Laureline, 16, France
The first thing to see is the center of the city, the old town. As in several cities, here in Grenoble, the medieval town is always visible, and constitutes what is called ‘downtown’ in English. Well, downtown you can find shops, pubs, beautiful old buildings, little streets that can only be taken by feet, green areas, and museums… This isn’t too big, you can easily see the whole of downtown in two hours by foot. That’s the part of the city I would go to if I ran my town.
I would first walk inside the tiny streets, observe the ancient buildings, get lost in my own city! I would try to look to these places I’ve seen thousand of times but with visitors’ eyes…it really can change your world! Then I’d go to see the main pedestrian precinct and the tourists’ spots; because monuments are always encircled by green areas, with fountains and flowers! And I would stop to sit on a bench and smoke a cigarette.
In Grenoble, there is a tourist thing I have never done but I would love to take the time to try, you can take a cable-car downtown to arrive to the top of a big mountain, the place is called ‘la Bastille’. But the interesting thing is the cable car itself, you sit in a glass bubble!
Then I would look at the shop fronts and sometimes enter if the place seems interesting, or weird, or funny! I can’t pass in front of that medieval shop (which you can only enter if you pass in a dark alley) and not go in! I would also enter in all the shops that smell of incense because I like the atmosphere in these ones.
I don’t refuse to go in big corporate shops like Virgin, H&M etc I’ve found great things there. But my first pleasure is to find little shops, where you can find a warm and friendly atmosphere, where you feel that the person who owns the shop has put his own personality in the place. For example, I would go to that bookstore where you can see each employee’s selection!
And after all this day of walking, I would stop to sit in a park, eat an ice-cream like when I was a kid or maybe go enjoy a drink in a pub with friends! So…obviously, the things I find important are the green areas, the pedestrian precincts and the original places! I would get rid of cars and traffic-lights, I would improve the structures for bicycles (set out cycle lanes for example), I would greenize the city and the campus, I would put money into public transports (more buses, special prices, possibility buses which are going to close cities without paying more…in fact, here there are two transport systems: one for the city itself and one which permits you to go to close by cities..and you have to pay two different subscriptions!)
On another note, I would do anything to make the city cultural and the nightlife more alive! There is a huge lack of communication about what concerts, exhibitions or festivals are on. So the first thing would be to replace ads everywhere (on the bus for example) with information about what cultural things you could try to see, or hear, or smell this week!
I would also put money in cultural associations and little concert places…and even help all of these tiny places I talked about, full of their manager’s personality! These little particular shops and concert places and weird pubs are essential for me. I would encourage it all the way!
The most dreadful thing that could happen would be that, because of big corporations, every city’s downtown becomes the same: you run any city in France or in Europe and you pass in front of Zara, H&M, SFR… which are presenting the same shop-windows anywhere you go.
