The Cables Visit!

This past weekend, my aunt, uncle and cousins came to visit me in Chambéry for a little more than a day (it was supposed to be a little longer, but wasn't because of a few problems with train strikes).  The first night they got there (after a very long day for them) we went out for some fondue at a restaurant that I hadn't tried in Chambéry.  It was very good. 
On the way there, we walked by the elephants (some pictures are borrowed from my aunt, like this one).

I stayed with them at their hotel in Aix-les-Bains.  It was a nice hotel with really soft beds.
The next morning, we woke up and went to see Grenoble.  Although it's fairly close to Chambéry, I hadn't been there before.  They rented a car, so we got to drive there instead of taking the train.  Driving was very cool.  There are so many things out in the country and the outskirts of town that you just don't get to see when you use public transportation.
When we got there, we wandered around town for a bit and then got some lunch, which for me was just a ficelle (a smaller version of a baguette).

After that, we went to the cable cars that go up over the Isère river to the Fort de la Bastille (an old military fort).  These are the cable cars:

The view from the top was awesome!  It makes me appreciate French architecture even more.

The boys and me:

While we were up there, we wandered into a new and high-tech mountaineering museum which I thought was really cool (a lot because of the high-techness of it), but unfortunately, the information was only available in French and I didn't do a great job of translating for anyone.  Then we wandered around on top of the fort where there were more pretty mountain views.

After that, we headed back down into the city.  We stopped for a small break at a café where we had one scoop of ice cream and a chocolat chaud (hot chocolate).  Hot chocolate in France is supposed to be quite a bit more bitter than in the US and they come with sugar packets to put in.  Personally, I didn't think it was that different and I didn't feel like I needed to use the sugar but it was really good.  We then went to a cute old church nearby and the boys bought some candles to light in front of the Virgin Mary's statue.  After that, we went to the Grenoble Museum.  They had some pieces by Picasso and Monet.  It was interesting to see.
We decided from there to head to Annecy for dinner.  Everyone liked Annecy a lot.  It was much better this time since it was sunny and not too cold.
Here are the pictures that I got this time:

After wandering around town, we sought out a restaurant in their tour book.  We couldn't find it so we asked a local person who showed us a good restaurant for local food.  We ordered some more fondue and some Raclette.  I mentioned Raclette in a previous post as a traditional Savoyarde food:

The cheese is heated by the contraption around it, making it melt slowly.  You put it on meat and potatoes with other toppings like gherkins (little pickles).

After that, we headed home very full and satisfied.  I had meant to show them around Chambéry on Saturday but when we checked in at the train station, we found that there was another strike and they had to head back to Paris straight-away to catch they're Sunday morning flight.  It was an awesome day and a half!  Right now, I have my parents and grandparents visiting me so there will be more on that later sometime! :)