Skip to Content

Grenoble – Day three

Sharing is caring!


On Monday we woke up really early and it was still dark outside.

When the sun rose and we saw that it would be a lovely day we decided to go for a walk to the river before breakfast.

We encountered some other couples walking on the path and a woman with two lovely dogs. What really surprised us was that the people were really friendly and each time we passed by someone they would say “Bonjour” and not only in the village but also in the Botanical Gardens as well.

“St. Genis”

After breakfast we took the bus and went to the Central Station at Cornavin as we wanted to see what options we had to go to France and be back by the evening. We had three choices: Lyon, Annecy and Grenoble.

After checking the itineraries we decided that Grenoble had the best connections and there was a train leaving at 10:30 and leaving from there at 17:25.

The route was through the Rhone valley, mostly along the riverside and we could see snowy mountains, vineyards, corn fields and we even saw a Chateau on the opposite bank of the river.

We arrived at Grenoble at noon and passing the street opposite the big square we walked at Avenue Alsace-Lorrain looking for Isère River.

The streets were empty and some of the shops were closed, as we learned later on that it was a public holiday on that day.

We asked some people which way to go and they showed us where Cours Jean Jaures was and from there we could see The Bastille.

At the end of the road we arrived at the river bank and from there could see the teleferique going up The Bastille.


The Bastille is a fortress and was connected to the city center by a teleferique as early as 1934. It was the first city teleferique in the world. A completely new teleferique was built in the 70s with 5 small cabins instead of a large one, locally known as “les Bulles” (the bubbles).

The Bastille trip with the teleferique is a must. It offers a birds eye view on the roofs of the “quartier Saint Laurent”, the oldest part of Grenoble and a few minutes of panoramic view on the surrounding massifs and on the city. It is possible either to go down to the city by the teleferique or to take one of the trails that follow the fortifications and reach the valley. We saw a lot of people going down on foot but we preferred the easy way down.

I hope you enjoy the video I have taken.

 

We stayed there for a while enjoying the view while drinking a cup of coffee.

As I said, we returned the same way we got up there and walked towards the centre looking for a restaurant where we could have lunch.

We spotted a nice restaurant called “Le Coq Hardi” and my husband chose Le Plat du Jour, which was pork with jacket potato and salad and I chose Foie de Volaille, which was a green salad with chicken giblets and tomato. It wasn’t exactly what I expected but it still was delicious and we had some lovely wine again and some muffins.

After lunch we walked again towards the direction of the station looking for some gifts to buy and as we still had some time we sat for another cup of coffee.

Our trip back was a bit adventurous as we nearly ended up in Annecy. Nobody explained to us that the train had a double destination and would separate at a station. Those sitting in front would go to Geneva and those at the second half would go to Annecy. When we boarded we sat behind and at the announcement they made just before the last stop, I did not understand what exactly we had to do. I asked a man sitting next to us but he only told us that we had to go in front. We rushed through the corridor and when we could not go any further we asked again and a young boy gave us the correct instructions. He explained that we should get off the train and then get on the same train but in front.

We just made it!!

 

Sharing is caring!

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Sam Sotiropoulos

Friday 21st of November 2008

Lucky you caught the right train! LOL So, the Bastille is now a cafe?

Usha

Tuesday 18th of November 2008

Lovely pictures...sounds like you had a great time...

Cakelaw

Monday 17th of November 2008

How wonderful - I have been to France, but have not seen The Bastille (as grisly as it may be). The mountain-top views are magnificient.

Divya Vikram

Monday 17th of November 2008

Lovely pics!

arfi

Monday 17th of November 2008

What a wonderful journey, Ivy! I bet you had had fun time there.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Privacy Policy · Copyright