[Summer in Grenoble] French Class Outings: Grenoble's Les Halles Saint Claire Market

June 11th, 2015

It was another one of those French class outing days.
Our class was supposed to meet near the tram station, Les Halles Saint Claire station.
It's one stop away from Notre Dame Musee station, so it actually is that very area with a lot of shops and restaurants.

A picture of a local flower shop opening in the morning.

Yes, we got here in the morning, because it was the day when we had French class in the morning and then Biochemistry class in the afternoon.

Anyway, out early arrival to the meeting location gave us some time to sit down at a cafe

....and have some coffee (no, I did not have any, because I don't drink coffee at all).
I've heard that in Europe, they typically drink espressos instead of the americano coffee you normally see in places like the U.S. and by the looks of the size of the coffee, it sure seemed to be that way in France.

YEAH!
Drinking espresso like a European!

Few moments later, all of the other classmates and the teacher arrived.
We were divided into what I remember as 3 or 4 groups, and were given a worksheet per group.

Before heading into the market, the teacher addressed us to this... uh... thingy? on the road.
If you look very VERY carefully, you'll see that it reads CULARO instead of ULAR in the center of this metal piece. It turns out that the name "Cularo" was the very first name of Grenoble.

Anyway,

it was time to head in to the market.

We first started off by looking around the place.

but we still had to do our task, which was finishing the worksheet.
Basically, each group had to visit the stores written on the worksheet and ask corresponding questions, then writing down the replies onto our worksheet.

Woah
That looks delicious.
I wonder what those would taste like after cooking them on a grill.

We then visited another store and asked questions.

 then to this store that sold various drinks

and we continued filling out the worksheet.

 Some places weren't even open, and some places opened later than others, so there were some times when we just walked around the market, doing some eye-shopping.

I personally considered this Fromagerie very notable.

Yes, "fromage" means "cheese," so this was a cheese store.

I was very surprised to see so many different kinds of cheese (because I'm not really a cheese person)
There were cow cheese, goat cheese, and sheep cheese.
I had no idea goat cheese and sheep cheese existed.

Although I wouldn't really try them, it was still cool to know that there are so many kinds of cheese in France.

After our group has completed most of the worksheet, I started to take various photos of the Les Halles Saint Calire Market.

I had no idea that French ate this many kinds of meat, some of which I've never seen before!
Oh, and if you've noticed how expensive things are, that's because Les Halles Saint Claire Market is one of the more expensive markets.

there were also wine shops.

bakery

plant shop

another bakery

fish market

a place that cooks chicken(?)

and etc.
I really like looking around not-megastore local markets.
It has the vibe of the people(?), which I find way more attractive and enjoyable than museums.

After all of us were done with everything, the entire class made our way to...

 ... to this plaza.

Well, actually
we went to a cafe near that plaza, had some snacks there, and then parted.

This was different street market I walked past on my way back to take the tram.
Other two classes went to a different market, which I heard was a lot cheaper.
If I had a chance to go to the other market as well, I would have bought something there, because I really like buying stuff from markets.
Unfortunately, I did not get the chance to go to the other market.
:'(