Grenoble

Capital of the Dauphiné (Lower Alps) region, Grenoble sits at the confluence of the Isère and Drac rivers and lies within three massifs (mountain ranges): La Chartreuse, Le Vercors, and Belledonne. This cosmopolitan city's skyscrapers seem intimidating by homey French standards. But along with the city's nuclear research plant, they bear witness to the fierce local desire to move ahead with the times, and it's not surprising to find one of France's most noted universities here. Grenoble's main claim to fame is as the birthplace of the great French novelist Henri Beyle (1783-1842), better known as Stendhal, author of The Red and the Black and The Charterhouse of Parma. The heart of the city forms a crescent around a bend of the Isère, with the train station at the western end and the university all the way at the eastern tip. As it fans out from the river toward the south, the crescent seems to develop a more modern flavor. The hub of the city is Place Victor Hugo, with its flowers, fountains, and cafés, though most sights and nightlife are near the Isère in Place St-André, Place de Gordes, and Place Notre-Dame; Avenue Alsace-Lorraine, a major pedestrian street lined with modern shops, cuts right through it.

For a tour of Grenoble's oldest and most beautiful streets, wander the area between Place aux Herbes and the Halles Ste-Claire, the splendid glass-and-steel-covered market in Place Ste-Claire, several blocks southeast. Facing the market's spouting fish fountain, at the end of the street is the Baroque Lyçee Stendhal entryway. A tour of Grenoble's four Sunday markets begins at L'Estacade food and flea market around the intersection of Avenue Jean Jaurès and the train tracks, followed by Les Halles, Place aux Herbes, and Place St-André.