and only 2 euro for students. Free for children under 18. In addition, every first Sunday of the month is free entry.  

The museum is open every day except Tuesday between 10.00 am and 6.30 pm. Closed January 1^st, May 1^st, and December 25