We are taking a trip back to France today! Let’s go visit a thrift shop over in Grenoble, France, which I was able to walk to from our AirBnB in July 2022…
The day of my niece and new nephew’s wedding, we had the morning to ourselves. It was a sunny Saturday and Amy decided she wanted to relax in the BnB after breakfast. I decided to see if I could find an antiques shop or a thrift shop and I did!
La Remise was the thrift store I found after a couple of hours walking around the city. 🙂
I used Maps on my phone to get around the city and just started following streets while going for a walk, and looking for a fun place or two to shop!
I found beautiful gardens and these sweet lamb’s ear plants tucked into this enclosed rock seat.
Right beside this wildflower meadow area was a pathway and that is what I hiked down and where I eventually found La Remise.
Looks like Abbey Road, huh? 😉
Isn’t this view magnificent?
Grenoble is a major ski town in the winter and even hosted the Winter Olympics in 1968. It was a warm day this day but had cooled considerably from two days before when we first arrived. Such a beautiful city!
Let’s head to the thrift shop…
La Remise had a lot of china and glassware inside, plus there was a second side-store front to the right of this main entrance. I took a look in there, too.
Of all of the things I hoped to find, a fence piece just wasn’t anywhere I was looking. Here I was just trying to be respectful of the other people shopping so I only took a couple of photographs. Surprisingly, there were a lot of things from the USA in there (little signs and teacups I recognized were sold in the United States).
I did find this sweet little watercolor painting and it packed well in my suitcase. Probably a bit easier than a big fence would, lol! 😉
A nice thrift shop which supports two local Catholic and Presbyterian charities, and if I read it correctly, also a respite care place.
The walk back by way of a city garden
Graffiti is a really big way to express yourself anywhere in the world but especially in France. Grenoble has certain areas where graffiti art is really celebrated and here next to this city garden is a really tall wall decorated with so many color blocks of words. I loved the sky painted into the one painting and how well it matched the real sky!
The pathway back was shaded by tall trees and was also a bike path. There were a lot of bicycle paths all over the city!
“Les 17 totems de la Nature en Ville” = 17 Symbols of Nature in the City
This garden was called Flaubert’s Arch, if I am reading this right, and was based off his paintings with the use of wildflowers and especially blue ones (like these blue Bachelor Buttons). Recycled items were used in this garden including the wooden poles creating the pergola of which flowering vines can grow up.
So fun to be in a city finding a second-hand painting where recycling and upcycling is elevated into art!
This walk turned out to be so much fun and I think I walked about four miles that day in almost a giant rectangle. I got back to our 2nd story BnB in time for Amy and I to grab some lunch and then get bathed and ready for the wedding.
And that is another fun story to come! 🙂
I hope you’ve enjoyed this little walk around part of Grenoble and this small visit to La Remise, which can mean “renovation” or “recycle.” Let me know if you have a better translation for the store’s name.
Wish I had found more shops to share but we only had such a short time in Paris and Grenoble. I hope to go back to France again one day and share more! <3
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Jusqu’Ã la prochaine fois,
This looks like such a charming spot. I’m glad you picked that watercolor — it’s both a lovely piece and a lovely remembrance too. What a delightful thing to do — and the town looks lovely, too.