Day 14 – June 29, 2019

Grenoble

Finally the weekend! During our first week in Grenoble we ate a ton of ice cream, had our intensive UM classes, and endured heat over 105 degrees.

On my first day off I decided to sleep in and explore the town. I had the usual bread and jam for breakfast, then left the house for the local museums. I chose to go to the museum of resistance and deportation. It covered Grenoble’s role in WWII resistance efforts and the overall scope of the war.

I happened to be completely alone in the museum, which was a really strange experience. It was a really modernized building, complete with sensors that triggered sound effects when you walked into a certain room. It was certainly an interesting experience. I was almost scared as I walked through. I would turn a corner only to hear voices behind me or a type writer in front of me. At one point, I got to the top of a set of stairs only to hear the stomping of heavy boots and gun shots. A wall to my left turned red with “blood” as silhouettes were shot one by one. My phone died on a fully charged battery right as I entered that room. I found that pictures of dead bodies and people who were killed were not contextualized as they would have been in the US. Plaques simply said “so and so, shot dead.” I found that the museum heavily glossed over the collaborationist nature of the Vichy regime, focusing instead on the resistance of individuals. While it is good to talk about resistance, I think they needed to have a lot more talking about the atrocities that the French government willingly committed on citizens of their own country.

Following the museum I went home for lunch and a nap. I went back out for a three mile walk before dinner. I saw some beautiful gardens. If there’s one thing the French can do right, it’s a planned garden.

After dinner I went out with other UM kids to the bar. The place we went had a wall full of homemade wines. There were flavors like peach, strawberry, raspberry, and more. We went to the same club as the week before to dance and ended the night.