Grenoble; Friday, 02 September, 2022

Because in the original version of this trip I wouldn’t have gotten to bed until gone midnight I’d booked myself onto a late morning train, so I had a nice long lie in and a late breakfast before checking out and heading down to the TGV station at Lyon Airport to catch my train south.

An hour later the train arrived into Grenoble and I hopped onto a tram over to my third hotel in three days to checkin, drop off my stuff and then go for a wander.

I started by heading into the centre of town and the followed through the narrow streets of the old town until I reached the Isère river from where I was able to get some very impressive views of the mountains that surround the city with the edge of the Chartreuse, Vercors and Bellendonne ranges of the alps surrounding the city. The very last hill on the Chartreuse range before the river has been fortified over the centuries and today houses the remains of the Bastille fortification, which can be accessed via a steep hour long climb up from the river, or in about 4 minutes on the cable car.

4 minutes later I was at the top of the Bastille taking in the stunning views down the valleys of the Isère and Drac rivers with the three mountain ranges forming a wall around the city. I spent quite a bit of time wandering around the top of the Bastille taking in the views before going to explore more of the site.

The viewing platforms and cable car only form a small part of the top of the fortifications, there are several other areas that you can explore, including the Mandrin Caves. These are a series of caves and man-made tunnels that climb up inside the rocks of the hill tops that surround the Bastille, providing a way of defending the rear of the fort from attack – soldiers could hide in the hills and take out anyone who managed to make it up as far as the fort.

From the end of the caves it was a 10 minute walk back round to the Bastille and from there I headed into one of the casemates that has been turned into a small museum telling the history of the French Mountain Troops who played a key role in defending the high alpine passes. The museum tells the story of the creation of the force and the vital role they played during the second world war – initially trying to defend this corner of France and then in their sabotage and resistance roles against the occupiers. The museum continues on showing how the troops are equipped and work today, with the forces regularly being deployed on peace keeping missions.

Just outside the troops museum is a small part of the fortification that have been turned into an art gallery which houses rotating displays of local art works over three levels that you descend down through, before exiting below the cable car station and walking back up the hill.

I had a bit more of a wander around the Bastille area before hopping back on the cable car and descending back down to river level and going for a walk around the old town, stopping at a restaurant for dinner before heading back to the hotel to freshen up.

I waited until just before sunset to head back out again. I’d noticed that the cable car runs until Midnight each night (except Sunday), so thought it would be quite nice to head up to the Bastille again at sunset to take in the views of the sunset and the views over the city at night and I wasn’t disappointed the views were spectacular.

I spent quite a bit of time up at the various view points high on the top of the Bastille before hopping on the cable car back down and walking back over to my hotel to turn in for the night.