I awoke to another quiet, rainy Grenoble morning. Feeling rested, I decided I would try to get to church. But I also wanted to drop in on the San Bruno market, so William and I set out around 9 to take the tram into town. We walked around in the market, and of course, I took some pictures. Then the strangest thing happened! The last picture I took was of a vendor selling perfume. His display was really nice, but no one was looking at his stuff. Everyone was looking through the junky perfume bins next to him. I snapped a picture of his nice display, and he said nothing. Then it was time for me to catch the tram to go to church, so William and I casually strolled out of the market square. When we got the tram way and turned around, we noticed the perfume vendor had come after us and was trying to get our attention! He started complaining about my taking his picture. I tried to explain to him that I was a French teacher and wanted pictures of the market to show my students, but he insisted that I delete his picture. William tried to tell him that it was a public market and we were free to take pictures, but he insisted that it was private and he would not come to "our place" and take our pictures. To make him happy, I took out my camera and deleted his picture. Then this Algerian woman came over to apologize for the jerk, and said "il cherche la merdre", which loosely translated means he's looking for trouble. (He's looking for sh....t.) William and I both figure that since he said nothing when we took the picture, and since it took him a while to track us down, he must have been doing something illegal and got worried about having his picture taken.
I took the tram to almost the end of the line (about a 25-30 minute ride), and then it was a 10-minute walk still to church. The service started at 10:15, and I didn't get there until 10:30. I walked fast, too. But there were other people on the tram who came in after me! I just didn't know how much time to allow to get there.
It was a very nice church and seemed healthy for a French Baptist church. There were 65-70 people in attendance, which is not bad for summer! There was a healthy group of French African people in attendance. One lady talked to me after the service, saying that she worked for Hewlett-Packard and had visited friends in Houston. (At one point in the service they asked for visitors to introduce themselves. There was a French couple there from another town, and then there was me! I told them I was from the United States, studying for three weeks in Grenoble. But the pastor wanted to know what state I was from, so that's how they knew I was from Texas.)
They had a little ensemble consisting of a man playing the piano, a man playing a trombone, and a girl playing a guitar. We sang songs from the hymnal and choruses projected by overhead projector. The sermon came from John 10. The service lasted 1 hour and 15 minutes. I'm glad I went, and if I don't go rafting or on an excursion next Sunday, I'll probably go back.
After church I rejoined William at Place Victor Hugo and we went to find some lunch. We found a pretty good deal and ate outdoors.....it was really nice. There was a French couple at the table next to us (he looked Algerian and she looked French) who had a beautiful son of about 11-12 years old, who was severely autistic. Will and I were both touched at how sweet the father was with the child.
We then visited a museum (Museum of the Ancient Bishops) which was pretty non-impressive, walked some more, and went back to Place Victor Hugo to sit and read. Pretty much nothing is open on Sundays here! We both started to fall asleep, so we came back to the dorm. I took a 3 hour nap, so I'll probably be up for a while! I'm hearing some fireworks out my window and can see them in the far distance. I don't know if they are practicing for tomorrow, or celebrating early, or what! There are several shows going on, evidently, and they echo quite alot in the mountains! Tomorrow I have an excursion booked to go to Vizille and visit the museum of the French Revolution (they claim it started right here in Grenoble!).
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