France Guide
The Alps and Franche-Comté
Fort de la Bastille
Telephone: 04.76.44.33.65
Website: www.bastille-grenoble.com
Opening time: March– Sept 9.30am– midnight; Nov– Feb 11am–6.30pm
The best way to start your tour of Grenoble is to take the téléférique or cable car from the riverside quai Stéphane-Jay to Fort de la Bastille on the steep slopes above the northern bank of the Isère. The ride is hair-raising, as you're whisked steeply and swiftly into the air in a sort of transparent egg, which allows you to see very clearly how far you would fall in the event of an accident. If you don't like the sound of the cable car, you can climb the steep but pleasant footpath from the St-Laurent church on the northern bank of the Isère.
Although the nineteenth-century fortifications on the hill have been well preserved, the site's chief draw is the view. At your feet, the Isère flows under old bridges which join the St-Laurent quarter (a home for Italian immigrants in the later 1800s) on the northern bank of the river to the nucleus of the medieval town. Even this far south, if you look northeast on a clear day you can see the distant white peaks of Mont Blanc further up the deep valley of the Isère. To the east, snowfields gleam in the high gullies of the Belledonne massif (2978m). To the southeast is the peak of Le Taillefer (2807m), while further to the south you can make out the mountain pass which the famous Route Napoléon crosses on its way northwards from the Mediterranean. This was the road towards Paris that Napoleon took after his escape from Elba in March 1815; he crossed these Alpine valleys and peaks triumphantly, only to meet his final defeat three months later at Waterloo. Finally, to the west you can admire Moucherotte (1901m), the highest peak of the Vercors massif, and the mountain which most seems to dominate the city beneath. For heading back into town, a path down through the public gardens offers an alternative to the cable car.