[Summer in Grenoble] Geneva - Day 1: Onward to Geneva! Ibis Hotel is the Best!!!

June 19th, 2015

We were back at the Grenoble train station for another weekend trip.
On this weekend, we decided to go to Geneva, Switzerland; because we had class until the late afternoon.

We weren't going too far. So this time, we took a regular train, instead of a TGV

We've met other Americans on the train.

I might have mentioned this in earlier posts, but the regular train is very nice because it is roomier with more leg space, comfier seats.

See you in two days, Grenoble!

This time, I wasn't sleeping on the train, so I took some pictures of the scenes the train passed by.
The landscapes were very beautiful, like something out of a fantasy movie.

and then, we arrived in Geneva.
I was very hyped about what kind of country Switzerland is going to be like (even though Geneva is pretty much France), because I have a fantasy about countries like Switzerland, Sweden, Germany, Denmark, Norway, or Finland.

These were some of the pictures I took along the way to our hotel.
There seemed to be more modern buildings than there were in Grenoble.
The buildings were very colorful too!

This is Ibis Hotel Genève Centre Nations, the hotel we stayed in.

  !!

 !!!

 !!!!

This hotel's lobby just shocked me with how amazing it looked.
It was very modern and clean!
I wasn't expecting to ever stay at a place like this in Europe.

My friends and I went to our rooms after checking in.

 !!!!!!
Oh my goodness!
The room was so clean and nice!
Makes all the places we've stayed in Marseille and Nimes, and even our dorm in Grenoble run for money.

 !!!!!!!
Even the bathroom is super clean and awesome!
From this day and on, I decided to become a loyal customer of Ibis Hotels.
It's not a super-expensive hotel, but everything about this place was so nice!

I personally always try to use the local stores than larger franchise, but seems like I can't do that with lodging options.


Anyway, it was a long day, so nobody went out at night.
We all just chilled at the hotel and went to sleep.

[Summer in Grenoble] French Class Outings: Group Adventure(?)

June 19th, 2015

It was a day for another French class outings.
The problem is...
I can't exactly remember what happened on this day.
This is why you shouldn't procrastinate

Well, everyone gathered in the Alliance Francaise building, the teachers divided us into groups, gave us a map, and a worksheet that had the places we had to visit.
If I'm remembering correctly, that is.

and thus we were off to explore.

This was the city library, which was one of the places on the worksheet.

Trying to figure out how to get to the next location.

Onward!

I think this church, 'Paroisse Saint Joseph,' was one of the places on the worksheet too.

Grenoble was no exception when it comes to a city with a nicely build church buildings.

To the next destination!

This area was called 'Verdun'
It had a nice plaza, cool looking buildings like the 'Préfecture de l'Isère' in the above picture,

and the 'Musée et Bibliotheque' shown in this picture.

Well, that's enough of Verdun.

my group went on to the next place,

... which turned out to be Grenoble Tourist Information Center..

I had no idea that Grenoble had a tourist information center until this day.
The discovery of this place was actually pretty surprising to me.

And thus, we were looking for the last place to go before heading to the final meeting place.

It turns out that the last landmark to find was actually this fountain.
We had to take a group photo and send it to one of the teachers as a proof of completion.

It turns out that the fountain we were looking for was actually located at a familiar place.
According to what I've heard, there was a gelato shop behind the fountain.

How did I miss that... :'(

Anyway, we were all done with everything, and made our way to the final meeting place.

...which was Victor Hugo Plaza.
All groups (I think) handed in their worksheets and maps to the teachers, and then were dismissed.

This was one of my most favorite French class outings.
No specific details to remember, it was a fairly casual exploration of the city.
I like it when there's no pressure.