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Grenoble

In this section you will find some useful information about the city, as well as many tips and hints connected with living here.

General information:

Location: south of France, in Alpes (city is claimed to be capital of French Alpes). Different ski resorts nearby: Les 2 Alpes, Alpe d'Huez, 7 Laux, Chamroussse

Population: 200,000-400,000 - depending on what source you rely on...

Safety issues

Safety is, without doubt, an important thing to consider while going abroad. In case of Grenoble, opinions do differ.Everything depends on whom you ask,really... Some people claim it to be very safe, but it is the fact that burning cars are not that uncommon there... (actually you need to go to the right district to see this).

Public Transport

No discounts for students! Ticket is 1,4 euro (for one hour) or you may buy one month ticket or carnet for 10 tickets.
There are 3 tram lines (A, B, C), with trams comming every few minutes, and lot of bus lines.
To go outside the city there is bus company called Transisere (station next to the railway station) - outside Grenoble there A-F zones and depending where you go the price of the ticket will vary. Also the possiblity of buying carnet of 10 tickets and monthly/yearly ticket. Pay attention because there are discounts for students, but very few people (including French!) knows about it. Even bus drivers sometimes claim there is no discount - don't let them cheat you. The one-way ticket to the ski stations mentioned above (zone C) for a student costs 2,1 euro.

Other practical information

In Grenoble there are some issues that might possibly cause problems to foreigners, so below you will find a number of very useful pieces of advice gathered by students who went to Grenoble:

• THE CROSSROADS: the croasroads in Grenoble have all possible angles, apart from right angle. Therefore it is quite easy to get lost without a map.


• CROSSING A STREET: look around while you cross the street and there is no traffic light. The drivers in Grenoble are not used to stop... Btw.: generally pedesterians never pay attention to red/green light. They only look whether there the street is free to go or not. French people claim you cannot (not valid for Paris area!) get a penalty for crossing the street when there was red light - everybody does it. Just pay attention that there is no car...
  
• BAKERY PRODUCTS: don't try to buy bread in France. It's extremely expensive, it's much better to buy baguette which are also more tasty. Pay attention that it is easy to find beakery that are opened 7 days a week, which means you can always have fresh baguette.


• ASKING ABOUT THE WAY: careful while asking about a way. If you are lucky you will get no answer. If you are unlucky one will show direction exactly opposite to the right one.


• SOME FALSE MYTHS: French people can speak English, and it is not true that you have to force them to do this... It's tough to find french person (at least among the students) who tasted what Polish people call 'żabie udka'... French students have very poor knowledge about the wine. Some of them declare openly that they prefer vodka...

Useful links

www.les2alpes.com - website of one of the biggest french ski stations (1,5 hour from Grenoble by bus).

www.alpedhuez.com/ - website of a big french ski station (1,5 hour from Grenoble by bus).

www.les7laux.com/ - website of a medium-size ski station, very good price/conditions ratio (1 hour from Grenoble by bus), the most popular station among Grenoble students.

www.chamrousse.com - website of another medium-size ski station, reasonable prices and conditions (over 1 hour from Grenoble by bus).

www.transisere.fr - website of a bus company that can take you to the areas surrounding Grenoble.

Google Maps - a well known website, especially recommended for finding how to get from one place to another. Satellite maps are of a much better quality than these of Poland. Extremely useful because of the irregular crossroads mentioned above.

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