France City  -  Grenoble

View of Grenoble with the snowy peaks of the Dauphiné Alps

History    

The city has been known under different names through time:

• Cularo when the Allobroges built strong walls around the small town in the 3rd Century.
• Gratianopolis after 380 when the Emperor Gratian visited the city and had the walls improved. More>>

Geography     

Grenoble is surrounded by mountains: to the north the Chartreuse, to the west the Vercors, and to the east the Belledonne range.

As such, it is often visited by the Tour de France and is often called the "capital of the alpes". The city is mainly built on the alluvial plain of the river Isere, at an altitude of around 214 meters.

Mountain sports give to the city an important touristic interest: twenty ski stations surround the city (the nearest being Le Sappey-en-Chartreuse), some 15 minutes of drive away.

Population     

Population of the city of Grenoble at the 1999 census was 153,317 inhabitants (157,900 inhabitants as of February 2004 estimates). Population of the whole metropolitan area at the 1999 census was 514,559 inhabitants.

Education & Research in the city     

The presence of a large international community through both foreign students and foreign researchers has prompted the creation of an international school more than a decade ago. More>>

Transportation     

Grenoble may be accessed by plane from Saint-Exupéry International Airport, Lyon (circa 1 hour), Geneva Cointrin International Airport (circa 90 minutes) or Saint-Geoirs Airport (circa 30 min).

Daily direct flights from Luton, Gatwick (Easyjet), Stansted (Ryanair) ; Weekly flights from Warsaw (Centralwings) ; Flights from Gatwick (British Airways), Bristol (Easyjet), Stockholm (Flynordic) to Grenoble.

It is roughly 3 hours by train on the TGV from Paris Gare de Lyon. Within Grenoble there is a comprehensive bus and tram service, run by Semitag. There are 26 bus lignes and and 3 tram lines, serving all of greater Grenoble.

Famous People    

Grenoble was the birthplace of:

• Abel Servien (1593–1659), diplomat
• Hugues de Lionne (1611–1671), statesman
• Claudine Alexandrine Guérin de Tencin (1681–1749), courtesan and author
• Jacques de Vaucanson (1709–1782), inventor of the modern-day robot
• Étienne Bonnot de Condillac (1715–1780), writer of the Enlightenment
• Jean Joseph Mounier (1758–1806), politician
• Antoine Barnave (1761–1793), orator of the French Revolution
• Casimir Pierre Perier (1777–1832), statesman
• Stendhal (1783–1842), novelist
• Henri Fantin-Latour (1836–1904), painter
• Lionel Terray (born 1921), climber
• Georges-Francis Servoz-Gavin, better known as "Johnny" (born 1942), motor racing driver
• André the Giant (1946–1993), professional wrestler and actor
• Michel Lotito (born 1950), entertainer
• Maurice Dantec (born 1959), science fiction author
• Miss Kittin, (real name Caroline Hervé, born 1973), electronica vocalist
• Mélissa Theuriau (born 1978), news presenter
• Julien Brellier, born 1981, footballer
• Calogero, born 1971, musician
• Cristobal Huet, hockey player
• Seyhan Kurt (born 1979) poet and writer

Famous Citizens

• Joseph Fourier (1768-1830), French mathematician and physicist
• Jean-François Champollion (1790-1832), French egyptologist
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau, French philosopher and writer, born in Geneva
• Jean-Luc Godard, cineast
• Seyhan Kurt (French poet and writer 1979-)

Credits : This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Grenoble".