La Bastille

            I love to be outdoors. I enjoy running, hiking, and camping, so living in Grenoble is prefect because it is really easy to maintain an active lifestyle here.  Being surrounded by mountains provides so many opportunities to participate in outdoor recreation.  I consider our hometown of Athens, OH to be an active town, so I was really happy to learn that Grenoble is too so that I could continue participating in similar activities I do back home.

           

            Last weekend a friend and I hiked to the top of La Bastille, a fortress that allows you to look over Grenoble.

             

            You already have a gorgeous view of the mountains before you even begin the hike.  Right from the beginning you are given an idea of how great the view is going to be from the top.  The path leading up to the Bastille was less than a mile from our apartment.  Back home, I typically have to drive to locations to hike or swim.  In Grenoble, you have access to so many parks, trails, and hiking locations that are either within walking distance or just a few tram stops away.

           

             We were luckily enough to have really nice weather at the start of our hike. It was leisurely at first and I really enjoyed stopping to take pictures of the architecture.  Being able to see parts of history like the Bastille is my favorite thing about being in France.  

We continued our hike and we began to encounter a series of stairs and steep inclines.  I watched in disbelief as runners would cruise by us, making the ascent look so easy.  I watched in envy as I saw hikers and runners coming back down.  All of the struggling disappeared, however, when I saw the view from the halfway point.  If this was the lookout from just halfway up, I could only imagine what the final view would be like.

Making it to the top of the Bastille, you get a view that overlooks Grenoble.  You get a new perspective of this amazing city and it makes you realize how lucky you are to be living in such a wonderful place.

After taking in the view and beginning the hike back down, I promised myself that by the end of the trip I would run to the top.