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Musee Stendhal Review

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Musée Stendhal

Category: Museums/Galleries
Location: Grenoble

Fodor's Review:

On the south side of the River Isère and nearly opposite the cable-car stop is the Jardin de Ville—an open space filled with immense plane trees—where a handsome conical tower with slate roof marks the Palais Lesdiguières. This was built by the right hand of King Henri IV, the Duc de Lesdiguières (1543-1626), and possibly the prototype for Stendhal's voraciously egoistic protagonists (as Constable of France, the duke had a reign of terror, marrying his young lover Marie Vignon—31 years his junior—after having her husband assassinated). A master urbanist, Lesdiguières did much to establish the Grenoble you see today, so it may only be apt that his palace is now the Musée Stendhal, where family portraits trace the life of Grenoble's greatest writer amid elegant wooden furniture turned out by the Hache family dynasty of famous woodworkers. Copies of original manuscripts and major memorabilia will please fans, who will wish to then pay a call to the Maison Stendhal, at 20 Grande Rue, Stendhal's grandfather's house and the place where the author spent the "happiest days of his life"; you can also take a stroll back over to the Jardin de Ville, where the author met his first "love" (basically unrequited), the actress Virginie Kubly.

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