Tour Through My City (part 2)

On to part 2 of the tour.

I pass this every day on the way to the city, and I'm still not entirely sure what it is. It's connected somehow to the chateau, and I think it's a palais de something, but the details are still fuzzy. I do know that I was convinced I needed to be here for a meeting my first week in France, so I nonchalantly walked through the gates, and got stopped immediately by a guard. That was one of the more difficult but humorous conversations I've had here, trying to explain why I just waltzed into a heavily guarded government property.

This is one of the offices that takes care of my paperwork and such; and it is another place where I can't help but hate everyone involved. French bureaucracy is known for being over-the-top, and I can attest to the fact that you have to fill out 4765 kazillion papers just to get reimbursed for a bus pass, and even then, you never will. 125 euros well spent, I guess? 

This is just before getting into the city, if you're walking from my house. Go left and pass the chateau, go right and pass the "carre curial." I headed to the right.

This is where the assistants ate dinner for Christmas, and hopefully where Jennifer and my roommate and I will be eating some time before the first one of us leaves. I didn't really eat out hardly at all, aside from the occasional kebab (god will I miss kebabs), but dinner in restaurants here is always an experience to remember. Imagine the best food you've ever had, double the amount, and multiply the pleasure by at least 12. That's a typical dinner at a French resto.

Here's the outside of the Carre Curial. This is where people typically go to bars and "clubs" in our city. I'm not a huge fan, but if my friends are all going then I do too. As a funny side note, I have stood guard twice while people peed in public here; once in the parking lot, and once in one of the little alleys.

This devil ATM let me withdraw far too much money while drunk. Shame on you, Banque Postale.

The center of Carre Curial. Carre means square, BTW.

Hated this place, but it was inexplicably popular. I'll never get it.

The club where the students (and, by extension, me) usually went. I wasn't allowed to enter at least four times, always for a very interesting reason. Some of these include: not old enough, not with a girl, and not dressed well enough. Touche, bouncer. Touche.

The bar where I spent most of my time, if I was going out in the city. An Irish bar where I'm pretty sure nobody involved was Irish. A great place to watch rugby or soccer games, but it could get intense.

This building was across from the Carre and it hosted a lot of events for the city. I went there to see the "Tour du Monde" where people introduced the country they were from, gave some information on the culture, and had a sampling of some traditional food.

These are pictures of the city's theater, the name of which you can find in the last photo here.

 A carousel and the statue of the elephants in the background.

 The Savoisien museum. I don't actually know if that's an English word, but whatever.

The statue of the elephants, Chambery's claim to fame. It's also a fountain, although I don't think any of the pictures really show the water coming out of the elephants' trunks.